$HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

pentomasis · 2026-01-04 17:52:36

There seems to be an issue with my HOME env. It broke my keyring a while ago (shortly before 2025-09-20) but I hoped an update would fix it and waited for it to resolve itself. Today I took the time to investigate again.

[pentamassiv@tuxedo ~]$ journalctl --user -u gnome-keyring-daemon.service -b
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo systemd[1433]: Started GNOME Keyring daemon.
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: gnome-keyring-daemon: no process capabilities, insecure memory might get used
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=/run/user/60429/keyring
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: unable to create keyring dir: /.local/share/keyrings
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: unable to create keyring dir: /.local/share/keyrings
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: unable to create keyring dir: /.local/share/keyrings
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: unable to create keyring dir: /.local/share/keyrings
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: couldn't write to file: /.local/share/keyrings/login.keyring: No such file or directory
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: couldn't write to file: /.local/share/keyrings/login.keyring: No such file or directory
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: couldn't delete aborted file, data may be lost: /.local/share/keyrings/login.keyring: No such file or directory
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: couldn't delete aborted file, data may be lost: /.local/share/keyrings/login.keyring: No such file or directory
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: couldn't create login keyring: An error occurred on the device
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gnome-keyring-daemon[3235]: couldn't create login keyring: An error occurred on the device

[pentamassiv@tuxedo ~]$ journalctl -b | grep pam
Jan 04 18:37:52 tuxedo (systemd)[1525]: pam_warn(systemd-user:setcred): function=[pam_sm_setcred] flags=0x8002 service=[systemd-user] terminal=[] user=[gdm-greeter] ruser=[<unknown>] rhost=[<unknown>]
Jan 04 18:37:52 tuxedo (systemd)[1525]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session opened for user gdm-greeter(uid=60578) by gdm-greeter(uid=0)
Jan 04 18:38:07 tuxedo (systemd)[1433]: pam_warn(systemd-user:setcred): function=[pam_sm_setcred] flags=0x8002 service=[systemd-user] terminal=[] user=[pentamassiv] ruser=[<unknown>] rhost=[<unknown>]
Jan 04 18:38:11 tuxedo gdm-password][2916]: pam_systemd_home(gdm-password:auth): Home for user pentamassiv successfully acquired.
Jan 04 18:38:11 tuxedo gdm-password][2916]: gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file
Jan 04 18:38:11 tuxedo gdm-password][2916]: gkr-pam: stashed password to try later in open session
Jan 04 18:38:11 tuxedo accounts-daemon[1443]: request by system-bus-name::1.89 [gdm-session-worker [pam/gdm-password] pid:2916 uid:0]: cache user 'pentamassiv'
Jan 04 18:38:11 tuxedo gdm-password][2916]: pam_unix(gdm-password:session): session opened for user pentamassiv(uid=60429) by pentamassiv(uid=0)
Jan 04 18:38:25 tuxedo (systemd)[1433]: pam_systemd_home(systemd-user:session): Home for user pentamassiv acquired in incomplete mode, requires later activation.
Jan 04 18:38:25 tuxedo (systemd)[1433]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session opened for user pentamassiv(uid=60429) by pentamassiv(uid=0)
Jan 04 18:38:25 tuxedo (systemd)[1433]: pam_systemd(systemd-user:session): PAM session of class 'manager' is incomplete, which is not supported, ignoring.
Jan 04 18:38:26 tuxedo gdm-password][2916]: gkr-pam: the password for the login keyring was invalid.
Jan 04 18:38:38 tuxedo (sd-pam)[1529]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session closed for user gdm-greeter

[pentamassiv@tuxedo ~]$ systemctl --user show-environment | grep HOME
HOME=/home/pentamassiv
SYSTEMD_HOME=1
SYSTEMD_HOME_SUSPEND=0

[pentamassiv@tuxedo ~]$ echo $HOME
/home/pentamassiv

I saw this thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=308429
I don't have minidlna installed though. I started by deleting and recreating the keyring, but those tries failed. I suspect that's because of the underlying HOME or PAM issue?

I don't know how to investigate this further and fix it. Can anyone please help me?

seth · 2026-01-04 20:31:07

grep -r pentamassiv /etc/systemd/
id 60429
id

Are you (trying to) use(ing) https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Systemd-homed ?

pentomasis · 2026-01-06 16:00:48

Hi seth!

Yes, I am using system-homed. I created my user with these commands a long time ago:

homectl create $1 --storage luks --fs-type ext4 --disk-size=90%
homectl update $1 --email-address $2 --language en_US.UTF-8 --member-of wheel

Here is the output of the commands:

[pentamassiv@tuxedo ~]$ grep -r pentamassiv /etc/systemd/
[pentamassiv@tuxedo ~]$ id 60429
uid=60429(pentamassiv) gid=60429(pentamassiv) groups=60429(pentamassiv),968(docker),150(wireshark),108(vboxusers),998(wheel)
[pentamassiv@tuxedo ~]$ id
uid=60429(pentamassiv) gid=60429(pentamassiv) groups=60429(pentamassiv),108(vboxusers),150(wireshark),968(docker),998(wheel)

seth · 2026-01-06 17:33:32

It broke my keyring a while ago

Does you actual $HOME get still decrypted, though?

mount | grep home

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System … irty_state

homectl inspect pentamassiv

pentomasis · 2026-01-06 18:14:21

Yes, I can login and everything works. The only noticable issue is that when I for example open VS Code, it opens a popup twice asking me to enter a password for a new default keyring. If I do that and open a different application that wants to use a keyring, it seems to work and no popup is opened until I reboot.

[pentamassiv@tuxedo ~]$ mount | grep home
/dev/mapper/home-pentamassiv on /home/pentamassiv type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,idmapped)
[pentamassiv@tuxedo ~]$ homectl inspect pentamassiv
   User name: pentamassiv
       State: active
 Disposition: regular
 Last Change: Wed 2022-09-07 22:52:12 CEST
 Last Passw.: Wed 2022-09-07 22:51:47 CEST
    Login OK: yes
 Password OK: yes
         UID: 60429
         GID: 60429 (pentamassiv)
 Aux. Groups: docker
              wireshark
              vboxusers
              wheel
              pentamassiv
   Directory: /home/pentamassiv
   Blob Dir.: /var/cache/systemd/home/pentamassiv
     Storage: luks (strong encryption)
  Image Path: /home/pentamassiv.home
   Removable: no
       Shell: /bin/bash
       Email: pentamassiv@email.com
   Languages: en_US.UTF-8
 Access Mode: 0700
LUKS Discard: online=no offline=yes
   LUKS UUID: 3b7c8868-b2ef-4b48-b37a-4fb69a88995e
   Part UUID: ca698a0e-9341-4ccc-b69d-c26b21f14ad5
     FS UUID: 4dd63fb3-0a40-4830-8e0c-d24a12ebc48f
 File System: ext4
 LUKS Cipher: aes
 Cipher Mode: xts-plain64
  Volume Key: 256bit
 Mount Flags: nosuid nodev exec
   Disk Size: 1.5T
  Disk Usage: 823.3G (= 52.7%)
   Disk Free: 740G (= 47.3%)
  Disk Floor: 823.3G
Disk Ceiling: 1.6T
  Good Auth.: 9097
   Last Good: Tue 2026-01-06 18:29:00 CET
   Bad Auth.: 11251
    Last Bad: Tue 2026-01-06 18:28:48 CET
    Next Try: anytime
 Auth. Limit: 30 attempts per 1min
   Rebalance: off
   Passwords: 1
  Local Sig.: yes
     Service: io.systemd.Home
 Self Modify: realName
              emailAddress
              iconName
              location
              shell
              umask
              environment
              timeZone
              preferredLanguage
              additionalLanguages
              preferredSessionLauncher
              preferredSessionType
              defaultArea
              pkcs11TokenUri
              fido2HmacCredential
              recoveryKeyType
              lastChangeUSec
              lastPasswordChangeUSec
      (Blobs) avatar
              login-background
 (Privileged) passwordHint
              hashedPassword
              pkcs11EncryptedKey
              fido2HmacSalt
              recoveryKey
              sshAuthorizedKeys

seth · 2026-01-06 19:07:07

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=308429 doesn't seem to be using homed.
If the only issue is gkr it likely get's started prematurely, do you use sth. like https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GNOME/Keyring#PAM_step to automatically unlock the keyring?

pentomasis · 2026-01-06 20:53:14

Yes, the keyring used to unlock automatically after I logged in. I don't remember having to do anything for that to work. My user account has a password and it does not automatically login.

seth · 2026-01-06 21:09:56

GDM, LightDM, LXDM, and SDDM already have the necessary PAM configuration.

Which is it?
What does its pam config look like?

pentomasis · 2026-01-06 21:35:30

I set this device up with a GNOME DE, so I am using GDM.

cat /etc/pam.d/gdm-password
#%PAM-1.0

auth       include                     system-local-login
auth       optional                    pam_gnome_keyring.so

account    include                     system-local-login

password   include                     system-local-login
password   optional                    pam_gnome_keyring.so use_authtok

session    include                     system-local-login
session    optional                    pam_gnome_keyring.so auto_start

seth · 2026-01-06 21:55:19

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … type=heads runs homed ahead of the stack, so it should™ be ready for GKR?
Before we start chasing wild gooses, #comment the pam_gnome_keyring.so entries in the GDM pam config (before messing around with pam it is advisable to open and keep open a root shell on a different terminal - you're just one vim-accident away from locking yourself out of the system) and see whether this is still an issue when GKR doesn't get activated by PAM.

pentomasis · 2026-01-06 22:28:46

Okay, thank you. I'll try that tomorrow when I'm well rested ^^°

Arch Linux

#1 2026-01-04 17:52:36

$HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

#2 2026-01-04 20:31:07

Re: $HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

#3 2026-01-06 16:00:48

Re: $HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

#4 2026-01-06 17:33:32

Re: $HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

#5 2026-01-06 18:14:21

Re: $HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

#6 2026-01-06 19:07:07

Re: $HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

#7 2026-01-06 20:53:14

Re: $HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

#8 2026-01-06 21:09:56

Re: $HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

#9 2026-01-06 21:35:30

Re: $HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

#10 2026-01-06 21:55:19

Re: $HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

#11 2026-01-06 22:28:46

Re: $HOME variable assigning incorrrectly

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