Arch Linux

marcin.g

Member

Registered: 2021-12-09

Posts: 3

[SOLVED] xscreensaver 6.13 fails to unlock

After last upgrade (which included upgrade of xscreensaver 6.12 to 6.13) I cannot unlock by providing password on xscreensaver screen. I'm getting "Authentication failed" message.

in log I'm getting only

Dec 23 14:34:57 ines xscreensaver-auth[896521]: pam_warn(xscreensaver:account): function=[pam_sm_acct_mgmt] flags=0 service=[xscreensaver] terminal=[:0] user=[mg] ruser=[<unknown>] rhost=[<unknown>]
Dec 23 14:34:57 ines xscreensaver-auth[896521]: Failed login on display ":0" for "mg"

I didn't touch pam.d/xscreensaver:

#%PAM-1.0
auth       requisite    pam_nologin.so
auth       include      system-local-login

my session:

2 - mg (1000)
  Since: Tue 2025-12-23 16:16:50 CET; 55min ago
  State: active
 Leader: 985 (sddm-helper)
   Seat: seat0; vc2
    TTY: tty2
 Remote: no
Service: sddm
   Type: x11
  Class: user
Desktop: KDE
   Idle: no
   Unit: session-2.scope
         ├─ 985 /usr/lib/sddm/sddm-helper --socket /tmp/sddm-auth-9796c411-9e11-47c3-8d82-1e125928b573 --id 1 --start /usr/bin/startplasma-x11 --user mg
         ├─1040 /usr/bin/ksecretd --pam-login 12 13
         ├─1041 /usr/bin/startplasma-x11
         └─1057 /usr/bin/ssh-agent

user's .xscreensaver config file doesn't contain any settings related to authentication (and it was not changed in few years).
util-linux (which owns most of standard pam.d configs) was upgraded in the same run from 2.41.2 to 2.41.3, but I checked last commits and pam.d files were not changed.

Last edited by marcin.g (2025-12-24 10:52:00)

feixm

Member

Registered: 2019-10-29

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] xscreensaver 6.13 fails to unlock

I can confirm the same issue. No changes in configuration, just sysupgraded Arch desktop this afternoon.

feixm

Member

Registered: 2019-10-29

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] xscreensaver 6.13 fails to unlock

Downgrading xscreensaver package to version 6.10.1-1 seems to be a workaround for now.

marcin.g

Member

Registered: 2021-12-09

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] xscreensaver 6.13 fails to unlock

@fexim did you already tried 6.12 and 6.11?

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 73,559

Re: [SOLVED] xscreensaver 6.13 fails to unlock

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … -/issues/5

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marcin.g

Member

Registered: 2021-12-09

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] xscreensaver 6.13 fails to unlock

Based on the bug discussion, I can confirm that change of  /etc/pam.d/xscreensaver to

#%PAM-1.0
auth include system-auth
account include system-auth

fixes problem for 6.13.