Can't login to new account through login manager screen

JGV277 · 2026-08-03 00:22:11

I've been trying to create a guest user account, using:

sudo useradd -m Guest
sudo passwd Guest

According to the info in the archwiki users and groups page, this should create a user account with a home directory, a working password and the username 'Guest'. From the terminal on my main account, I can use su Guest to succesfully login to this account, and even create and edit directories and files from there.
But when I try to login to the same Guest account directly from the login manager screen (the one that appears right after restarting, where you can select the user from a list and then enter the password), it says 'Password authentication didn't work, try again' (or something along those lines, as my system is in another language). This happens even though I'm one hundred percent sure I'm typing in the right password. I've deleted this account and then created it again, restarted the computer many times, made different accounts with different names, and always have the same issue.

Possibly relevant issues (sorted by percieved relevance):
- I use the gnome desktop enviroment

- The new users main group account (the group called 'Guest') has a UID of 1003, the account 'Guest' has a UID of 1002, are they supposed to be the same?

- I set up some pam_pwquality rules for my passwords (retries, minimum length, etc). The Security page (section 2.5) seems to imply pam_unix and pam_pwquality might conflict, but suggests a rule that I applied that supposedly deals with that? The rule in question is:

password required pam_unix.so use_authtok

in the /etc/pam.d/passwd file.

- I re-installed Arch on my computer a few months ago (someone else had installed it for me earlier but the system wasn't working), and in the process I skipped disk partitioning and formatting the file systems (sections 1.9 and 1.10 on the Installation Guide) since that seemed to already be done, according to the person who had installed it previously. The computer has been working just fine ever since, I have two user accounts that work perfectly, although they were there since before the re-installation.

seth · 2026-08-03 06:24:44

You technically don't need a "Guest" group at all.
pam will usually log if there's a problem w/ a module, but pam.d/passwd applies when setting it, not when using it.

From the terminal on my main account, I can use su Guest to succesfully login to this account, and even create and edit directories and files from there.

Can you also login from the console (ctrl+alt+f3)?

I'm one hundred percent sure I'm typing in the right password … my system is in another language

Is the password QWERTY-safe? Eg. try

from the login manager screen (the one that appears right after restarting

You mean GDM? What specifically is your DM?
GDM would rely on https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … tsservice/ but if you can click on an icon to select your Guest user that should™ not be the problem.

ReDress · 2026-08-03 07:36:26

Or, maybe group your account as guest to avoid accountability :-)

Or for purposes of having fun. Or maybe just something else that's not constructive.

Quite possibly accounts are reserved until people are ABLE to use them at their own discreetion.

Last edited by ReDress (2026-08-03 07:47:34)

JGV277 · 2026-08-03 22:12:28

- I can't login to the Guest user from the console, it says 'Permission denied', which is different from the error message the console gives for the wrong password/username (something along the lines of 'incorrect login'). I can log in to my other accounts from the console though. I've checked the permissions in /home and the Guest account and group is the owner of /home/Guest, with rwx------ permissions.

- I'm not allowed to set qwerty, 12345 or anything that simple as my password.

- I'm pretty sure I use gdm, it's installed and I use the Gnome desktop environment. I installed the gnome group after finishing the installation guide.

seth · 2026-08-03 22:22:00

it says 'Permission denied'

This isn't about your $HOME, I suspect the prboblem is your $SHELL

grep -i guest /etc/passwd # despite the name there're no passwords in that file

You can also compare that w/ your main user, the shell is the last field and has to exist in /etc/shells w/ that exact path (and should not be "nologin" or "false" or something like that either)

---

I'm not allowed to set qwerty, 12345 or anything that simple as my password.

Why not?
But you'd only have to make sure that the used keys on your layout are the same as on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#Computer_keyboards
We'll look at the shell first, though

JGV277 · 2026-08-04 00:53:36

grep -i guest /etc/passwd

returns:

Guest:x:1002:1003::/home/Guest:/usr/bin/bash

w/ my main user, the last field is the exact same.

Then

grep -i /usr/bin/bash /etc/shells

returns:

/usr/bin/bash

so the shell does appear in the /etc/shells file.

I'm pretty sure the reason I can't set qwerty or any Dictionary Attack susceptible passwords is my pam_pwquality configurations, which I mostly got from the section 2.5 in the Security page:

password required pam_pwquality.so retry=3 minlen=10 difok=6 [badwords=myservice mydomain] enforce_for_root
password required pam_unix.so use_authtok

(I set them in the /etc/pam.d/passwd file.)

loqs · 2026-08-04 00:58:13

Does the system journal show the rejection is from pam_pwquality.so or from another pam module?

Last edited by loqs (2026-08-04 00:58:24)

JGV277 · 2026-08-04 01:38:57

I think these would be the relevant lines from journalctl when I tried to login through the desktop manager:

ago 03 21:05:34 dcct gdm-password][9436]: gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file
ago 03 21:05:34 dcct gdm-password][9436]: gkr-pam: stashed password to try later in open session
ago 03 21:05:34 dcct gdm-password][9436]: pam_access(gdm-password:account): access denied for user `Guest' from `tty1'
ago 03 21:05:43 dcct gdm-password][9571]: gkr-pam: the password for the login keyring was invalid.

seth · 2026-08-04 07:07:15

gkr-pam: the password for the login keyring was invalid.

What does pam log for console logins?
In doubt post the entire journal after a failed login attempt

Forgot about pwquality, briefly disable that and set the password to 12345 (assuming that's the same keys on your host and a US ASCII keyboard) and see whether that works.
Also post the errors you get verbatim, short of setting the global language to english that's still better than your private translation service

JGV277 · 2026-08-04 20:29:11

I tried logging in through the console:

ago 04 16:11:03 dcct systemd[1]: Starting Virtual Console Setup...
ago 04 16:11:03 dcct systemd-vconsole-setup[3792]: Configuration of first virtual console was skipped, ignoring remaining ones.
ago 04 16:11:03 dcct systemd[1]: Finished Virtual Console Setup.
ago 04 16:11:12 dcct login[3770]: pam_access(login:account): access denied for user `Guest' from `tty5'
ago 04 16:11:12 dcct login[3770]: Permission denied
ago 04 16:11:13 dcct accounts-daemon[476]: Unable to open /etc/tcb: No existe el fichero o el directorio
ago 04 16:11:13 dcct accounts-daemon[476]: couldn't list homed users: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not>
ago 04 16:11:15 dcct systemd[1]: getty@tty5.service: Deactivated successfully.
ago 04 16:11:15 dcct systemd[1]: getty@tty5.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
ago 04 16:11:15 dcct systemd[1]: Started Getty on tty5.

Setting a simpler password doesn't work, I get the same error.

I've been posting the errors verbatim, I tried changing the language to spanish during the installation and setup but it only worked for some things, most commands and man pages are in english anyway, but as you can see it puts some random parts in spanish. Maybe it's just that the errors and operating system related things have never been translated?

Is the bit about /etc/tcb relevant?

seth · 2026-08-04 20:41:37

https://man.archlinux.org/man/pam_access.8

Edti:

By default rules for access management are taken from config file /etc/security/access.conf if you don't specify another file. Then individual *.conf files from the /etc/security/access.d/ directory are read.

Something there denies access

Last edited by seth (2026-08-04 20:44:20)

JGV277 · 2026-08-05 23:16:57

I found the problem, when I set up the computer I configured the rules in /etc/security/acces.conf so the root and already present users could login, and to deny all other logins from any source with

-:ALL:ALL

I just added

+:guest:LOCAL

Now I can login from the console and the usual desktop manager, thank you so much

seth · 2026-08-06 05:53:00

\o/
Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-08-03 00:22:11

Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#2 2026-08-03 06:24:44

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#3 2026-08-03 07:36:26

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#4 2026-08-03 22:12:28

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#5 2026-08-03 22:22:00

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#6 2026-08-04 00:53:36

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#7 2026-08-04 00:58:13

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#8 2026-08-04 01:38:57

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#9 2026-08-04 07:07:15

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#10 2026-08-04 20:29:11

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#11 2026-08-04 20:41:37

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#12 2026-08-05 23:16:57

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

#13 2026-08-06 05:53:00

Re: Can't login to new account through login manager screen

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