Common issues
This page lists known solutions to common problems. If you have an solution to a problem that's happening a lot, please add it below.
- Error while running the add or test command
- Camera IR emitters not turning on (or turning off very quickly)
- Lockscreen not unlocking
- OpenCV warning messages
- Nothing shows up on Fedora when
sudoing or logging in
You might get an error message like "Camera path is not configured correctly, please edit the 'device_path' config value".
This probably means that you (or the installer) have not configured the camera device that Howdy should use. To fix this, open a terminal and run the following to get a list of cameras that are connected to your system:
find /dev/v4l/by-path/*
Copy one of the paths returned by the command and run sudo howdy config to open up the Howdy config file. Go down the file until you find a line starting device_path. Delete the value after the = and paste in the camera path you copied before. It should look like this:
device_path = /dev/v4l/by-path/YOUR-CAMERA-PATH-HERE
Multiple camera paths may show up when you run the find command. In that case you can repeat the step before until Howdy is using the correct IR camera.
Some IR cameras only work at specific resolutions. Try running the following command: (replace DEVICE_PATH with the path found under device_path in sudo howdy config)
v4l2-ctl -d DEVICE_PATH --list-formats-ext
This command should list all available formats. For example, my cameras 340 by 340 resolution option is reported like this:
Size: Discrete 340x340
Experiment with these values by setting frame_width and frame_height in sudo howdy config.
linux-enable-ir-emitter provides support for infrared cameras that are not directly supported (at the very least, the kernel must recognise your infrared camera). It can almost automatically, configure any infrared camera.
For some lockscreens, the "Identified face" message can stop a successful unlock. You can disable this message with the no_confirmation config option: (run sudo howdy config to open the config file)
no_confirmation = true
Your lockscreen might not be running Howdy as root, which prevents Howdy from running. Setting the execution bit so every user can run Howdy might be the solution:
chmod o+x /lib/security/howdy/dlib-data
Or, alternatively:
sudo chmod -R 755 /lib/security/howdy/
These warnings are not serious, to disable them add the following lines to your home .bashrc file:
sudo nano .bashrc
then add:
export OPENCV_LOG_LEVEL=0
export OPENCV_VIDEOIO_PRIORITY_INTEL_MFX=0
If you haven't configured things related to pam.d and SELinux (i.e. you just installed howdy and added a face model, but when it comes to sudo or logging in, nothing shows up and you still have to enter the password), then it is likely to be because your system has yet to be configured to use howdy.
For an automatic quick fix, please check out this bash script.
For full explanation please check out Fedora copr.
For ongoing discussion about this issue, please check out issue #711
Another problem could that the snapshots folder isn't created correctly and thus preventing authentication. A solution to this problem could be to manually create the folder:
sudo mkdir /usr/lib64/security/howdy/snapshots(tested with Kubuntu 22.04) When system wakes up from suspend or hibernation after I closed the lid (I set this as trigger for suspend-to-hibernate) Howdy isn't working anymore. Other that that its working flawlessly.
To solve just change ignore_closed_lid = truetruetoignore_closed_lid = falsein/usr/lib/security/howdy/config.ini` and reboot.