No way to get Howdy to start authentication at system start with Ubuntu 24.04

[betzburger]

I really need help. I am very frustrated. Ubuntu 24.04 and Howdy is a major pain in the ass for me. I use the release version 2.6.1 and I use Ubuntu 24.04 with all updates and upgrades until today.

This is what I did so far:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:boltgolt/howdy
sudo apt update
sudo apt install howdy

But I got error: externally-managed-environment ... bla bla ...

I had to do

sudo apt install python3-requests 
or 
sudo apt install howdy (again) 

Then it installed some more files and said it has finished. Yes! (so I thought) I tried to start howdy, but no howdy was found

sudo ln /lib/security/howdy/cli.py /usr/local/bin/howdy fixed this issue.

I tried to start howdy again, but unfortunately I was welcomed with ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'cli'

Well, I did sudo nano /usr/lib/security/howdy/cli.py and I added

sys.path.append('/lib/security/howdy') in cli.py after import sys

Fixed!!

But then - really??!! - I got ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dlib'

I had to do sudo pip install dlib --break-system-packages to overcome this. I hated to possibly break system packages but it seemed there was no other way.

Finally I called sudo howdy config and added the correct path to the video device

sudo howdy add worked fine and it added my face

sudo howdy test worked. However, my face had a red circle. Don't know if this is an issue.

I checked sudo-pam-auth-update and howdy is selected. OK.

I checked sudo nano /etc/pam.d/common-auth and this is inside:

# here are the per-package modules (the "Primary" block)
auth    [success=3 default=ignore]        pam_python.so /lib/security/howdy/pam.py
auth    [success=2 default=ignore]      pam_unix.so nullok try_first_pass
auth    [success=1 default=ignore]      pam_sss.so use_first_pass

Looks good.

Someone said you have to: sudo chmod -R a+x /lib/security/howdy which I did. (Not sure if this is necessary, but it won't hurt)

I checked the log file and sudo cat /var/log/auth.log said that there is an issue with ConfigParser

So I patched /usr/lib/security/howdy/pam.py like this:

@@ -6,11 +6,17 @@ import os
 import glob
 import syslog

import sys
# The config parser is named in python2 as ConfigParser but in python3 as configparser
# and here is a workaround for this.
if sys.version_info[0] == 2:
    import ConfigParser
    config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
else:
    import configparser
    config = configparser.ConfigParser()

 # Read config from disk
 config.read(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) + "/config.ini")

And now ladies and gentlemen I am at the end of my capabilities. Howdy does not start at login and I still have to manually enter my password.

Any other ideas?

[meetnick]

Im sorry my comment won't be useful, I just want to say I just came to this repo to open the exact same issue I'm facing with Ubuntu 24.04. I'm also very frustrated. I can add and test face, but I'm not able to make it work when typing sudo nor in login screen (gdm).

[betzburger]

Now it works.

I have a Laptop with the lid closed. I entered sudo config howdy and changed the following entry to this:

# Disable Howdy if lid is closed
ignore_closed_lid = false

By default it was set to true. And - yeah - one should think that if set to "true" it is correct. Well, set it to "false" and now Howdy is NOT disabled with closed lid.

[SprintKeyz]

This worked for me as well! Thank you for sharing. Since I'm on a fresh install, I also had to install numpy and opencv:

sudo apt install python3-numpy and sudo pip install opencv-python --break-system-packages

Then I got an indentation error in /usr/lib/security/howdy/pam.py because I was lazy and copy-pasted without fixing indentation.

I also had to add sys.path.append('/usr/local/lib/python3.12/dist-packages) to my cli.py for opencv, obviously for anyone else you just need to replace with your dist-packages location.

Finally, I edited /lib/security/howdy/compare.py to use datetime.datetime.now(datetime.UTC) to remove a warning.

Moral of the story is that if anything goes wrong, /var/log/auth.log is your friend :)

[betzburger]

Thanks for the additional step by step instructions. This is how it should be. I think we now have a very good overview and help for anyone who has the same issue.

[nicolasb1607]

Thank you so much! It has fixed my issue on my Dell xps 9500

[luyanfeng]

I checked the log file and sudo cat /var/log/auth.log said that there is an issue with ConfigParser

So I patched /usr/lib/security/howdy/pam.py like this:

@@ -6,11 +6,17 @@ import os
 import glob
 import syslog

import sys
# The config parser is named in python2 as ConfigParser but in python3 as configparser
# and here is a workaround for this.
if sys.version_info[0] == 2:
    import ConfigParser
    config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
else:
    import configparser
    config = configparser.ConfigParser()

 # Read config from disk
 config.read(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) + "/config.ini")

这里我按你的做了也不行， 但配置了下这个文件就可以了, /etc/pam.d/common-auth:

auth [success=3 default=ignore] pam_python.so /lib/security/howdy/pam.py

启动登陆和shell下的sudo 都可以用了。 不同的是，我安装howdy时这么做的：

sudo mv /usr/lib/python3.12/EXTERNALLY-MANAGED /usr/lib/python3.12/EXTERNALLY-MANAGED.BAK  

(安装完howdy后我又改回去了)

看能不能帮到你

[Nulldev128]

Thanks for the great advice, followed it all & ended up with the issue:

sudo howdy test

A module that was compiled using NumPy 1.x cannot be run in NumPy 2.0.0 as it may crash. To support both 1.x and 2.x versions of NumPy, modules must be compiled with NumPy 2.0. Some module may need to rebuild instead e.g. with 'pybind11>=2.12'.

If you are a user of the module, the easiest solution will be to downgrade to 'numpy<2' or try to upgrade the affected module. We expect that some modules will need time to support NumPy 2.

I found numpy 2.0.0 released yesterday...

The fix I found was:

sudo pip3 uninstall numpy

sudo pip3 install numpy==1.26.4

[l3ifk]

Im sorry my comment won't be useful, I just want to say I just came to this repo to open the exact same issue I'm facing with Ubuntu 24.04. I'm also very frustrated. I can add and test face, but I'm not able to make it work when typing sudo nor in login screen (gdm).

Did you try the workaround for the ConfigParser Error? Howdy didn't work for me too on a fresh Ubuntu 24 install and after the configparser fix it tried to use the face recognition. Also make sure to add a face model (obvious I know but I just wanted to make sure you don't forget it)

[SWi7CHbladE]

I really need help. I am very frustrated. Ubuntu 24.04 and Howdy is a major pain in the ass for me. I use the release version 2.6.1 and I use Ubuntu 24.04 with all updates and upgrades until today.

This is what I did so far:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:boltgolt/howdy
sudo apt update
sudo apt install howdy

But I got error: externally-managed-environment ... bla bla ...

I had to do

sudo apt install python3-requests 
or 
sudo apt install howdy (again) 

Then it installed some more files and said it has finished. Yes! (so I thought) I tried to start howdy, but no howdy was found

sudo ln /lib/security/howdy/cli.py /usr/local/bin/howdy fixed this issue.

I tried to start howdy again, but unfortunately I was welcomed with ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'cli'

Well, I did sudo nano /usr/lib/security/howdy/cli.py and I added

sys.path.append('/lib/security/howdy') in cli.py after import sys

Fixed!!

But then - really??!! - I got ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dlib'

I had to do sudo pip install dlib --break-system-packages to overcome this. I hated to possibly break system packages but it seemed there was no other way.

Finally I called sudo howdy config and added the correct path to the video device

sudo howdy add worked fine and it added my face

sudo howdy test worked. However, my face had a red circle. Don't know if this is an issue.

I checked sudo-pam-auth-update and howdy is selected. OK.

I checked sudo nano /etc/pam.d/common-auth and this is inside:

# here are the per-package modules (the "Primary" block)
auth    [success=3 default=ignore]        pam_python.so /lib/security/howdy/pam.py
auth    [success=2 default=ignore]      pam_unix.so nullok try_first_pass
auth    [success=1 default=ignore]      pam_sss.so use_first_pass

Looks good.

Someone said you have to: sudo chmod -R a+x /lib/security/howdy which I did. (Not sure if this is necessary, but it won't hurt)

I checked the log file and sudo cat /var/log/auth.log said that there is an issue with ConfigParser

So I patched /usr/lib/security/howdy/pam.py like this:

@@ -6,11 +6,17 @@ import os
 import glob
 import syslog

import sys
# The config parser is named in python2 as ConfigParser but in python3 as configparser
# and here is a workaround for this.
if sys.version_info[0] == 2:
    import ConfigParser
    config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
else:
    import configparser
    config = configparser.ConfigParser()

 # Read config from disk
 config.read(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) + "/config.ini")

And now ladies and gentlemen I am at the end of my capabilities. Howdy does not start at login and I still have to manually enter my password.

Any other ideas?

I was able to get Howdy running for login screens and console login using this method, thing is I add the line "auth sufficient pam_python.so /usr/lib/security/howdy/pam.py" to all the files in /etc/pam.d/ which contain parameters for authentication. I am still not able to use Howdy authentication for snap store and I get an extra "Unlock Keyring" prompt whenever I cold boot my laptop.

[l3ifk]

I was able to get Howdy running for login screens and console login using this method, thing is I add the line "auth sufficient pam_python.so /usr/lib/security/howdy/pam.py" to all the files in /etc/pam.d/ which contain parameters for authentication. I am still not able to use Howdy authentication for snap store and I get an extra "Unlock Keyring" prompt whenever I cold boot my laptop.

The Keyring prompt has nothing to do with howdy. It pops up because passwords which got saved in the keyring are protected with a password. And usually by logging in with your password this keyring does get unlocked automatically, but since you don't enter any password with howdy the keyring remains locked. You can either set the password to nothing or just type the password one time each session.

[SWi7CHbladE]

I was able to get Howdy running for login screens and console login using this method, thing is I add the line "auth sufficient pam_python.so /usr/lib/security/howdy/pam.py" to all the files in /etc/pam.d/ which contain parameters for authentication. I am still not able to use Howdy authentication for snap store and I get an extra "Unlock Keyring" prompt whenever I cold boot my laptop.

The Keyring prompt has nothing to do with howdy. It pops up because passwords which got saved in the keyring are protected with a password. And usually by logging in with your password this keyring does get unlocked automatically, but since you don't enter any password with howdy the keyring remains locked. You can either set the password to nothing or just type the password one time each session.

Yes, I now understand that the two keyring prompt at startup (should have been one) is an Ubuntu issue. But I still get password only prompts for app installations through snap store or opening timeshift, which was in 22.04, could be authorised by Howdy too.

[Cerkal]

I was able to get it working by doing the following: (without break-system-packages)

Add repo: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:boltgolt/howdy

Update: sudo apt update

Install: sudo apt install howdy

First install should error, install again: sudo apt install howdy

Create link: sudo ln /lib/security/howdy/cli.py /usr/local/bin/howdy

Tell cli.py the new working directory: sudo vim /lib/security/howdy/cli.py

add after “import sys” sys.path.append('/lib/security/howdy')

Install numpy: sudo apt install python3-numpy

Install opencv: sudo apt install python3-opencv

Install dlib: cd /tmp/ git clone https://github.com/davisking/dlib.git dlib cd dlib/ sudo python3 setup.py install

Install v4-utils: sudo apt install v4l-utils v4l2-ctl –list-devices

Set device path in howdy config.ini: device_path = /dev/video2 [your camera device]

Edit sudo file to use howdy: sudo vim /etc/pam.d/sudo

After #%PAM-1.0 comment

auth sufficient pam_python.so /lib/security/howdy/pam.py
auth sufficient pam_unix.so try_first_pass likeauth nullok

Fix pam: sudo vim /usr/lib/security/howdy/pam.py

Above config.read(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(file)) + "/config.ini") add:

# PAM interface in python, launches compare.py

# Import required modules
import subprocess
import os
import glob
import syslog
import sys

# The config parser is named in python2 as ConfigParser but in python3 as configparser
# and here is a workaround for this.
if sys.version_info[0] == 2:
    import ConfigParser
    config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
else:
    import configparser
    config = configparser.ConfigParser()

config.read(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) + "/config.ini")

---

Get rid of any info logs if you are seeing them by adding this to your ~/.bashrc: export OPENCV_LOG_LEVEL=OFF export GST_DEBUG=0

Hope this helps!

[simonchen]

auth [success=2 default=ignore] pam_unix.so nullok try_first_pass auth [success=1 default=ignore] pam_sss.so use_first_pass

I really need help. I am very frustrated. Ubuntu 24.04 and Howdy is a major pain in the ass for me. I use the release version 2.6.1 and I use Ubuntu 24.04 with all updates and upgrades until today.

This is what I did so far:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:boltgolt/howdy
sudo apt update
sudo apt install howdy

But I got error: externally-managed-environment ... bla bla ...

I had to do

sudo apt install python3-requests 
or 
sudo apt install howdy (again) 

Then it installed some more files and said it has finished. Yes! (so I thought) I tried to start howdy, but no howdy was found

sudo ln /lib/security/howdy/cli.py /usr/local/bin/howdy fixed this issue.

I tried to start howdy again, but unfortunately I was welcomed with ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'cli'

Well, I did sudo nano /usr/lib/security/howdy/cli.py and I added

sys.path.append('/lib/security/howdy') in cli.py after import sys

Fixed!!

But then - really??!! - I got ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dlib'

I had to do sudo pip install dlib --break-system-packages to overcome this. I hated to possibly break system packages but it seemed there was no other way.

Finally I called sudo howdy config and added the correct path to the video device

sudo howdy add worked fine and it added my face

sudo howdy test worked. However, my face had a red circle. Don't know if this is an issue.

I checked sudo-pam-auth-update and howdy is selected. OK.

I checked sudo nano /etc/pam.d/common-auth and this is inside:

# here are the per-package modules (the "Primary" block)
auth    [success=3 default=ignore]        pam_python.so /lib/security/howdy/pam.py
auth    [success=2 default=ignore]      pam_unix.so nullok try_first_pass
auth    [success=1 default=ignore]      pam_sss.so use_first_pass

Looks good.

Someone said you have to: sudo chmod -R a+x /lib/security/howdy which I did. (Not sure if this is necessary, but it won't hurt)

I checked the log file and sudo cat /var/log/auth.log said that there is an issue with ConfigParser

So I patched /usr/lib/security/howdy/pam.py like this:

@@ -6,11 +6,17 @@ import os
 import glob
 import syslog

import sys
# The config parser is named in python2 as ConfigParser but in python3 as configparser
# and here is a workaround for this.
if sys.version_info[0] == 2:
    import ConfigParser
    config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
else:
    import configparser
    config = configparser.ConfigParser()

 # Read config from disk
 config.read(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) + "/config.ini")

And now ladies and gentlemen I am at the end of my capabilities. Howdy does not start at login and I still have to manually enter my password.

Any other ideas?

For the path you did, just to change as follows that would be more better:

try:
    import ConfigParser
except:
    import configparser as ConfigParser

[JoelScarinius]

I have done all this and still get log message No module named "ConfigParser", how to fix this?

[alexyao2015]

I got a module not found for recorder.video_capture. I ended up being able to finally fix this by running chmod -R 755 /lib/security/howdy. The issue was caused by execute permissions not existing for the python code.

[JoelScarinius]

How to fix these errors?

/lib/security/howdy/compare.py:57: DeprecationWarning: datetime.datetime.utcnow() is deprecated and scheduled for removal in a future version. Use timezone-aware objects to represent datetimes in UTC: datetime.datetime.now(datetime.UTC).
  "Date: " + datetime.datetime.utcnow().strftime("%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S UTC"),
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/lib/security/howdy/compare.py", line 175, in <module>
    make_snapshot("FAILED")
  File "/lib/security/howdy/compare.py", line 55, in make_snapshot
    snapshot.generate(snapframes, [
  File "/usr/lib/security/howdy/snapshot.py", line 54, in generate
    os.makedirs(abpath + "/snapshots")
  File "<frozen os>", line 225, in makedirs
PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/usr/lib/security/howdy/snapshots'
Unknown error: 1

[Cerkal]

@JoelScarinius you can trun off snapshots in the config file and should fix the issue

[JoelScarinius]

@JoelScarinius you can trun off snapshots in the config file and should fix the issue

Thanks @Cerkal, now it works as it should!

[JaredStemper]

If anyone follows these steps and is able to successfully add a model that is identified with sudo howdy test and sudo howdy list but receive a "No face model known" error when attempting to sudo, look to @slatyc's answer here.

[einsteinarbert]

I have been folk for fix in Ubuntu 24.04, please try:

https://github.com/einsteinarbert/howdy-kubuntu/tree/ubuntu-24.04

Content of md file for help install howdy:

Install for ubuntu 24.04 KDE

1. install dlib by source

# install lib
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake libgtk-3-dev libboost-all-dev
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip python3-setuptools python3-wheel cmake make build-essential libpam0g-dev libinih-dev libevdev-dev python3-dev libopencv-dev

# clone
git clone https://github.com/davisking/dlib.git
cd dlib

python3.11 -m venv venv
python3.11 -m venv venv

./venv/bin/python -m build --wheel
./venv/bin/python -m build --wheel
# install dlib which buit:
./venv/bin/pip install dist/dlib-19.24.99-cp312-cp312-linux_x86_64.whl

# test module
sudo python3.11 show dlib

2. install howdy

ignore error, just install by the way

sudo apt install howdy
# install some lib that lost when `apt install howdy` error before this step:
python3.11 -m pip install numpy opencv-python-headless opencv-python ConfigParser

config:

sudo cp howdy.sh /lib/security/howdy/howdy
chmod +x /lib/security/howdy/howdy
sudo ln /lib/security/howdy/howdy /usr/local/bin/howdy
sudo cp -f compare.py /lib/security/howdy/
sudo cp -f pam.py /lib/security/howdy/
## edit /lib/security/howdy/config.ini for video device and something for work

edit /etc/pam.d

cat /etc/pam.d/sudo
#%PAM-1.0

# Set up user limits from /etc/security/limits.conf.
### for howdy face detection
auth   sufficient        pam_python.so /lib/security/howdy/pam.py

cat /etc/pam.d/sddm | head -n 5
#%PAM-1.0

# added howdy
auth sufficient pam_python.so /lib/security/howdy/pam.py

cat /etc/pam.d/common-auth
## for howdy face detection
auth       [success=1 default=ignore] pam_python.so /lib/security/howdy/pam.py

Testing

# add face
sudo howdy add
# test video detect
sudo howdy test
# test login
sudo <some command >