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2026-09-01.log
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<GalaxyNova>Anybody else been having issues with GDM after the GNOME update? <GalaxyNova>ever since GDM 48 it fails to start and freezes my tty instead <apteryx>how can I configure pam on guix system to allow empty passwords? <apteryx>looks like we have exactly 0 example of `pam-configuration' in our reference manual ^^' <apteryx>one can look an an actual usage in our code base, pam-limits-service-type <apteryx>hm, allow-empty-passwords? is #t by default, per gnu/services/base.scm:984:37, so my auth problem with an empty password defined as (password (crypt "" "$4lty")) with lightdm must be somewhere else <apteryx>/var/log/secure does point to a pam problem though: 2026-09-01 01:42:56 localhost lightdm: pam_unix(lightdm:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=:0 ruser= rhost= user=dummy <apteryx>OK, I shouldn't use `crypt' to generate the password at all, if I want an empty password. <apteryx>I'm not sure why it'd work for root but not the user 'dummy' though, I tried that earlier <apteryx>ah, it looks like for non-root users, Guix generates by default a "locked" password, per `man 5 shadow': "If the password field begins with an exclamation mark !, the password is locked." the /etc/shadow entry for dummy is: dummy:!:20697:::::: <apteryx>ah! I think one needs to use (password ""), as used for the %root-account, to get a empty password <apteryx>probably better left undocumented for security reasons <GalaxyNova>apteryx: I think that's a pretty bad reason to leave something undocumented, but more than that I don't think this particular thing would need documentation probably <apteryx>maybe you're right and it should be documented; I found it confusing to have things like `allow-empty-passwords?` on lightdm-service-type but no documented way to produce an empty password. <apteryx>one could assume that the default (password #f) could mean just that, but it doesn't; it means a locked password, and setting a password is only documented via the use of (crypt "something" "some-salt") <apteryx>so I think what's missing is documented that the default #f value produces a locked password, per `man 5 shadow', and that an empty password can be produced with just (password ""). <mskiptr>GalaxyNova: I'm currently on Gnome 49 and GDM runs fine <mskiptr>I do have (wayland? #t) set in (gdm-configuration …) so maybe that changes something <oliverD>It seems that meson 1.9 is the latest in Guix? <apteryx>mskiptr: that's the default nowadays, unless I missed something <apteryx>oliverD: I'd run: git log --all --grep='gnu: meson:' to see if it was updated on one of the core touching branches