Howdy
Howdy is a program that imitates Windows Hello on Linux. It uses a computer's IR sensors and camera to verify a user's face.
Contents
Installation
Configuration
Setup Howdy to start when needed
In order for Howdy to authenticate a user, a small change must be added to any PAM configuration file where Howdy might want to be used. The following line must be added to any configuration file:
auth sufficient pam_python.so /lib/security/howdy/pam.py
Example
/etc/pam.d/sudo
# PAM-1.0 auth sufficient pam_python.so /lib/security/howdy/pam.py auth include system-auth account include system-auth session include system-auth
Add correct IR sensor
Determine the correct /dev/videoX
file connected to the IR sensor. This can be done through various programs such as cheese and fswebcamAUR. Once the correct filename is found, edit /lib/security/howdy/config.ini
using either your preferred editor or with sudo howdy config
.
sudo howdy config
to work.Add face to Howdy
In order to add a face model to Howdy, run sudo howdy add
.
Troubleshooting
Howdy doesn't seem to work
Verify that Howdy is properly working by running howdy test
as root. If that seems to work, check any PAM configuration files and verify they are working. Some programs, such as SDDM [1], do not work properly with PAM, which may result in unexpected results.