nixos/howdy: init

[fufexan]

Description of changes

Adds Howdy as a service.

TODO:

• make sure it can add/recognize/remove facial models.
• add optional linux-enable-ir-emitter service needed for some IR cameras.
• get it working properly with PAM.
• get the GTK version running (may be out of scope for now).

Fixes #76928

Things done

• Built on platform(s)
  • x86_64-linux
  • aarch64-linux
  • x86_64-darwin
  • aarch64-darwin
• For non-Linux: Is sandbox = true set in nix.conf? (See Nix manual)
• Tested, as applicable:
  • NixOS test(s) (look inside nixos/tests)
  • and/or package tests
  • or, for functions and "core" functionality, tests in lib/tests or pkgs/test
  • made sure NixOS tests are linked to the relevant packages
• Tested compilation of all packages that depend on this change using nix-shell -p nixpkgs-review --run "nixpkgs-review rev HEAD". Note: all changes have to be committed, also see nixpkgs-review usage
• Tested basic functionality of all binary files (usually in ./result/bin/)
• 23.05 Release Notes (or backporting 22.11 Release notes)
  • (Package updates) Added a release notes entry if the change is major or breaking
  • (Module updates) Added a release notes entry if the change is significant
  • (Module addition) Added a release notes entry if adding a new NixOS module
• Fits CONTRIBUTING.md.

closes #344024

[Atemu]

I don't have the HW to test this.

[fufexan]

For now, I'd say I had it like 10% of the times I suspended my laptop, not ideal but usable.

On my laptop, it only works 10% of the time. Peculiar behavior.

[louis-thevenet]

For now, I'd say I had it like 10% of the times I suspended my laptop, not ideal but usable.

On my laptop, it only works 10% of the time. Peculiar behavior.

I haven't encountered this issue after several logins, I only encountered a stuck when adding my face. If you're using gnome, I suspect it's due to a bug in gdm(maybe? but I haven't encountered this problem on other distros). When you login too fast after just booting your computer, e.g. using howdy or autologin, it gets stuck. A workaound is to add these:

  systemd.services."getty@tty1".enable = false;
  systemd.services."autovt@tty1".enable = false;

The issue generally occurs when waking up from suspend. Do you often use suspend ?
I use Hyprland and and don't have a DM.

I disabled it for now, it breaks less often than what I read here, but it tends to break at the worst time...
It seems that the more time the system stays in suspend, the more likely it is to occur, but it's just a feeling.

[yechielw]

Sorry for the novice question,

How can I try out the service without changing inputs.nixpkgs.url to github:fufexan/howdy?

I attempted adding the fork as an additional input, importing the relevant services, and setting overlays for the packages, but haven't had success.

Thanks in advance!

[Scrumplex]

Sorry for the novice question,

How can I try out the service without changing inputs.nixpkgs.url to github:fufexan/howdy?

I attempted adding the fork as an additional input, importing the relevant services, and setting overlays for the packages, but haven't had success.

Thanks in advance!

This is how I would go about with more complex PRs like this:

0. (Assuming your flake is in ~/flake and you are currently in ~)
1. Have a local Nixpkgs clone: gh repo clone NixOS/nixpkgs
2. Make sure it's up-to-date: git fetch --all
3. Checkout this PR: gh pr checkout 216245
4. Rebase the commits of this PR onto your desired branch: git rebase --onto 4c2fcb090b1f3e5b47eaa7bd33913b574a11e0a0 HEAD~4
   • 4c2fcb0 is the revision of nixos-unstable at the time of writing
   • HEAD~4 selects the commit before the 4th newest commit as the old base
   • Replace 4c2fcb0 with your desired revision of Nixpkgs.
5. Finally, go into your NixOS flake (cd ~/flake) and temporarily override Nixpkgs: nix flake lock --override-input nixpkgs ~/nixpkgs
6. Configure the module in your system
7. Rebuild and Switch!

Edit: To revert this, just restore your flake.lock to its state in the Git index (i.e. git restore -WS flake.lock, This removes all local changes in that file, so run this with care) and remove the configuration

[fufexan]

#76928 (comment) here's a simpler approach.

[PaideiaDilemma]

linux-enable-ir-emitter-start seems to need /etc/linux-enable-ir-emitter

Nov 02 20:01:50 laptop linux-enable-ir-emitter-start[1239]: terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::filesystem::__cxx11::filesystem_error'
Nov 02 20:01:50 laptop linux-enable-ir-emitter-start[1239]:   what():  filesystem error: directory iterator cannot open directory: No such file or directory [etc/linux-ena>

works fine when the directory exists

[fufexan]

@PaideiaDilemma should be fixed now.

Can anyone test?

[PaideiaDilemma]

@fufexan thanks, fixed.

From my point of view it is quite desirable to have this packaged.

However, I think some sort of disclaimer that this is experimental software and not a secure login method would be appropriate. That is missing on the howdy repo as well as on the archwiki, if you ask me. Mainly because howdy is not mature, this targets the beta branch and because I think the pam module is currently not implemented well. (For example problems with unwanted unlocks when the authentication client spawns child processes: boltgolt/howdy#969)

[fufexan]

@PaideiaDilemma you raise a good point. Hopefully the issue you opened is addressed. In the meantime we can separately add the patch.

[fufexan]

@PaideiaDilemma I've added an admonition describing the security implications.

[PaideiaDilemma]

@fufexan Sounds reasonable.

In the meantime we can separately add the patch.

Yeah, why not.

[PaideiaDilemma]

@fufexan sorry, forgot to update the the patch in the issue.
use this one. tested it.
patch.txt

[NovaViper]

Hey I just got Howdy back on my system again and now im noticing the IR sensor no longer blinks 😭

Also I notice when it tries to search for my configs, it says etc/linux-enable-ir-emitter/pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:6:1.2-video-index0.ini instead of /etc/linux-enable-ir-emitter/pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:6:1.2-video-index0.ini

[louis-thevenet]

Tried it yesterday, still have the same behavior