<SOLVED>Cant login from Xscreensaver lockscreen

[Irets]

Hi, this is my first post(yay) and i'm not a very experienced user, so bear with me.
I'm using SparkyLinux 5 x86_64 "rolling" with 4.18.12-sparky-amd64 kernel and I have LXQt desktop installed.
If I lock my screen and try to login from the Xscreensaver login window, it always prompts "authentication failed" even though the username and password are correct.
I read online that modifying the permissions of /etc/shadow fixes the issue, but I also read that modifying the file in any way might cause damage to the OS, so I haven't done that.
If anyone could shine any light to this issue I would be glad because I cant use the "Lock Screen" option at all because of that.



A clip of my /var/log/auth.log:

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Oct  5 16:14:52 Navi systemd-logind[412]: New session 2 of user irets.
Oct  5 16:14:52 Navi systemd: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session opened for user irets by (uid=0)
Oct  5 16:15:03 Navi sudo:    irets : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/irets ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/sparky-aptus-upgrade-checker
Oct  5 16:15:03 Navi sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Oct  5 16:15:04 Navi polkitd(authority=local): Registered Authentication Agent for unix-session:2 (system bus name :1.30 [/usr/bin/lxqt-policykit-agent], object path /org/lxqt/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8)
Oct  5 16:16:06 Navi sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Oct  5 16:17:01 Navi CRON[2768]: pam_unix(cron:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Oct  5 16:17:01 Navi CRON[2768]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed for user root
Oct  5 16:28:24 Navi unix_chkpwd[3084]: check pass; user unknown
Oct  5 16:28:29 Navi unix_chkpwd[3085]: check pass; user unknown
Oct  5 16:28:29 Navi unix_chkpwd[3085]: password check failed for user (irets)
Oct  5 16:28:29 Navi xscreensaver: pam_unix(xscreensaver:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=1000 tty=:0.0 ruser= rhost=  user=irets
Oct  5 16:28:31 Navi xscreensaver[1451]: FAILED LOGIN 1 ON DISPLAY ":0", FOR "irets"
Oct  5 16:28:40 Navi unix_chkpwd[3086]: check pass; user unknown
Oct  5 16:28:47 Navi unix_chkpwd[3087]: check pass; user unknown
Oct  5 16:28:47 Navi unix_chkpwd[3087]: password check failed for user (irets)
Oct  5 16:28:47 Navi xscreensaver[1451]: pam_unix(xscreensaver:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=1000 tty=:0.0 ruser= rhost=  user=irets
Oct  5 16:28:49 Navi xscreensaver[1451]: FAILED LOGIN 2 ON DISPLAY ":0", FOR "irets"
Oct  5 16:28:55 Navi unix_chkpwd[3088]: check pass; user unknown
Oct  5 16:29:04 Navi login[833]: pam_unix(login:session): session opened for user irets by LOGIN(uid=0)
Oct  5 16:29:04 Navi systemd-logind[412]: New session 5 of user irets.
Oct  5 16:29:27 Navi xscreensaver[1451]: pam_unix(xscreensaver:auth): conversation failed
Oct  5 16:29:27 Navi xscreensaver[1451]: pam_unix(xscreensaver:auth): auth could not identify password for [irets]
Oct  5 16:29:29 Navi sudo:    irets : TTY=tty1 ; PWD=/home/irets ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/sbin/reboot
Oct  5 16:29:29 Navi sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by irets(uid=0)
Oct  5 16:30:01 Navi systemd-logind[423]: New seat seat0.



If you need more information about my system, I'll reply to you.

[lami07]

Hi there. First check the ownership of /etc/shadow

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ls -l /etc/shadow
If it's root:root , change it to root:shadow

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sudo chown root:shadow /etc/shadow

[Irets]

Hi there. First check the ownership of /etc/shadow

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ls -l /etc/shadow
If it's root:root , change it to root:shadow

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sudo chown root:shadow /etc/shadow

Thank you, that fixed the issue and i'm able to login.
I'll mark the thread as "Solved".

[lami07]

You are welcome  :)

[zandoval]

WORKS...!

But still not sure what the "shadow" file really is. Just in case I had made a back up of the files before executing the command....

Love this Sparky!

[paxmark1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passwd    see shadow section

"man shadow"  ## probably too much information, but you can skim for background

"man passwd"  ## skim for info on your passwords.