[RESOLVED] Odd SDDM behavior - Face icons only showing for one user

[oshunluvr]

I noticed this a while ago but just today decided to address it:

I have 3 users on my system, but the login greeter only shows one of them. The users are Lisa, Stuart, Trevor.

Here's what I've checked:

Output of file command:

/home/lisa/.face: PNG image data, 512 x 512, 8-bit/color RGBA, non-interlaced
/home/stuart/.face: PNG image data, 512 x 512, 8-bit/color RGBA, non-interlaced
/home/trevor/.face: PNG image data, 246 x 246, 8-bit/color RGBA, non-interlaced

Output of getfacl command:

# file: home/lisa/.face
# owner: lisa
# group: lisa
user::rwx
group::r-x
other::r-x​​​

# file: home/stuart/.face
# owner: stuart
# group: stuart
user::rwx
group::r-x
other::r-x​

# file: home/trevor/.face
# owner: trevor
# group: trevor
user::rwx
group::r-x
other::r-x

So all three files are the same type and settings. Also, all three faces show in System Settings > Users, just not on the login screen.

The only differences I can see are:

• trevor/.face is a different size.
• stuart/ also contains a symlink to .face as .face.icon.
• lisa is first alphabetically.

I'm going to try a way to test the alphabetical factor.

None of the above should make a difference but anything is possible. If anyone has an idea of what else I could look at, it would be appreciated.

EDIT: Adding a user name "Bob" did not change the face behavior. Bob has a face icon that does not show. Lisa still is the only face showing.

[die.boer]

look in System Settings - Startup and Shutdown - Login Screen (SDDM)
Look for:“Show user list”/“Show avatars“/"Remember last user”
Sometimes enabling auto-login or “remember last user” causes only one user tile to appear.

you could also check

ls /var/lib/AccountsService/users/

it should show
lisa
stuart
trevor

then inspect one

sudo cat /var/lib/AccountsService/users/stuart

look for
[User]
SystemAccount=false
Icon=/home/stuart/.face
If SystemAccount=true, the greeter may hide the account.

You can also test quickly by temporarily switching SDDM to a very plain theme:

sudo apt install sddm-theme-breeze

select Breeze in Login Screen settings.

[oshunluvr]

look in System Settings - Startup and Shutdown - Login Screen (SDDM)
Look for:“Show user list”/“Show avatars“/"Remember last user”
Sometimes enabling auto-login or “remember last user” causes only one user tile to appear.

This doesn't exist in KDEneon. "Login Screen (SDDM)" is under Colors & Themes > Global Theme and has no changeable settings other than Wallpaper.[/QUOTE]

you could also check

ls /var/lib/AccountsService/users/

it should show
lisa
stuart
trevor

It does, but when I scanned the files, "trevor" had the icon named "trevoe" and the icon in the associated folder also had the misspelling. I corrected that, but if the user file had the same mis-naming it should have worked.

The "stuart" file looked correct, but there is no associated icon file in the icons folder.

then inspect one

sudo cat /var/lib/AccountsService/users/stuart

look for
[User]
SystemAccount=false
Icon=/home/stuart/.face
If SystemAccount=true, the greeter may hide the account.

Checked but not the case.

You can also test quickly by temporarily switching SDDM to a very plain theme:

sudo apt install sddm-theme-breeze

select Breeze in Login Screen settings.

I am using Breeze.

So it seems whatever generates the needed icon is not being triggered for stuart or more likely is missing from KDEneon because "bob" had no icon either. I checked the icon files in the /var/lib... folder and they appear to be copies of the users' .face files so I copied stuart.face to the icons folder.

Now off to test...

...OK, now all three appear. This doesn't explain why a new user does not get an icon. However, this is a 2018 KDEneon install that's been release-upgraded over the years and this may be something left behind or just missing. Not sure at this point.

[oshunluvr]

Looks like I'm not the only one dealing with this: https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/...7HWGT4FBVH5D3/

It seems the missing "trigger" is the link in the home folder named ".face.icon" pointing at the ".face" file. IIRC in the old days this link was there when you created a new user. It's no longer in skel so I'm assuming this is by design because SDDM is different than KDM was.

Also, adding an "avatar" via system settings does not create the login icon but it does create the icon in /var/lib/Acc... folder. So probably the root cause of my issue was the age of the user folders and the upgrade path that did not trigger the new location for the face icon.

Seems likely had I removed and re-applied an icon via System Setting > Users > it might have fixed itself.

No matter, die.boer pointed me in the right direction. Thank you!