🛡️ Howdy Patcher

Windows Hello™ Style Face Unlock for Debian 13, Ubuntu 24.04+ & Modern Linux

TL;DR: Howdy face recognition broken on modern Linux? Run this script to fix it instantly.

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⚡ One-Line Fix

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/blamairia/howdy-patcher/main/howdy-patcher.sh -o howdy-patcher.sh && chmod +x howdy-patcher.sh && sudo ./howdy-patcher.sh

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🔥 Are You Getting These Errors?

❌ ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'ConfigParser'

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/lib/security/howdy/pam.py", line 10, in <module>
    import ConfigParser
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'ConfigParser'

❌ externally-managed-environment during installation

error: externally-managed-environment
× This environment is externally managed

❌ GStreamer camera errors

[ WARN:0@2.941] global cap_gstreamer.cpp:2839 handleMessage OpenCV | GStreamer warning: Embedded video playback halted
[ WARN:0@2.941] global cap_gstreamer.cpp:1698 open OpenCV | GStreamer warning: unable to start pipeline

❌ Sudo works without password after installing Howdy

Your PAM is failing silently and falling back to permit-all!

❌ Face recognition not working on Debian 13 / Ubuntu 24.04

The old Howdy package is incompatible with Python 3.10+

👆 If you're experiencing ANY of these — this patcher fixes them all!

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🤔 What is Howdy?

Howdy provides Windows Hello™ style facial authentication for Linux. It uses your IR camera to recognize your face and log you in — no password needed!

The Problem: The packaged version (v2.6.1) doesn't work on modern systems like Debian 13 "Trixie" or Ubuntu 24.04+ because:

• It uses Python 2 syntax (ConfigParser) but modern systems only have Python 3 (configparser)
• The PAM module crashes silently, making sudo work without ANY authentication
• OpenCV defaults to GStreamer which doesn't work with many IR cameras

The Solution: This patcher automatically fixes all these issues in seconds.

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🔧 What Gets Fixed

Issue	Before	After
Python Module	import ConfigParser (Python 2)	import configparser (Python 3)
Camera Backend	GStreamer (broken)	V4L2 (works)
dlib Dependency	Blocked by PEP 668	Installed with workaround

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🚀 Installation

Quick Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/blamairia/howdy-patcher/main/howdy-patcher.sh -o howdy-patcher.sh
chmod +x howdy-patcher.sh
sudo ./howdy-patcher.sh

From Source

git clone https://github.com/blamairia/howdy-patcher.git
cd howdy-patcher
sudo ./howdy-patcher.sh

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📋 Requirements

• ✅ Howdy v2.6.1 installed (from .deb package, PPA, or gdebi)
• ✅ Linux with Python 3.10+ (Debian 13, Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 39+, etc.)
• ✅ Root/sudo access
• ✅ IR Camera (usually /dev/video2)

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💻 Supported Distributions

Distribution	Version	Status
Debian	13 "Trixie"	✅ Tested
Ubuntu	24.04 LTS	✅ Supported
Ubuntu	24.10+	✅ Supported
Linux Mint	22+	✅ Supported
Fedora	39+	✅ Supported
Arch Linux	Rolling	⚠️ Use AUR package instead

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🔄 After Patching

1. Find your IR camera:

   v4l2-ctl --list-devices

   Look for "IR" in the name (usually /dev/video2)

2. Configure Howdy:

   sudo howdy config

   Set device_path = /dev/video2 (your IR camera path)

3. Add your face:

   sudo howdy add

4. Test it:

   sudo howdy test   # Visual test with camera feed
   sudo -i           # Real authentication test

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🔙 Rollback

The patcher creates a timestamped backup. To restore:

# Find your backup
ls /lib/security/howdy-backup-*

# Restore it
sudo ./restore-howdy.sh /lib/security/howdy-backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS

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📝 Manual Fixes

If you prefer to apply fixes manually:

Fix 1: Python 3 Compatibility (pam.py)

sudo sed -i 's/^import ConfigParser$/import configparser as ConfigParser/' /lib/security/howdy/pam.py

Fix 2: V4L2 Camera Backend (video_capture.py)

Edit /lib/security/howdy/recorders/video_capture.py:

# Change this:
self.internal = cv2.VideoCapture(
    self.config.get("video", "device_path")
)

# To this:
self.internal = cv2.VideoCapture(
    self.config.get("video", "device_path"), cv2.CAP_V4L2
)

Fix 3: Install dlib (PEP 668 bypass)

sudo pip3 install dlib --break-system-packages

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🔗 Related Howdy Issues

This patcher was created to solve these open issues:

• #912 - Howdy can't import module ConfigParser
• #954 - externally-managed-environment error
• #1027 - Python 2 commands in pam script
• #935 - Ubuntu 24.04 LTS issues
• #890 - Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
• #1046 - Howdy PAM module fails on Ubuntu 25.04

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or PR.

Found this helpful? ⭐ Star the repo!

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📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file.

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🙏 Credits

• Howdy by boltgolt — The amazing Windows Hello™ style facial authentication for Linux
• This patcher was created after encountering these issues on Debian 13 "Trixie"

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Note: The dev branch of Howdy has been completely rewritten and includes these fixes natively. This patcher is specifically for users stuck on the packaged v2.6.1 version.