Screen locker fails to recognize correct password unless it is typed slowly

[SenorFusion]

Qubes OS release

4.2.3 (Upgraded In Place from 4.1)

Brief summary

The xscreensaver lockscreen login after locking the machine or it going to sleep with xscreensaver fails to unlock when the password is entered correctly.

Steps to reproduce

1. Lock the screen or allow xscreensaver to lock the screen automatically after 10 minutes
2. type in password
3. screen appears to blink or reload while typing pw occasionally (but doesn't happen every time)
4. receive "Authentication Failed"
5. Type in password 3 to 10 more times until screen finally unlocks

Expected behavior

Type in password and the screen unlock

Actual behavior

"Authentication failed"

Notes

I am positive I did not suddenly forget how to type in my password. Logging in on boot and intial login does not have this problem.

Other users on the forum have reported this

This is not the same failure as #8473 - in mine, the login screen is already visible.

Please let me know what log to pull for diagnosis.

[SenorFusion]

I have since found that if I type the password very slow it is more likely to succeed - taking "only" 2-5 attempts vs 8-12 if I type at normal speed. Type too quickly and the prompt "flashing" is more prevalent and it will fail.

[Atrate]

Do you notice that the bad auth attempt password's length is different than your expected password length? When Qubes dom0 lags for me, it sometimes repeats keyboard inputs, like thiiis. Related issue: #9629

[SenorFusion]

Do you notice that the bad auth attempt password's length is different than your expected password length? When Qubes dom0 lags for me, it sometimes repeats keyboard inputs, like thiiis.

I hadn't stop to count but I will try to next time.

That would be consistent with it not working when I type at normal speed, if it is lagging it may be doubling keystrokes or missing keystrokes

[SenorFusion]

With further practice I can almost unlock on the first try every time provided I do two things:

1. If the screen "flashes" stop typing, erase everything, and start over
2. Type very slowly and watch the dots appear to make sure they are not "lagging" and your typing is not out pacing them.

[andrewdavidwong]

I think I'm experiencing this problem too. Screen lock password is rejected if I type it too quickly, but it's accepted if I type it in slowly. At first, I thought I was just making typographical errors, but the problem seems to happen too often and too consistently, and I never had this problem before. The screen locker behavior seems to have changed recently.

[maltfield]

+1 this is happening to me too. I find that if I stop typing (wait a second) every few characters I type, it works. Otherwise it takes me maybe 10 attempts to unlock the screen.

As others say, I know it's going to reject my password when I see the screen stutter (rather than display the dot immediately) after I type a character

#LongPasswordAndHighWPMClub ;)