Gaze

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Hyprland (hyprlock) ​

Gaze integrates with hyprlock, the Hyprland screen locker, via a dedicated PAM service. The gaze-hyprlock package installs /etc/pam.d/hyprlock-gaze, leaving the distro's own /etc/pam.d/hyprlock untouched.

You opt in by pointing hyprlock.conf at the Gaze PAM service.

Install ​

The one-line installer auto-installs gaze-hyprlock and edits ~/.config/hypr/hyprlock.conf when it detects a Hyprland session or the hyprlock binary.

Manual install:

bash
sudo apt-get install gaze-hyprlock
bash
sudo dnf install gaze-hyprlock
bash
yay -S gaze-hyprlock-bin

Enable ​

Add to ~/.config/hypr/hyprlock.conf:

ini
general {
    pam_module = hyprlock-gaze
}

Restart hyprlock or lock the session again. Face unlock runs first; if it fails or times out, hyprlock falls back to the password prompt.

Simultaneous mode ​

For password-and-face authentication in parallel (type your password while the camera matches your face; whichever succeeds first unlocks), use:

ini
general {
    pam_module = hyprlock-gaze-simultaneous
}

This uses pam_gaze_grosshack.so, a PAM shim that lets Gaze run alongside the password prompt instead of blocking it.

How it works ​

hyprlock-gaze is a PAM service that stacks pam_gaze.so on top of your system password stack (system-auth on RPM/Arch, common-auth on Debian/Ubuntu). The auth flow:

  1. hyprlock calls PAM with service name hyprlock-gaze
  2. pam_gaze.so runs as the logged-in user, claims the camera via the gazed DBus service, and runs face verification
  3. On match → PAM_SUCCESS, hyprlock unlocks
  4. On no enrolled faces or daemon unavailable → PAM_IGNORE, hyprlock proceeds to password
  5. On no match → PAM_AUTH_ERR, hyprlock proceeds to password

No gazed configuration changes are required. The DBus policy already permits unprivileged users to claim the camera and run verification against their own enrolled templates.

Prerequisites ​

  • gazed daemon running (systemctl status gazed)
  • At least one enrolled face: gaze add-face default
  • Working camera (test with gaze auth)

Disable ​

Remove the pam_module line from hyprlock.conf (or set it to hyprlock's default, hyprlock). Uninstall the package if you do not plan to use it again:

bash
sudo apt-get remove gaze-hyprlock
bash
sudo dnf remove gaze-hyprlock
bash
yay -R gaze-hyprlock-bin

Troubleshooting ​

  • Falls back to password every time: daemon may not be running, or no faces enrolled for the current user. Check systemctl status gazed and gaze list-faces.
  • Camera busy: another Gaze client (GUI, GNOME extension) may hold the camera. Close it and retry.
  • PAM error in logs: check journalctl -u gazed and journalctl --user -t hyprlock.