gnome-keyring-daemon as ssh-agent stopped working

xo0ox · 2025-08-30 10:50:48

I'm using gnome-keyring-daemon as ssh-agent since a longer time, but recently (I'm on Debian testing) it stopped working. Instead xfce4-session always starts /usr/bin/ssh-agent.

root      170321  0.0  0.0 171136  9276 ?        Sl   11:53   0:00  \_ lightdm --session-child 13 20
user      170336  0.0  0.2 426536 37296 ?        Ssl  11:53   0:00      \_ xfce4-session
user      170388  0.0  0.0  10532  1624 ?        Ss   11:53   0:00          \_ /usr/bin/ssh-agent x-session-manager

user      150576  0.0  0.0 185052 12216 ?        SLsl Aug29   0:00  \_ /usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --foreground --components=pkcs11,secrets --control-directory=/run/user/1000/keyring

"Launch GNOME services on startup" is enabled at "Session and Startup" and "Application Autostart" has the gnome-keyring as an ssh-agent enabled (no other ssh-agent is shown there).

$ xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -p /startup/ssh-agent/enabled list
false

Any hints, how to get the gnome-keyring-daemon working as ssh-agent again?

ToZ · 2025-08-30 13:57:11

See: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-sess … heads#L215.

With Gnome compatibility enabled and the gnome-keyring-daemon found in the path, it should skip ssh-agent startup. Can you confirm your version of xfce4-session? Also, what does your ~/.xsession-errors file show after a fresh login?

If nothing, try enabling xfce4-session debug logging:

As a global environment variable, set and export "XFSM_VERBOSE=1" (not sure how this is done in debian)
Log out and back in again
You should now have an ~/.xfce4-session.verbose-log file. Look in there to see what is happening and/or post it back here.

Welcome to the forum.

Edit: Can you also post back:

xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -lv

Last edited by ToZ (2025-08-30 13:58:19)

xo0ox · 2025-08-30 16:10:24

ToZ wrote:

Can you confirm your version of xfce4-session?

xfce4-session 4.20.2 (Xfce 4.20)

ToZ wrote:

Also, what does your ~/.xsession-errors file show after a fresh login?

Filtered out a few things:

Xsession: X session started for user at Sat Aug 30 11:53:38 AM CEST 2025
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DISPLAY=:0
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XAUTHORITY=/home/user/.Xauthority
localuser:user being added to access control list
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting QT_ACCESSIBILITY=1
xfce4-session-Message: 11:53:38.428: GNOME compatibility is enabled and gnome-keyring-daemon is found on the system. Skipping gpg/ssh-agent startup.
discover_other_daemon: 1** Message: 11:53:38.489: Failed to fetch _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP; assuming 0
(xfsettingsd:170424): xfsettingsd-WARNING **: 11:53:38.718: Stored Xfconf properties disable all outputs, aborting.
discover_other_daemon: 1non-network local connections being added to access control list
(polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1:170476): GLib-CRITICAL **: 11:53:39.159: g_variant_new_string: assertion 'string != NULL' failed
(polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1:170476): polkit-mate-1-WARNING **: 11:53:39.160: Failed to register client: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.gnome.SessionManager was not provided by any .service files
Cannot register authentication agent: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: An authentication agent already exists for the given subject
xdg-settings: default-url-scheme-handler not implemented for xfce

ToZ wrote:

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you and Hi to all of you smile

ToZ wrote:

Edit: Can you also post back:
xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -lv

/compat/LaunchGNOME                          true
/general/FailsafeSessionName                 Failsafe
/general/LockCommand                         dm-tool lock
/general/SaveOnExit                          true
/general/SessionName                         Default
/sessions/Failsafe/Client0_Command           [xfwm4]
/sessions/Failsafe/Client0_PerScreen         false
/sessions/Failsafe/Client0_Priority          15
/sessions/Failsafe/Client1_Command           [xfsettingsd]
/sessions/Failsafe/Client1_PerScreen         false
/sessions/Failsafe/Client1_Priority          20
/sessions/Failsafe/Client2_Command           [xfce4-panel]
/sessions/Failsafe/Client2_PerScreen         false
/sessions/Failsafe/Client2_Priority          25
/sessions/Failsafe/Client3_Command           [Thunar,--daemon]
/sessions/Failsafe/Client3_PerScreen         false
/sessions/Failsafe/Client3_Priority          30
/sessions/Failsafe/Client4_Command           [xfdesktop]
/sessions/Failsafe/Client4_PerScreen         false
/sessions/Failsafe/Client4_Priority          35
/sessions/Failsafe/Count                     5
/sessions/Failsafe/IsFailsafe                true
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client0_Command    [xfsettingsd]
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client0_PerScreen  false
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client0_Priority   15
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client1_Command    [xfce4-panel]
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client1_PerScreen  false
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client1_Priority   15
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client2_Command    [Thunar,--daemon]
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client2_PerScreen  false
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client2_Priority   15
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client3_Command    [xfdesktop]
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client3_PerScreen  false
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Client3_Priority   15
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/Count              4
/sessions/FailsafeWayland/IsFailsafe         true
/splash/Engine                               simple
/splash/engines/simple/BgColor               #214068
/splash/engines/simple/FgColor               #d2dae6
/splash/engines/simple/Font                  Sans 8
/splash/engines/simple/Image                 /usr/share/images/desktop-base/desktop-splash
/startup/gpg-agent/enabled                   false
/startup/ssh-agent/enabled                   false

Added later 2 h 06 min 46 s:

ToZ wrote:

~/.xfce4-session.verbose-log file.

It looks like xfce4-sessions starts gnome-keyring the way it should do:

grep gnome-keyring .xfce4-session.verbose-log
TRACE[xfsm-global.c:368] xfsm_launch_desktop_files_on_run_hook(): Autostart: running command "/usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --components=ssh"
TRACE[xfsm-global.c:368] xfsm_launch_desktop_files_on_run_hook(): Autostart: running command "/usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --components=secrets"
TRACE[xfsm-global.c:368] xfsm_launch_desktop_files_on_run_hook(): Autostart: running command "/usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --components=pkcs11"

This is really confusing. There is nothing in the log about ssh-agent started by xfce4-session. But it't a child of xfce4-session.
in the process tree.

ToZ · 2025-08-30 19:00:20

It is confusing. Try disabling lightdm and logging in via tty. Execute "startxfce4" to start Xfce and see if ssh agent starts up.

You might also try renaming /usr/bin/ssh-agent and looking through your logs (.xsession-errors, the journal, Xorg, etc) to see who is complaining.

xo0ox · 2025-08-30 19:26:30

I found the answer in debian changelog of gnome-keyring:

gnome-keyring (48.0-2) experimental; urgency=medium

  * Team upload
  * Stop building gnome-keyring ssh-agent in favour of gcr4 ssh-agent

 -- Alessandro Astone <alessandro.astone@canonical.com>  Sun, 27 Jul 2025 16:56:56 +0200

xfce-session uses ssh-agent as a fallback for the lack of ssh-agent support in gnome-keyring, but doesn't report it to logs.

I think i'll contact the debian maintainers.

Thank you very much @ToZ for your helpful advises!

Last edited by xo0ox (2025-08-31 06:00:01)

Xfce Forum

Sub domains

#1 2025-08-30 10:50:48

gnome-keyring-daemon as ssh-agent stopped working

#2 2025-08-30 13:57:11

Re: gnome-keyring-daemon as ssh-agent stopped working

#3 2025-08-30 16:10:24

Re: gnome-keyring-daemon as ssh-agent stopped working

#4 2025-08-30 19:00:20

Re: gnome-keyring-daemon as ssh-agent stopped working

#5 2025-08-30 19:26:30

Re: gnome-keyring-daemon as ssh-agent stopped working

Board footer