Adding a PIN Zorin OS 18

[Aravisian]

@Forpli

I can't test in a live session if you have to enter the normal password at a reboot and the PIN only works afterwards when logging out/suspending/locking the screen. To me it seems with the PIN it takes a bit more time to login until the desktop is loaded.

Yes, it is a Pita, pure and simple, if doing it post install. Since at install, you could set your password as 1111 if you so chose.

[Forpli]

After a lot of trial and error, I found that it works better via the terminal than through the GUI for user accounts. In the Zorin 18.1 Live session, I was able to create a four-digit PIN with the same digits, e.g. 1111, for a new user (without using the tool libpam-pwdfile, I started a new session just for that test).

I created a new user in the GUI (without setting a password) and then entered in the terminal

sudo -i

Enter your current password to elevate to root, and then

passwd [USERNAME]

in my test I used the username tester, also

passwd tester

and was prompted to set a new password for the tester.
The input of the new password won't be displayed, so pay close attention.
I entered 1111 and the terminal complained about the short password, but afterwards confirmed that it was set successfully, and it worked.

I didn't need to change something in the /etc/security/pwquality.conf file. Perhaps the file only regulates the gui?

This method also worked when a PIN was set with the libpam-pwdfile to set the same PIN for the sudo password. But you shouldn't need to go that way with installing the tool.

Edit: I tested it now on my bare metal Zorin installation to change the password to a PIN 1111 for my normal user, and it worked. You don’t need to edit files nor install other tools to set a PIN with 4 digits.

[Aravisian]

@Forpli

and was prompted to set a password for the tester. I entered 1111 and the terminal complained about the short password, but afterwards confirmed that it was set successfully, and it worked.

Thanks for taking the time to actively test this:

@Aravisian

On these versions (Not the latest) you can see the BAD PASSWORD: The password is shorter than 6 characters as a warning, not a hard block. It can still accept the 4-digit- pw, but warns that is is shorter than 6 characters.

I was going by the documentation, which means it should in principal - But I had not actively tested it.
Teamwork.

[Forpli]

I'm glad I finally found a simple, working solution for Zorin 18, because the older instructions I'd tried so far (without installing any other tools) never worked when I tried them on my system. I wanted to have just one password for all logins and root rights. As it is a delicate matter I didn't want to accidentally break anything either by experimenting.

[Nekobasu]

I would say this is nearly the same instruction than the one I posted.
Some commands are a little different but the steps are the same.

• Install the packages.
• Backup your PAM-config.
• Create the custom config-file.
• Edit your created PAM-config.

So the devil is in the details.