[Feature Request] [Discussion] Remember/change password

[adocampo]

I do not know if this feature request fits this piece of software, probably not because managing password is out of the scope of a display manager, and Linux users are generally power users who have an intermediate to upper level of computer knowledge, so, forgetting their password is almost a race condition, and if that happens, they have the knowledge to boot from a live CD and change it.

But I usually face low-level users (the kind of users who write their passwords on a post-it) who don't use their computer in a daily basis, and sometimes they call me because they forgot their password. I can do nothing besides tell them to bring their computer and I will reset the password with the live CD method.

On Windows, they can use the 3 secret questions method for local accounts, and if you use an online account, you can reset your password though email validation or other methods, mac also offers some options to reset a forgotten password.

Obviously, those OSes are targeted to less tech-savy users, but I think it would be nice to offer a solution on Linux. The three secret questions seems to be the easiest one to develop, but sddm and the underlying desktop environment (or window manager) perhaps needs to be in “harmony”. At least, sddm should be able to change the user's password if they answer the three questions, on the other hand, there should be a “wizard” asking for those questions inside the desktop (a secondary application).

I think devs from at least KDE and SDDM should agree to do their part of the job, KDE devs to do the wizard, and SDDM the logic to remember/reset the password using the secret questions entered by the user.

What do you think? It's this even doable? I'm going to open this discussion as well on Plasma because I think this cannot be implemented lonely by SDDM, I know SDDM can work with any desktop, but it's the “official” DM for plasma, so this feature, should be mainly compatible with that desktop, and if other DE or WM wants this feature, they must do their part.