Runtime troubleshooting

Missing AccountsService avatar

If /var/lib/AccountsService/icons/<username> does not exist, Quickshell can log a warning when it tries to load that first avatar candidate. This is cosmetic: the lock screen continues through its fallback chain and eventually shows ~/.face, ~/.face.icon, or the built-in Nerd Font avatar.

To provide a user avatar without AccountsService privileges:

cp your-avatar.png ~/.face

The fallback order is:

/var/lib/AccountsService/icons/<username>
~/.face
~/.face.icon
the built-in fallback icon

The lock screen must remain usable when all image candidates are missing. The fallback icon is intentional and should not be replaced by a fatal image-load error.

Output and placeholder-screen safety

The custom lock screen deliberately keeps the active output alive while WlSessionLock owns the surface. Turning off the only active output can create a placeholder screen and destabilize the shell. The service records a blank-skipped: keep-output-alive event instead of running a display-off command.

Useful checks after changing the lock screen:

omarchy system lock
journalctl --user -b --no-pager | rg 'omarchy lock|placeholder screen|fatal|EGL'