Bug 507633

Summary:	Typed password text appears on login prompt of secondary screen, not primary screen
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	BOF <bugs_kde_org.5.kuru>
Component:	Theme - Breeze	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	normal	CC:	kde, kde, kdedev, nate, visual-design
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	multiscreen
Version First Reported In:	6.4.3
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Neon
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:	6.5.0
Sentry Crash Report:

Description BOF 2025-07-29 14:11:33 UTC

SUMMARY
If you connect an HDMI cable to eg. a laptop and boot up your machine, the content of the laptop monitor looks like the login screen, but the typed password only appears on the second screen.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Shut down/reboot your system
2. Connect the HDMI cable to the laptop (this is important as connecting it later won't work to reproduce the bug)
3. Startup the machine
4. Type in your password

OBSERVED RESULT
You see the password being typed in at the second screen while the laptop screen does not change at all.

EXPECTED RESULT
Either
1) Both displays show the same content
or
2) The second screen just shows the background image (as it does when it set to the extended mode)

I would clearly prefer 2) as nobody in a presentation needs to see my typing my password.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: KDE neon User Edition
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.16.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.14.0-24-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 7530U with Radeon Graphics
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (29.2 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon Graphics
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 21KK
System Version: ThinkBook 16 G6 ABP

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
*Important Note*
As written: The cable has to be plugged in when you boot up the machine or else you will not see this bug. If you plug the cable in on the logscreen, the display stays dark until the login is completed.
If you plug in the cable when the machine is booted up, either the selection window is displayed or the screen enters the mode that was chosen last

This bug is may related to https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=472542 ("Wrong monitor is primary on Wayland")

I discovered this bug when I was preparing for a presentation and wanted to test a Video on the big screen. I was on the login screen and typing on my machine and the area where the password is typed in didn't show any characters. It took me a while to notice that the numbers _only_ appeared on the projector image.

I tested this with a second display (to check if it was related to the beamer), but it acts exactly the same (both connected to the device with HDMI).

I did put this into the "general" category as I have no idea which component would be even responsible for this. Therefore I request this bugreport to be sorted into the right category.

Comment 1 BOF 2025-07-29 14:24:36 UTC

Further testing:
1) Primary monitor
For fun I tested to make the secondary monitor the primary one (as described in BugID 472542). There was no change, the secondary monitor still showed the password being typed while the laptop monitor showed the login screen.

2) Standby display
I noticed that when you do not log in, after about a minute or so the screen enters some kind of screensaver mode (login field and buttons vanish, background is unblurred). If you are on the second screen with your mouse and move it around, only the secondary screen shows the login screen.
As said: I have discovered this bug on a beamer. It was very unsettling that my laptop screen stayed in the 'standby' mode and didn't want to show any login screen (at the time I didn't know what effect this would have during a presentation or other scenarios with a second screen). Today I saw that if the mouse is moved the the laptop screen, it 'wakes up' to (show the login field), but the password is only typed on the secondary monitor.

Comment 2 TraceyC 2025-08-01 19:11:05 UTC

Moving to the right component

Comment 3 TraceyC 2025-09-24 16:16:31 UTC

 I'm not able to reproduce this on git-master using the same steps

1. Shut down the system
2. Connect the HDMI cable to the laptop
3. Startup the machine
4. Type in your password

I observed the obscured password being entered on both screens
It looks like this has been fixed in git-master and so it should work this way on your system once it's updated to 6.5. Please reopen this report if you experience the same behavior in 6.5. Thanks!