Intro

On Linux, Proton Pass Desktop should provide an option to disable integration with the system keyring / Secret Service and use an alternative application-managed encrypted local storage mechanism instead.

Problem

Current case is Proton Pass Desktop on freshly updated EndeavourOS with XFCE 4.20.

Every time Proton Pass is started, the system opens a Seahorse / GNOME Keyring dialog asking me to set a password for a new keyring.

The problem is that this does not happen only once.

Even though a keyring already exists, the same process is repeated on every Proton Pass launch, and accepting the dialog results in additional keyrings being created. This can effectively result in an endless accumulation of new keyrings.

However, if I press Esc a few times and cancel these keyring dialogs, Proton Pass still starts normally and I am still logged in.

This makes the repeated keyring request appear unnecessary for normal Proton Pass operation in this environment.

Interestingly, Proton Authenticator on the same Linux/XFCE system does not cause this problem.

Expected behaviour

Please add an option to Proton Pass Desktop, for example under:

Settings → Security → Linux credential storage

with choices such as:

• System keyring / Secret Service — current behaviour
• Proton Pass encrypted local storage — do not access GNOME Keyring / Seahorse / Secret Service

The exact implementation is of course up to Proton, but users should be able to explicitly disable system keyring integration.

If additional protection is required when system keyring integration is disabled, Proton Pass could use the Proton Pass account password, extra password, or another application-level encryption mechanism to protect the locally stored authentication/session secret.

Why this is needed

Linux desktop environments do not all handle Secret Service integration identically.

Electron selects gnome_libsecret for XFCE, but in some XFCE configurations this integration can malfunction and repeatedly trigger keyring creation dialogs.

Currently this creates a very poor user experience:

1. Start Proton Pass.
2. Seahorse asks to create/set a password for a keyring.
3. A keyring already exists.
4. The same dialog appears again on the next Proton Pass launch.
5. More keyrings can be created indefinitely.
6. Cancelling the dialogs still allows Proton Pass to start and remain logged in.

Therefore, users who do not need OS keyring integration should be able to disable it.

Suggested additional improvement

Proton Pass could also detect repeated keyring initialization failures.

Instead of continuously requesting creation of another keyring, it could display something like:

Proton Pass could not use the Linux Secret Service/keyring.
You can retry, configure your system keyring, or switch Proton Pass to application-managed encrypted storage.

This would be considerably better than repeatedly opening Seahorse dialogs without explaining why.

Environment

• OS: EndeavourOS
• Desktop environment: XFCE 4.20
• Proton Pass: Linux desktop application
• Keyring UI: Seahorse / GNOME Keyring / Secret Service
• Proton Authenticator on the same system: works without displaying these repeated keyring prompts

The main request is therefore:

Please make Linux system keyring integration optional in Proton Pass Desktop and provide a secure application-managed fallback that can be selected in Proton Pass settings.

Additional comment

This actually applies to all Proton desktop apps.