Connectiong to mysql w/ PAM Authentication gets "authentication plugin ' dialog' cannot be loaded"

I have setup new DB using Mariadb's PAM authentication module but can not get heidiSQL (V9.3.0.5114)to connect. Web searches indicate the problem is with loading the dialog.dll in the plugin directory. I have done everything I can think of to get it to find the dll but it will not.

C:\Users\john.mcdougal>echo %PATH% C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\Wind owsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files\IDM Computer Solutions\UltraEdit;C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Workbench 6.2 CE;C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Workbench 6.2 C E\Plugins;C:\Program Files\MariaDB 10.0\bin;;C:\Program Files\Heidi SQL\Plugins

I've copied the dialog.dll to multiple directories including C:\windows\system32, C:\windows\syswow64, executable directory, etc...

What am I missing? FYI - I get same issue with mysql workbench

If you want to make use of the newer plugins, you will need to install the nightly built installer, not just the heidisql.exe update. The installer from the download page contains the right dlls and some more files you may need.

Well I would hardly call the functionality new. The date on the dialog.dll is 11/13/13 almost 3 years old. However, I did as suggested and installed from the nightly downloads latest release with no change to my problem.

Oh you're right. I had the other dll in mind (auth_gssapi_client.dll), and also the libmysql.dll for 32/64 bit versions. There were quite some issues with the older files until recently.

Do any of those issues apply to my problem?

It is probably the problem of trying to loading 32bit dll into 64bit process. That does not work, bitness must match

The Dialog.dll came with the 64 bit version of the tool I would assume that it is also 64 bit. Otherwise, why even include it.

I can't answer that question, I was just guessing that maybe something in packaging went wrong, based on Ansgars answer.

I am getting this error too. I tried both the heidisql installed from the website (version 9.4.0.5125) and heidisql installed via the mariadb server install (version 9.3.0.4984).

I'm not sure what directory the heidisql installed version is looking in but it doesn't appear to be C:\Program Files\HeidiSQL\plugins which is where dialog.dll is located. (I'm not up on my pascal but looking at the code this seems like where it is looking despite the negative results).

The mariadb installed version appears to look in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\MariaDBShared\HeidiSQL\plugins. By default this gives me an access violation on dialog.dll.

If I try the dialog.dll from C:\Program Files\HeidiSQL\plugins I get "Authentication plugin 'dialog' cannot be loaded:" with no reason after it.

So I downloaded both the 32 and 64 bit versions from github.

If I try the 32 bit version I get the same error as with the original dialog.dll in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\MariaDBShared\HeidiSQL\plugins

If I try the 64 bit version I get the same error as with the original dialog.dll in C:\Program Files\HeidiSQL\plugins

So it looks like the heidisql version shipped with the 64 bit dll version but doesn't seem to work, the mariadb version shipped with a 32 bit dll version, and the heidisql version executable doesn't look in the expected directory for plugins.

Did you really install HeidiSQL v9.4, or did you do an automatic update?

Hi ansgar,

No the 9.4 install was installed via the HeidiSQL_9.4.0.5125_Setup.exe file I downloaded from this site.

hm ur pass way doesnt seem right

I am seeing the same "authentication plugin ' dialog' cannot be loaded" error message on 64-bit HeidiSQL 9.4.0.5125 on Windows 10. I can see that the installer placed dialog.dll in C:\Program Files\HeidiSQL\plugins. The plugin has a modification date of 11/13/2013, just as jmcdougal pointed out.

I replaced the bundled dialog.dll with one from MariaDB Connector/C, but that did not change anything either--HeidiSQL still complains that it can't load the plugin.

PAM authentication also fails for me with 32-bit HeidiSQL on Windows 10, but the error is different. Instead of seeing "authentication plugin 'dialog' cannot be loaded", the program is throwing an EAccessViolation error.

I assume right now Heidi SQL cannot be used with Windows 10/PAM authentication?

I'm having the same issue today. It works fine with my Windows 7 clients.