I'm setting up a new machine with 2.6.8-2-686 kernel on sarge. Things seem to be working except for one thing: Users can't start the x server (root has no problem).
When user does startx, the nVidia splash screen appears momentarily, but I'm thrown back to the console. The startx messages only say that .Xauthority is being created. However, no .Xauthority shows up in the user's home directory. In ~/Xsession-errors, I get: Xsession: X session started for user at ... open: Permission denied I assume the lack of permission is the result of their being no .Xauthority file actually created in user's account. /var/log/auth.log records that a session has opened for user, but no errors are reported. I tried # su - user $ startx xauth: creating new authority file /home/user/.Xauthority /usr/bin/X11/startx: line 132: cannot create temporary file for here document: Permission denied X: user not authorized to run the X server, aborting xinit: Server error. xauth: creating new authority file /home/user/.Xauthority Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console The section in /usr/bin/X11/startx: for displayname in $authdisplay $hostname$authdisplay; do if ! xauth list ""displayname" | grep "$displayname " >/dev/null 2>&1; then xauth << EOF Line 132 is this last line. The /etc/X11/Xsession is writable by anyone. At this point I get in way over my head and don't see any creation of a temporary file. When root does on a similarly configured sarge 2.4.8 machine:: $ xauth list teufel.hartford-hwp.com/unix:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... localhost.localdomain:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... hartford-hwp.com/unix:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... 64.227.154.66:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... teufel/unix:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... teufel.hartford-hwp.com:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... 127.0.1.1:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... When root does on the targe 2.6.8 machine: # xauth list teufel.hartford-hwp.com:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... teufel/unix:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... 192.168.1.1:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... it is clear something is wrong with network configuration which might affect xauth, for on an old running machine with much the same configuration: $ xauth list teufel.hartford-hwp.com/unix:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... localhost.localdomain:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... hartford-hwp.com/unix:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... 64.227.154.66:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... teufel/unix:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... teufel.hartford-hwp.com:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... 127.0.1.1:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ... Missing on the target machine is the loopback device and other lines. I suspect the lack of loopback might prevent creation of the user .Xauthority files. Is that true? The /etc/hosts and /etc/hostname files on the two machines are the same. A difference is that the old machine uses /etc/resolv.conf, while the new machine uses the resolvconf utility. A clue may come from the result of running # ifconfig -a , for there are two ethN interfaces listed (I'm using only the MAC on my Asus A8N motherboard and no NIC. The two machines address a hardware firewall). The eth0 interface is down, and so lacks the lines enjoyed by eth1: Link encap: Ethernet HWadd... and the line inet addr: ... Interrupt:NNN Base address:NNN In /etc/network/interfaces I must use "iface eth1 inet dhcp" because the eth0 is down and does not support communications. -- Haines Brown KB1GRM -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]