My FC4 server crashed recently after getting too hot when AC unit crapped out. I am now getting error at boot time telling me touch cannot touch /var/lib/random-seed and others.
It finally boots up and I get a screen that says, "Server Authorization Directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm but this directory does not exist. Please correct gdm configuration /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf and restart gdm.


This server is running a php web app a consultant created for us and once the machine boots to this screen mentioned above, the users are able to get to the app over my network. I myself am unable to attach to it to copy files or administer over my Windows network. I am also unable to ssh into it as I once was.

I booted into server using Knoppix 4.0 as recommended by friend but am totally confused as to what I might need to do (or look at).

I did not choose Linux for this project. Mgmt did due to no costs involved. They're pushing me to fix. I know a little about Linux, mostly how to get it connected to Windows network. Please help if you can. Need to get it functioning again.

Thanks for any help,

Bill Bird

Welcome to LQ!

All errors related to gdm are of secondary importance and will not affect the functionality of your server. gdm is graphical login manager, GUI is not needed for a server. Same goes for serverauth, it is about X server.

cannot touch /var/lib/random-seed
This is going to be a shot in the dark now. I think /var may be in a separate partition, filesystem on this partition may be corrupted and mounted read-only as a result. To fix it you should run fsck on this partition from Knoppix.