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Old 04-16-2001, 05:37 PM   #1
aimstr8
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Registered: Mar 2001
Posts: 40

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Hi,

I am running RH 6.2 and have X installed. Previously, I had been able to run X under any user with no problem. Recently however, I am only able to run X as root. When I try using any other user I get the error:

Authentication failed - cannot start X server.
Perhaps you do not have console ownership?

I am the only one (I hope) using the machine, so I guess I did something, I just don?t know what.

Any ideas?

TIA,

-Ward
 
Old 04-16-2001, 09:52 PM   #2
KevinJ
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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Distribution: Redhat v8.0 (soon to be Fedora? or maybe I will just go back to Slackware)
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details

Could you be more specific as to what you mean by "I guess I did something"?

Were you playing with anything or installing any modifications or apps right before this occurred?

I found a reference to your problem on SGI's open source page that talks about a known issue with XFree86 and devfs. See here for more info:
http://linux-xfs.sgi.com/projects/xf.../msg03069.html

Some other suggestions would be to check permissions and for troublesome tmp files. Both are described in this thread:
http://archive.lug.boulder.co.us/bym.../msg00197.html

Personally, I think it sounds like a PAM authentication problem. Unfortunately, I know very little about PAM. What does your /etc/pam.d/xserver file contain? Mine has:

[root@CY615927-A /root]# cat /etc/pam.d/xserver
#%PAM-1.0
auth sufficient /lib/security/pam_rootok.so
auth required /lib/security/pam_console.so
account required /lib/security/pam_permit.so

Compare that to what you have.


 
Old 04-18-2001, 11:25 AM   #3
aimstr8
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Registered: Mar 2001
Posts: 40

Original Poster
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still no-go

Thanks for the info Kevin. Everything you suggested appears correct.

root cat /etc/pam.d/xserver

#%PAM-1.0
auth sufficient /lib/security/pam_rootok.so
auth required /lib/security/pam_console.so
account required /lib/security/pam_permit.so
root

I also suspect PAM, but not sure what. Then only file I messed with under PAM was /etc/pam.d/other

root cat other
#%PAM-1.0
# Pam Configuration File for the "other" service
#
auth required /lib/security/pam_warn.so
auth required /lib/security/pam_deny.so
account required /lib/security/pam_deny.so
password required /lib/security/pam_warn.so
password required /lib/security/pam_deny.so
session required /lib/security/pam_deny.so

Still cant figure it out. So for now, I just enable_gdm which starts X when Linux boots up. Not really what I want, but at least I can get regular users to run X.

Any other ideas?
 
Old 11-07-2003, 10:50 AM   #4
afrodocter
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Registered: Sep 2003
Distribution: slackware 9.1
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i had the same error (from other research i suspect it is a problem with nvidia driver, not sure) i solved this by changing permissions in in /etc/security/console.perm to :

<xconsole> 0600 /dev/console 0777 root.root
<xconsole> 0600 <dri> 0777 root"



this might not be the safest configuration, but if it solves the problem then you can be sure that its the problem and find a secure middleground.

not sure if this is the real problem but it is a patch. if anyone finds the root of the problem please post it, i am interested.
 
Old 02-27-2004, 12:54 PM   #5
afrodocter
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Registered: Sep 2003
Distribution: slackware 9.1
Posts: 110

Rep: Reputation: 15
correction,

this happened to me again after i reinstalled newer nvidia drivers.
|i fixed it by copying all .x* and .X* from my /root directory to /home/user/
then chown them all.
still dont konw why this is happening! i wish i new.
 
  


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