permissions issue with X

gvaught · 01-01-2005, 12:14 PM

Greetings all,

I am having a bit of an issue with my latest re-install of Debian. I used the netinst CD and installed the 2.6.8 kernel. I thought it was the hottest thing out there, but it seems I'm seeing some 2.6.9/10 posts for other distros. Anyway, my issue has nothing to do with the kernel version (I hope).

I had my system set up with the Sarge net install version and really liked it. I had everything set just the way I liked it and had pretty much settled in with it when I decided to build a DNS server (on another box) and to attempt to cut to the chase, I rebooted my workstation on Christmas day and KDE/X was gone. Kaput. After dinking around a while, I opted to just reinstall. After all, it's Linux, it's Open Source, nobody cares how many times I install it on how many machines!!! So, I spent three days before I found the right distribution (who knew Woody came before Sarge?) and then, once I did the install, it didn't like my video card so well (ATI Radeon 9200) and would only give me 1024x768, although it did default to 24-bit color depth. Well this is a nice res, but I have grown very fond of my 1280x1024 (I think) and the way it lays out. So, I spent a few hours yesterday getting the ATI driver for this card (1) found, (2) converted to a .deb and (3) installed/configured/running.

Today I have a wonderful, high-res display that just warms my little root to its core. My issue now is that I can't load X/KDE/Gnome in my user account. That's it. I have looked at the Xsession.errors file under my user account and found the following

Code:

/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: Registering your session with wtmp and utmp
/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: running: /usr/bin/X11/sessreg -a -w /var/log/wtmp -u /var/run/utmp -x "/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xservers" -h "" -l ":0" "gary"
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
startkde: Starting up...
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
kdecore (KIconLoader): WARNING: Icon directory /usr/share/icons/Amaranth/ group scalable/apps not valid.
kdecore (KIconLoader): WARNING: Icon directory /usr/share/icons/Amaranth/ group scalable/emblems not valid.
kdecore (KIconLoader): WARNING: Icon directory /usr/share/icons/Amaranth/ group scalable/devices not valid.
kdecore (KIconLoader): WARNING: Icon directory /usr/share/icons/Amaranth/ group scalable/apps not valid.
kdecore (KIconLoader): WARNING: Icon directory /usr/share/icons/Amaranth/ group scalable/emblems not valid.
kdecore (KIconLoader): WARNING: Icon directory /usr/share/icons/Amaranth/ group scalable/devices not valid.

...snip... (there's the same message for every 'group' in the icons directory)

...Too much output, ignoring rest...
Xsession: X session started for gary at Sat Jan 1 02:38:12 CST 2005
localhost being added to access control list
Xsession: X session started for gary at Sat Jan 1 02:38:31 CST 2005
localhost being added to access control list
Xsession: X session started for gary at Sat Jan 1 02:43:33 CST 2005
localhost being added to access control list
Xsession: X session started for gary at Sat Jan 1 02:43:52 CST 2005
localhost being added to access control list

I have checked the permissions (afaik) and they are all set to 755 (rwxr-xr-x) which should allow me to run X/KDE under my user account. But it's not. So, here I am begging for help from those who are geekier than I, or at least those more experienced with this than I. If there's anything that I haven't included that needs to be here, let me know so I can do that. But, afaik, the issue here is permissions, but I don't know on what!?!?! It obviously works, since the root account is being so helpful right now. I just need it to work for me as a user.

Anyway, too long, lots o' words to say what I need. Sorry. But help me, PLEASE!!

leonscape · 01-01-2005, 04:16 PM

This sounds like a group configuration problem. Check your user, they should be a member of group video and audio.

The easiest way to do this is to login as root and edit the file /etc/group

video:x:44:TheUser,AntherUser

This is the line your looking for ( The number might be diffrent ) SImply add the user to the end of the line, if theres more than one use commas to seprate the login names.

gvaught · 01-01-2005, 09:26 PM

Thx for the info. I checked the file (/etc/group) and 'gary' was already a (the) member of both audio and video. I did, although, find a group called 'gdm' that 'gary' was not a member of. So, I'm going to give that a try and see what happens. Again, thx for the info, it was helpful in getting me to look in another area and (possibly) find something that could be helpful.

leonscape · 01-02-2005, 12:07 PM

Another thing you might want to check out is the /dev folder. I know with the Nvidia drivers it adds devices nvidia0, nvidia1, nvidia2, nvidia3, and nvidiactl. The debian drivers usually set these devices with the group video. What I was thinking was maybe ati have something similar, and maybe they have their group set too root, and not video?