I have SUSE 9.1 2.6.8.1 running in my system. When I tried to log on at the console, I was logged off in "less than 10 seconds". I had to delete my .Xauthority file and I was then able to log on. This is new behavior for me. Is there any correlation between myself loggeing off automatically and ./Xauthority file.
Thanks For the help in advance

The .Xauthority file should be deleted when you logout. Did you bail out of x-windows instead during your last session. Another possibility may have to do with running a graphical program as root from the shell. What is the ownership of the .Xauthority file that remained. I had this happen to me but I don't remember if I did something like ssh into the machine at an earlier time and run kate or something similar as root. Anyway, you can delete the .Xauthority file and then try logging in.

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Oops, I may have misread your message. The .Xauthority file is used by x windows to grant or deny access to the display. I missed the part about logging in at the console. Did you maybe mean trying to start an X session? You should still be able to log in to one of the virtual terminals even if there is a stale .Xauthority file. You might want to check for stale files in /tmp as well, such as .X0-lock, .X11-unix, .ICE-unix.