a problem with starting x sometimes

php · 07-11-2002, 08:22 PM

Sometimes when I start X under a user account I get this error,

"xauth: timeout in locking authority file //.Xauthority "

Whats this mean?

mlp68 · 07-11-2002, 10:47 PM

The .Xauthority file goes into the user's home directory. Your system thinks the users home dir is / - and obviously a user can't write there.

echo ~<username>
eg
echo ~johnsmith will tell you where the system thinks that is. Fix the passwd file if it's wrong.

Hope it helps,
Martin

CARTMAN · 07-12-2002, 02:22 AM

That means permissions are fscked under user's home directory a dirty solution is let our username is user and home dir /home/user just do

chown -R user /home/user

as root.