I had been having this problem lately. Only the root user can log in using the X manager, other users are given the error and they are presented with the same login, as if they haven't entered anything at all.
/var/log/messages says gdm_slave_xioerror_handler error. I have read another thread - ..Graphical login .., but that's again not complete. He says to reinstall xfs, but when i do
rpm - e xfs it says xfs not installed!!!.

Do i need to reinstall the XFree86-xfs...?

No. You dont have to reinstall XFree86-xfs. I have the solution but I have to eat first... I'll post later.. promise...

Here, try this:

Log in as root and go to the home directory of the user who is having problems. For example, suppose that the log in name of the user is yumi. After you are in the users home directory, issue the ls -ld command to see who owns the directory and what the permisions are on that directory:

cd ~yumi
ls -ld
drwxrwx- - root bin 1024 May 28 16:00

Note that the above example, the directory is owned by root and the group ownership is bin, which does not allow yumi to have access to the directory structure inside the directory. Because the shells and terminal emulators that X needs require access to that directory structure, X can't fully work or not work.

To correct this problem, use the chown and chgrp commands to change the ownership of the /yumi home directory to yumi and to change the group ownership of the yumi home directory to users:

chown yumi ~yumi
chgrp users ~yumi

make sure you replace the yumi login name with the login name that you are having difficulty with...

I hope this helps...

thanks jtl020, i had a similar post on the same problem and your response fixed it.

no prob...

pls take time to click my affero button and rate my post if it helped you...

thnx...