Not loading gdm;"libX11.so.6 cannot open shared object"

zlobby · 03-01-2004, 06:13 AM

Hi.

I'm working with a Knoppix 3.3 hdinstall (with gnome 2.4) for a few days now and despite a few small problems it was running pretty well so far.
However, without changing any files or directories, firefox crashed and i couldn't execute it anymore, so i vainly attempted a new log-in.

Now though,as I boot linux, X doesn't load anymore. When i type in "gdm" the following error occurs:

error while loading shared libraries: libX11.so.6 cannot open shared object file: no such file or directory.

Does anyone know how this could have occurred and how i can fix it?

Thank you.

Mara · 03-01-2004, 04:22 PM

Look if /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 exists (run
ls -l /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6
for example)
If it doesn't, your XFree installation is broken and you'd need to fix it. Try apt-get install xfree. It'll probably tell you it's already instaled, so type 'apt-get remove xfree' (it'll remove X) and then 'apt-get install xfree' (will install it with all files).

zlobby · 03-01-2004, 04:51 PM

Ok, now i'm quite confused..earlier today as i looked for the file in that directory it wasn't shown.
As i now tried to get xfee, it doesn't find the package (also made an apt-get update before), so i also wasn't able to remove it either.

Now, though, i found libX11.so.6 in /usr/X11R6/lib (somewhat stupefied me, for i'm sure it wasn't there before), but the same problem still occurs while trying to load gdm

also tried apt-get install xlibs --reinstall, as someone recommended, but it didn't seem to help there either

Mara · 03-01-2004, 05:18 PM

What happens when you just try to run 'startx'?

zlobby · 03-01-2004, 05:32 PM

Doesn't find the command.
Also strange is (i assume) that, before being able to type in my user name, following line appeared this time:

'Spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7'

Mara · 03-02-2004, 04:51 PM

So it looks XFree was removed somehow. You ned to install it again (apt-get install xfree).

zlobby · 03-03-2004, 04:30 PM

Well, it still doesn't find the package. And some other errors occur while trying to
install or remove other packages. I decided to reinstall knoppix, since it seems that most of the libs are screwed up somehow.

Anyhow, thanks for your help