Hello,

I've been googling around for 6-7 hours now. I am very tired . Can you please help me get my FC4 back without reinstalling ?

I went in the week-end with the computer in another place and I changed the network parameters (ip, gateway, hostname). When I came back, my X server didn't start.

I get error like:

Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server
xinit: No such process (errno 3): unexpected signal 2

Also, when I give ps -aux I see the X process like this:
/usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 -audit 0 -auth /var/gdm/:0.Xauth vt7

Should I mention that in that time, i removed the gdm package ?

Also I changed the network settings back to original.

Also, some times (I can't tell exactly when) I am getting this error:

_X11TransSocketINETConnect "can't get address for" 6000 -ssh
.

All this errors I get when I type startx in console as root. And I do this because it can't enter in the login screen like it usually did.

Can I somehow reinstall some rpms to fix it ? Or disable the auth on x server ? Or any other advice ?

Any help will save my day (possibly my week) and will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Stefan

Um, well, GDM is essentially your "normal" login screen, so that's one problem.

Second problem is that you generally can't "startx" as root for security reasons. You should be able to "startx" logged in as your normal user, though, and if you somehow need to "startx" as root (bad, bad idea), then:

1) login as your normal user
2) type "xhost +localhost"
3) login as root
4) type "startx"

The "xhost +localhost" thing basically tells xwindows to allow anyone from the local system to use the GUI. Normally root is prevented from doing this, and it's a safety to the admin doesn't accidently forget to log out after doing maintenance.

Hopefully this helps, but removing GDM and resetting your network configuration to defaults may have caused other problems. (Do you mean previous settings, or original defaults? This can be very different.) Hopefully though, you can just reinstall GDM, and things will return to normal, or at least to a point that it's easier to work through any remaining problems.

you could delete all the X settings in your home and etc directores, and do a force rpm install of X again.

>>you could delete all the X settings in your home and etc directores, and do a force rpm install of X again.

I hope you're kidding. Removing gdm is a hint that Horos isn't likely to know which files are settings files for X at this point in time. Guessing would be the equivalent of tossing a grenade into the case, with the intention of hooking up all the cables to drives and connectors. :P

If anything, it would be safer just to do the forced update, but that's still a bit of overkill, until Horos tries an easier fix. Plus, it doesn't enlighten the user much either, instead reinforcing that mindless "reinstall, don't understand" mantra MS likes to promote.

Hello scott_R and whansard

I tried every time to do "xhost +localhost" as root. Maybe this was my mistake. I can't try it right now because I yum deleted xterm which also deletes another 22 packages. Now I yum install them back. Hope this uninstall/install thing will reset the configuration issues to normal.
I yum installed xterm back, and also yum installed sum x11-xorg packages ( I think 2 or 3 packages).
I tried to startx again, but it doesn't work.
I tried now to do xhost +localhost as my user (non-root): xhost: unable to open display "" - so it seems I don't have the DISPLAY environmnet set up by default. Why is that ?

whansard, can you tell me the specifics of what you adviced ? What directories/files should I delete frome home and etc ? What rmps must I install of X ?

Thanks,
Stefan

yeah, depending on how much got removed, you might be missing an important program, config file, or you might simply be stuck with "default" (aka useless) configuration files. As much as I hate to suggest it, once you start removing and reinstalling multiple files and programs (20+), it might be time to weigh up whether it might not be a better long-term solution to back up any important information, and spend a fraction of the time doing a complete reinstall. If you feel like trudging through it, by all means, go ahead, but if it's going to frustrate you to the point of not being able to learn more about Linux, then it's better to cut your losses and start over. For one thing, you've made a number of changes, and unless you've carefully documented them, it's likely that they may affect things down the line, causing you headaches later on.

Like I said, I hate to suggest it, but imagine where you'd be if you removed/reinstalled the same about of stuff in another OS like Windows or Mac. One of the hardest things to learn with Linux is to fight the temptation to remove/reinstall things ad-hoc. It works with Windows, mainly because windows doesn't let you do much without major warnings and handholding. The tradeoff is, once you've got an idea of how the system is laid out and what does what, Linux is a lot easier to fix, simply because windows never really lets you know what the problem is, just that something doesn't work, whereas Linux's error messages are far more decriptive (though they are greek to you now).

In truth, your problem is still probably fairly easy to fix. However, by the time you describe it to the the point where someone can help you, and they explain it to a point where you'll understand what to do, one or both of you are likely to have given up on the fix, or Linux altogether. This wouldn't be a bad time to call on a local linux user, if you happen to have a helpful linux guru handy.

If you still want to try though, go to /etc/X11/ and see what you have there. You should have an xorg.conf file, and other files. Those are your X config files, and if they're gone, you should probably start over. Otherwise, you can try reinstalling the Xserver files you deleted, and hope things go back together.

Sorry, but that's the best I can offer, mostly because I've been there myself, and after hours of frustration, the best you're likely to achieve is a better idea of how the various parts of the system fit together.

Hello,

Thanks very much for your answers. I think I'll backup and reinstall the system . If I hadn't begin to remove things maybe I would have tried some more. But now it's probably too late.
Anyway Linux is sometimes tough but I like it. I'll stick to it. It offers freedom for professionals. Now I'll try to become a professionl.

Thanks,
Stefan

I don't disagree with anything you've said, but your post wasn't up when i posted, and it sounded likehe was going to delete everything and reinstall at any minute.
X server settings are often hidden "with a leading ." and have a capital X in them.
The command # find / -name ".X*" -type f -print will show you all files like that on the system. That is find "/"-start in the root directory, ".X*"-everything that starts with .X, -type f,-only show files, not devices and processes, -print- show them to me.
change the command to # find / -name "*X*" -type f -print
will show files on the system with X in the name.