Problem with X consoles - "shell-init: error retrieving current directory"
 

I'm still trying to figure out how this happened. Lets see, I'm working on my desktop and trying to configure it the way I like. I started with a default install, xorg was working. Of course I decided "if it ain't broke, you need to tinker some more" so I ran xorgconfig and screwed up my X-server. It complained of lack of screens. I installed my nVidia drivers and ran xorgsetup, things work now. I was starting to set up X and editing some files in rxvt when I tried to tab-complete a filename and got this error message:

This doesn't just happen in rxvt, it also happens in X-console, and I tried the Gnome console but that won't work. I'm using the fluxbox off the CD.

Any ideas? This is annoying as heck, I've grown into a tab-complete addict!

You've really been messing with things, eh? ;)

That's an error I'd be proud to get! (My personal favourite was "Mystery Error" in the logs for lpr ... genius!)

Anyway ... moving on ...

Do you get the same tab-complete problems in a raw console? Ie: the bit before the GUI?

If tab complete works fine there, then it sounds like there might be a problem with the terminal emulators, or further down the tree (to affect them all). To be honest I'm not sure what you'd have to tweak to fix it, but take a look and see what sort of common dependencies they share, and that might help you locate the source of the problem.

Good luck, and, great error message!
- Piete.

Indeed something one doesnt see everyday.. (:

A few things to check out and narrow the problem:

- Do you have bash-complete installed? You know, the extra completion..
- Does this happen with _any_ completion, anywhere? Meaning, also commands from the PATH, or just directories? And both on xterms, tty's and on a pure non modified Konsole / gnome-terminal?
- if doing /et<tab> goes wrong, does
still work anyways?

.ICEauthority
 

peace

i stumbled over this page when i searched for my problem, that said the same error.

my error was to move my home directory to another partition and symlinked it back to the required location. while moving i ignored a problem that the ~/.ICEauthority did not move as everything else. so i deleted it and symlinked the dir - of course the error happened to me later when i used the console again (bash)

i moved the homedir back to the previous partition - same problem
i restarted x - same problem
i logged in at a vt - no problem
i logged in as a other user in the xterm that was failing with my user - no problem
i stopped x and logged out and in again - everything was fine again

maybe someone can explain what this ice file means, but this was obvoiously the problem.

hopefull this post helps somebody in the future

a*men

I may have solved this issue!

Here is what happened to me...

as root I entered:

THESE ERRORS START HAPPENING
shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory
AND
fatal error: locate: create_db(): chdir: No such file or directory

tried:

the result!

ls: /usr/lib/mailman/cron: No such file or directory

Duh! The directory that I am in longer exists! (as it was removed by "rpm -e mailman")

entered:

cd /

Solved?