X Windows problem

[Steven E. Protter]

root can run startx no problem.

I try with a user and:

PAM authentication failed, cannot start X server
Perhaps you do not have console ownership?

... snip ...

giving up.
xinit: Connection refused (errno 111): unable to connect to X server
xinit: No such process (errno 3)

[Ivan Ferreira · Accepted solution]

>> Perhaps you do not have console ownership?

When you logon to the system, pam ensures that the user has the apropiate permissions to device special files. But, to do that, the user has to logon directly to the console.

If you logged on as root, and then su to the user, and then run startx, then the permissions for the device special files may not be correct.

Are you "su-ing" to a user before startx?

[Steven E. Protter]

I am su-ing yes.

I've tried direct login and gotten the same results though.

Will try again.

SEP

[Steven E. Protter]

Problem:

User had no .gconf directory.

Solution:

usrdel -r username
rm -rf /home/username/

useradd username
passwd username
# set password

Do direct X Windows login

Still a mess.

.gconf was missing, probably accidently deleted from /etc/skel (NOT MY BOX!!!)

created folder
copied the contents in from root and chowned them to user.

OUCH!

SEP

[Steven E. Protter]

I feel smart today. NOT!

SEP