xauthority problem
Forum: HD Install
Topic: xauthority problem
started by: Jtroupe
Posted by Jtroupe on Dec. 03 2005,07:01
After I install DSL I am able to reboot once maybe twiceand then i recieve errors something like "no xauthority blah blah found etc.. asking me to manually fix the problem (if one knows how?) wondering what i may be doing wrong? My partition is ext2 18gig and 300mb swap ... thank you in advance for your help.
Posted by wendy langer on Dec. 04 2005,05:55
Hi there Jtroupe 
I have had a similar problem.
For me it only occurs when I have not shutdown the computer properly previously, that is, it only occurs when I have shut it down by physically switing off thw power, rather than powering down properly using the 'Powerdown' command from the right-click-on-desktop menu, or something like 'shutdown -h now' at a prompt. *
Does your error message have lines like this:
xauth: error in locking authority file /home/dsl/.Xauthority
If this is the case for you also, then luckily the issue is very easy to fix.
What you need to do is
1) First you need to shut it down cleanly:
type 'sudo shutdown -h now' at the prompt.
The 'shutdown -h now' command tells it to power down cleanly. The 'sudo' at the start gives you a chance to give it a possword if necessary. If you are asked you for a password, try your own password, and if that doesn't work then also try the 'root' password.
This will power down the computer properly, and clean up any old .Xauthority files left around.
2) Now switch it on again and hopefully everything's ok now!
A possible explanation:
I think that what has happened is to do with the following, but I am not sure. If anyone knows better than this please let me know!
What has happened is this:
The software which provides graphics for linux is called 'X-windows', (or 'X-server' or 'X11' or just plain 'X'.)
[Layered on top of this are things such as your window manager and your 'desktop environment', but we are not concerned with them now. ]
, You don't normally have to worry about running 'X' yourself or even know it exists - usually it will be started automatically.
X-windows is a networkable graphics provider - the way it works is that, usually, it will just display the graphics on the monitor connected directly to the computer which you ran 'X' on.
However, in addition to this expected behaviour, it can actually display your graphics on the monitor of another computer connected to you via a network. But becasue this could be a security issue, it needs to check that, wherever it is trying to display them (the graphics) , that this place is properly 'authenticated'. When a place has been succesfully authenticated, it places a 'lock' file or 'authority' file in a specified folder somewhere, and it checks for the existence of this file later.
To cut a long story short, again, you don't have to worry about this usually. It is all done automatically for you. But when X- shuts down, it normally needs to 'clean up' any old 'Xauth files'. If it hasn't been shut down properly, these are left lying around, and they confuse it next time it tries to start up.
One way to fix this is simply to delete the old 'Xauthority' files. But it is hard to do this from the point where it has left you at, because the ilesystem is mounted read-only. It is easier just to shut down properly, which will do the cleanup for you, then start again.
--------------------
*I know it's very bad to do this! The reason I was shutting it down using the power button was because there was a problem with it hibernating after it had been on for awhile, and the keybord and mouse going completely dead, so it seemed the only way to switch it off and start again was to physically cut it's power! If anyone knows a better way please let me know!
Posted by dougvega on Dec. 04 2005,15:26
WOW what a good explanation !!!! I had had the very same problem with another distro before and I abandoned it because I could not fix it and I could not find the answer.
Posted by drakeman on Dec. 19 2005,16:50
Hallo.When I use the command on the desktopmenu to shut down, or in the console, I do not get any message. No reaction at all. (I forgat the -h option). I discovered the mistake just before entering this forum.
I have planned to install DSL on the pc at my parents. Then the shutdown button in the menu must work properly. In what file do I repair it ?
Grace,
Hans alias Drakeman.
Posted by wendy on Dec. 19 2005,23:46
<snip> When I use the command on the desktopmenu to shut down, or in the console, I do not get any message. No reaction at all. (I forgat the -h option). I discovered the mistake just before entering this forum.
I have planned to install DSL on the pc at my parents. Then the shutdown button in the menu must work properly. In what file do I repair it ?
</snip>
Hi there Drakeman, I do not have dsl installed here at work, and I'm afraid I don't know the answer off the top of my head. I would suggest that you repost this question under it's own heading - something like " Shutdown button on dsl desktop menu is not working".
Since the original topic of this thread is 'xauthority problem', not many people will realise there is a new and seperate question here and bother answering it.
If you still have no luck, I will look at my install at home and figure out how the shutdown button works.
I do know that the actual desktop used by dsl is one called 'xtdesk', so you could look at this on the web.
The homepage is at < http://garuda.newmail.ru/xtdesk_e.dhtml >
Unfortunately there is nothing that looks like it answers your question there. However if you are still stuck you could contact the author or the maintainer - always a good source of advice!
[Author: Chris Roberts, Email: nikon@sc.rr.com, ICQ: 63345004
Maintener: Ivan ivan@xpenguin.com]
Actually I may have just found something that answers your question. If you look at the 'readme' file, there is a list of the config files:
"Coonfig files:
~/.xtdeskrc - main config
~/.xtdesktop/* - icon descriptions
Look xtdeskrc & xtdesktop/* in distribution directory for examples."
To get at this readme, you need to download the latest tarball of the software and open it up using something like the unix utility 'tar' or equivalent (most file archiving/unarchiving utilities should be able to do this) . Inside the archive is a 'readme.eng' file which is the one you want (the other one is in Russian!)
Anyway since I have already done this, I've pasted the readme.eng into the bottom of this post to save you the trouble.
If you do want to get it yourself (there may be other useful information in there), go to the website mentioned above or else just go straight to
< http://garuda.newmail.ru/xtdesk_e.dhtml/xtdesktop-0.7b.tgz >
to get the tarball. It is only small (~30K) so shouldn't take too long to download.
Good Luck!
Wendy
Here is the readme.eng
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
DISTRIBUTED UNDER GNU GPL LICENCE
XtDesk is X Window icon manager, it inherited idea and some code from idesk
Author: Chris Roberts, Email: nikon@sc.rr.com, ICQ: 63345004
Maintener: Ivan ivan@xpenguin.com
Some code from Shaped Window Extension 0.4 for Tcl/Tk was used in initial
versions.
Author: Donal K. Fellows, fellowsd@cs.man.ac.uk
Inherited from idesk:
- idea
- Database.h / Database.cc - config files management
- source code fragments from some other files
New features:
- Xt toolkit used
- XShape extension used - no need to save copy of root window, but
transparency is not supported.
- following types of icons supported:
* application - to launch programs
* mounts - to mount/umount devices
* plugins - external libraries to change icon and caption dynamically
- menu with additional commands for all type of icons
- mulitiline captions
Coonfig files:
~/.xtdeskrc - main config
~/.xtdesktop/* - icon descriptions
Look xtdeskrc & xtdesktop/* in distribution directory for examples.
Difference between applications and mounts - see
xtdesktop/cdrom.lnk and xtdesktop/XTerminal.lnk
Right click on icon opens menu with additional commands.
Double click launchs application or mounts/unmounts device.
Multiline caption
Two character sequence '\n' turned into linebreak in Caption field in
icon config file. For example, to break caption "Yahoo messenger" into
two lines, it should be written as:
....
Caption: Yahoo\nMessenger
....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Posted by wendy on Dec. 19 2005,23:48
| Quote (dougvega @ Dec. 04 2005,10:26) |
| WOW what a good explanation !!!! I had had the very same problem with another distro before and I abandoned it because I could not fix it and I could not find the answer. |
<snip> WOW what a good explanation !!!! </snip>
Thanks, glad it helped
wendy
Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 20 2005,00:01
Xtdesk is a program that displays icons on the root window, and nothing else. The actual desktop application is Fluxbox (and jwm as an alternative in 2.x). However, since the shutdown command does not work for drakeman either from the menu or from a terminal, i would look elsewhere for a solution....possibly a hardware issue, lack of memory, or something that was broken either during or after installation.