X, GNOME, GDM problems...

nullByte · n00b Joined: 31 Aug 2003 Posts: 2

I have finished the long process of installing gentoo (for the first time) and have gotten to the point of installing X, GNOME and GDM. I followed the instructions, I think, to the letter. However if I try to logon through GDN as a nonpriv user, I receive the following dialogue box:
Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds. If you have not logged out yourself, this could mean that there is some installation problem or that you may be out of disk space. Try logging in with one of the failsafe sessions to see if you can fix this problem.
View details (~/.xsession-errors file)
The contents of said file are as follows:
/etc/X11/gdm/PreSession//Default: Registering your session with wtmp and utmp
/etc/X11/gdm/PreSession//Default: running: sessreg -a -w /var/log/wtmp -u /var/run/utmp -x "/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xserver" -h " " -1:0 myuserlogon

This does not occur when logging in with root.
I have verified that there is plenty of disk space.
I can also logon at the console with nonpriv user.
When I choose the failsafe option, it just sits there with a pointer on the screen and nothing else happens. Then CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE to get out.
When I run startx as nonpriv user I recieve the following error message:
The XKEYBOARD Keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
>Error: Cannot open "/var/tmp/server-0.xkm" to write keyboard keymap
> Exiting
Couldn't load XKB keymap, falling back to pre-XKB keymap waiting for X Server to shutdown.

When I configured X, I used the XFree86 --configure options as apposed to the xf86config method.

Any advice would be helpful.

rajeshd · n00b Joined: 22 Aug 2003 Posts: 37

Do this as root:

nullByte · n00b Joined: 31 Aug 2003 Posts: 2

Thankyou rajeshd, that solved my problem.
Both /tmp and /var/tmp are seperate filesystems. I failed to check those attributes. Thanks again.

LornKnight · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 11:58 pm Post subject:

Man, there isn't any problem you can't find a solution to on this forum!

rajeshd, you kick maximum !$$. I had this exact problem also, and the permission reassignment fixed it right up. Thank you!
_________________
What the hell, he thought, you're only young once, and threw himself out of the window.
That would at least keep the element of surprise on his side.

DJ_Grijander · n00b Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Posts: 58

N00b question here: isn't it too dangerous, from a security standpoint, to set permissions to 777 for those directories? I don't know whether they contain "critical" files, so I would like to make sure about it before opening them to everybody... Thanks for your help.

rajeshd · n00b Joined: 22 Aug 2003 Posts: 37

I doubt that these "temporary" directories contain security sensitive data. Basically, any data that applications put in /tmp and /var/tmp is supposed to be of a temporary/transient nature.

In any case, my Gentoo install has these permissions for these two directories by default. So this must be a normal thing.

c07 · Veteran Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Posts: 1091

DJ_Grijander · n00b Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Posts: 58

rajeshd,

your explanation makes full sense... I was worried because my /var/tmp permissions were rwxr-xr-t (for /tmp they were rwxrwxrwt). I don't know wheter this was the original configuration when I first installed Gentoo, or whether it has been changed later (maybe when I decided to start using xdm?).

Anyway, your solution is easy and it works! More than enough for me

Thanks a lot for your help.