GDM thinks I am root

[Kevin Downey]

On 4/14/07, Joe Marcus Clarke <marcus at marcuscom.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 2007-04-14 at 15:33 -0700, Kevin Downey wrote:
> > On 4/14/07, Joe Marcus Clarke <marcus at marcuscom.com> wrote:
> > > On Sun, 2007-04-08 at 18:26 -0700, Kevin Downey wrote:
> > > > On 3/23/07, Joe Marcus Clarke <marcus at marcuscom.com> wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, 2007-03-23 at 10:38 -0700, Kevin Downey wrote:
> > > > > > On 3/23/07, Timur Guseinov <timtch at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > > > try to change your home directory "chsh".
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > 2007/3/22, Kevin Downey <redchin at gmail.com>:
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > I have a laptop running 6.2-STABLE and modular Xorg, I have been
> > > > > > > > having trouble logging in using gdm for sometime, but with the new
> > > > > > > > gnome I get a more informative error message (how is that for
> > > > > > > > progress). When I log in a little window pops up and says something
> > > > > > > > like "cannot write to /root/.ICEauthority" which makes sense, because
> > > > > > > > I am not logging in as root so I should not be able to write to that.
> > > > > > > > What I can't figure out is why it is trying. Gnome then fails to
> > > > > > > > start. If I pick the 'Xclients' session from GDM a little window pops
> > > > > > > > up that says 'no Xclients file, launching failsafe terminal' so I get
> > > > > > > > a xterm. In the xterm 'whoami' returns 'kpd' (my user) but 'echo
> > > > > > > > $HOME' is '/root'.
> > > > > > > > Any ideas?
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > My home directory is set correctly to /home/kpd (kpd is my username),
> > > > > > if I login any other way  I am not given a /root home directory, if I
> > > > > > login on the console and put gnome-session in my .xinitrc file gnome
> > > > > > starts up fine with the correct home directory
> > > > >
> > > > > What are the contents of your /usr/local/etc/gdm/custom.conf file?  What
> > > > > are the permissions on /etc/passwd and /etc/pwd.db?  You may need to
> > > > > ktrace or truss gdm as root when logging in as kpd to see if there are
> > > > > any obvious errors there.
> > > > >
> > > > > Joe
> > > > the exact text of the little error box that pops up is:
> > > > The GNOME session manager was unable to lock the file
> > > > '/root/.ICEauthority'. Please report this as a GNOME bug. Sometimes
> > > > this error may occur if the file's directory is unwritable, you could
> > > > try logging in via the failsafe session and ensuring that it is.
> > > >
> > > > My /usr/local/etc/gdm/custom.conf is blank because I deinstalled gdm,
> > > > deleted all the directories pkg_delete said it could not completely
> > > > delete, and reinstalled gdm. Ran a ktrace, but this is the first time
> > > > I have used it so I am still trying to pick through the results. gdm
> > > > appears to look at the .ICEauthority in the 'kpd' user's home
> > > > directory. Then a few hundred lines later it tries the same file name,
> > > > but in /root.
> > >
> > > Who owns ~kpd/.ICEauthority?  It should be owned by kpd with 0600 perms.
> > > If that is already the case, try deleting this file, then try logging in
> > > again.
> > >
> > > Joe
> >
> > ~kpd/.ICEauthority has 600 for its permissions. I deleted it and no
> > change. I tried logging in with the failsafe gnome session and that
> > works. I am not sure what the difference between a normal session and
> > failsafe are. I am also seeing strange behaviour with xdm, not sure if
> > it is related. if I use xdm, after I login, the machine drops back to
> > the console(X exits), and then back to xdm.
> >
> > when I try the 'Xclient' session, gdm says it can't find the Xclient
> > script, and does the failsafe xterm thing. The zsh is the shell in the
> > xterm, but zsh doesn't load any of my zsh related dotfiles because
> > $HOME is set to /root. This is just weird.
>
> Where is the ktrace you captured of the failing login?
>
> Joe
>
I feel stupid.
I went and peppered all the shell scripts GDM runs with "logger $HOME"
and saw that $HOME was changing from /home/kpd to /root after sourcing
$HOME/.profile and it turns out
that $HOME was set to /root in that file. I swear I never touched it! honest!
Anyway, sorry to bother the list, and thank you for your help.


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