Disappearing files, created from /etc/X11/Xclients

[Laszlo Nagy]

>> Unfortunately, I cannot debug this way. The error is that no files 
>> are created by normal users, so I cannot use files for logging. Also 
>> there is no console because this is the /etcX11/Xclients script, e.g. 
>> it is executed by gdm after logging in to X window system through 
>> xdmpc. Well, I might setup an xml rpc server for logging, but hey, if 
>> I cannot write into a wicked file then I should not start with 
>> complex protocols and networking.
>
> Humour me.  Try opening a fixed filename in a location which you 
> double-check is world-writeable.  E.g. /tmp/FOO and print all your 
> relevant variables there.  If it works as gandalf, then delete that 
> trace file and try as a non-working user.
>
> If that fails, then try opening the file in the home directory of the 
> user who you are testing as.
I tried this before I wrote to this list. It does not work. No 'normal' 
users can create these files  from /etc/X11/Xclients. But after gnome 
starts up, they can create these files. If I login with a normal user 
and I try to re-run /etc/X11/Xclients then the files gets created, and 
finally I get an error message telling that gnome is already running.
> If that fails then you can try logging them with syslog.
How can I do that from Python? :-) I tried this:

from syslog import *
syslog(|LOG_INFO | LOG_USER, 'test')

No exception raised but I found nothing under /var/log.|
>
> Are you sure that if say the file() fails, that a window manager won't 
> start anyway?  You can test that by making the filename something 
> clearly non-existent.
To your request, I changed the ddir variable to '/nonexistent', and 
gnome was started! So you found the problem! Thanks! :-)

It was that gdm started /usr/local/etc/gdm/Xsession. That script started 
/etc/X11/Xclients but ONLY for user gandalf. It is because I selected 
'use system default session' in gdm before logging in. It was months 
ago, and I forgot it. Other users were using the default gnome session, 
e.g. they were NOT executing the Xclients script.

Thank you again!

   Laszlo