No automatic boot to X and Xauthorization problem - Solved

[BB]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Garrett" <peter.garrett at optusnet.com.au>
To: "Ubuntu Help and User Discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 25, 2005 12:20 PM
Subject: Re: No automatic boot to X and Xauthorization problem


> On Sat, 25 Jun 2005 09:51:30 -0500
> "BB" <ubuntulist at thingbuilder.com> wrote:
>
> > My installation stopped booting into xwindows.
> >
> > I have to log into a prompt and then use "startx" to get to the GUI
(Gnome).
> >
> > When I try to start Synaptic and some other programs, I get this
message:
> >
> > failed to run /usr/sbin/synaptic
> >
> > unable to copy the users Xauthorization file.
>
> Try this;
>
> sudo rm ~/.Xauthority
>
> log out ; log in again ( in your case, I guess you will logout of Gnome,
and then re-run startx)
>
> >
> > I have searched and found references to this problem but not an answer.
> >
> > I can start Synaptic from a terminal as root.
>
> Yes, you can run Synaptic as root, because you have already run something
as root (probably synaptic) in the GUI, also known as X, and your
~/.Xauthority file is now owned by root. If you run
>
> ls -l ~/.Xauthority
>
> I suspect you will see that it is owned by root. (Before you delete it, of
course ;-) )
>
> >
> > When I try to shutdown from Gnome, I only have the option to log out, no
> > shutdown.
>
> I think this is a session option given by GDM: as you are running startx,
GDM does not come into the picture at all. Why GDM isn't running is another
question, which I can't answer from your information; possibly someone else
has seen this behaviour and will know the reason.
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> > TIA
>
> Suggestion: to run apps that need root authority, run for example
>
> gksudo synaptic
>
> (running GUI apps as root is a Bad Move (tm), and can result in the
problem you describe. It's also not very secure, and sometimes an excellent
way to break things without much effort, as you've discovered )
>
> I may be wrong about the solution , but I've seen this happen to people
for the reasons  I outlined above. (Running GUI apps as root )
>
> >
> > Also, Is there a searchable archive of this list?
>
> http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/
>
> Peter

Thanks for your help. I understand it much better now.
Instead of deleting .Xauthority, I used chown to change ownership back to
the regular user and installed GDM through synaptic which gave me gdmsetup
to get things right again.

Now my 8yr old can get back to Supertux, Frozen Bubble and Tux Racer.

BB