Description of problem: If home directory is NFS mounted .Xauthority is deleted on login. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 2.4.4.5-1 How reproducible: Happens always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Log in on a computer that access home directory over NFS Actual results: .Xauthority is deleted Expected results: Cookie for current session is written to .Xauthority, cookies for different displays are preserved. Additional info: This will cause problems for other X sessions run by the same user on different computers. The problem is probably related to the root-squash feature by default enabled on NFS exports. Updating of .Xauthority needs to be done with ID of the user loging in, not as root. Testing done with the failsafe sessions to avoid multiple desktop environment sessions from corrupting configuration files. After failing to update .Xauthority gdm will fallback to creation of a .Xauthority in /tmp. This happens after damage has happened, and the fallback does not work for remote applications.
Fedora Core 1 is now maintained by the Fedora Legacy project for security updates only. If this problem is a security issue, please reopen and reassign to the Fedora Legacy product. If it is not a security issue and hasn't been resolved in the current FC3 updates or in the FC4 test release, reopen and change the version to match.
I have also seen this problem in FC3. However not all installations of FC3 are affected, so far I have been unable to identify the difference between those installations.
I think this bug might be the same as 171188 on gnome bugzilla: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171188
I think the bug depends on the permissions on your home directory. Apparently if the mode is 700 .Xauthority is erroneously removed, if the mode is 755 it is not removed.
I "fixed" this problem by using the KDM displaymanager: echo 'DISPLAYMANAGER="KDE"' >>/etc/sysconfig/desktop and changing AllowRootLogin=false to true in /etc/X11/xdm/kdmrc, if you want to log in as root. Note: You'll still run GNOME when you log in, it's just the login window that has changed.
Fedora Core 3 is now maintained by the Fedora Legacy project for security updates only. If this problem is a security issue, please reopen and reassign to the Fedora Legacy product. If it is not a security issue and hasn't been resolved in the current FC5 updates or in the FC6 test release, reopen and change the version to match. Thank you!
Closing per previous comment and lack of response. FC3 and FC4 are supported for security fixes only by Fedora Legacy. If this is a security bug, please reopen. Please retest against FC5 or FC6 and set the version appropriately if the bug still occurs in one of those still supported versions of Fedora Core. Thanks!
We ended up changing GDM to use a system specific Xauthority file for FC6.