Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 220324
startx not working as normal user
Last modified: 2018-04-11 05:11:01 EDT
Description of problem: startx fails to run with the following error(s): fedora-laptop login: benny Password: Last login: Tue Dec 12 19:25:19 on tty3 [benny@fedora-laptop ~]$ startx xauth: creating new authority file /home/benny/.serverauth.2196 xauth: (stdin):2: unknown command "32b8fb981fb5a9df880e7caf28eddd82" Fatal server error: Cannot move old log file ("/var/log/Xorg.0.log" to "/var/log/Xorg.0.log.old Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): KDE 3.5.5.-1.fc7 Fedora Core Problem solved: Here is the solution: I changed the permissions of the Xorg file to: [root@fedora-laptop bin]# chmod u+s ./Xorg [root@fedora-laptop bin]# ls -lc Xorg -rws--x--x 1 root root 1820836 Dec 12 20:02 Xorg and I can start X as a normal user again. Note: on FC6 Xorg is in /usr/bin/Xorg not in /usr/X11R6/bin/Xorg
What version of xorg-x11-server did you have installed? The server should never lose the SUID bit unless you did something weird.
Here are the first few lines from /var/log/Xorg.0.log X Window System Version 7.1.1 Release Date: 12 May 2006 X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 7.1.1 Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.9-34.ELsmp i686 Red Hat, Inc. Current Operating System: Linux fedora-laptop 2.6.18-1.2868.fc6 #1 SMP Fri Build Date: 01 December 2006 Build ID: xorg-x11-server 1.1.1-47.2.fc6 After the default install of FC6, I removed Gnome and replaced it with KDE desktop. But I had been using KDE for some days before the problem occured.
That package appears to have the correct permissions, and I can't reproduce the problem locally. So unfortunately, I can't work this bug any further. Please reopen if you can isolate the change that introduced this problem.
I'm wondering if the problem was caused by me removing the default installation of GNOME, and then replacing it with KDE? I did this is a rather 'non-standard' way after GNOME was installed as the default desktop. I have found the option to install KDE by default now instead of GNOME, from the 'customize software selection' in the installation script. Hopefully this will prevent the problem from occuring again.