If you've tried running exmh, then you've probably come across these infamous xauth errors: ****** <snip> BgRegister X server insecure (must use xauth-style authorization); command ignored exmh-bg cannot rendez-vous with UI - exiting. Usually this is because Tk send is not working. Check the notes under Frequently Asked Questions #4a and #4b. You can find this under the Help menu. ******* The problem is that there is a missing directory that needs to be created. If you're using operating in runlevel 5 you can look at your /var/log/xdm-error.log file and you will notice that the first line should look like this: xdm error (pid 491): Cannot open server authorization file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/authdir/A:0-a00491 The directory that needs to be created is /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/authdir. After this is created, xauth takes over and everything is fine. FWIW, this problem has persisted since XFree86-3.3.2 (at least). Dan
err... that should be /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/authdir/authfiles Sorry. Dan
*** Bug 2412 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** kdm reports nonexistence of some directories|files Workaround: # mkdir /etc/X11/xdm/authdir # mkdir /etc/X11/xdm/authdir/authfiles # chmod -R 700 /etc/X11/xdm/authdir ------- Additional Comments From Petr_Kristof.cz 04/30/99 10:27 ------- localhost kdm[416]: Cannot open server authorization file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/authdir/A:0-xxxxxx*** Bug 3329 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** DESCRIPTION: After installation of RH60, when rebooting the system for the first time, this message appear in the log file /var/log/messages "could not create dir /etc/X11/fs/.xauth" This is a new install and the /etc/X11/fs exist with the file config. It doesn't cause problems with my XFree86 but I can see the message (could not create dir /etc/X11/fs/.xauth) in the log file. I think that the system cant create the file in the directory because it doesn't have permission to do, the /etc/X11/fs is 755 by default when your install Linux for the first time. If I change the permission of this folder for 775 it's work but am not sure if it can by a problem with the security of the system? Strange. xfs is run by the xfs user, which of course does not have root priviledges, but /etc/X11/fs is owned by root.root. Why enabling write permission for the root group makes the error go away makes no sense because xfs's group is xfs. RedHat Linux 6.0 Gnome xfs, atd, gpm, inet, named, nfs, routed, smb, sshd, crond, halt, keytable, netfs, portmaps, sendmail, snmpd, syslog, function, httpd, killall, network, squid, single, random. SCSI Drive pc x86 400MHz single Processor Monterboard Asus P2-BLS Tanks, Gerhard Mourani ------- Additional Comments From pbrown 06/11/99 14:30 ------- This will be fixed in an upcoming errata release of X.
*** Bug 2914 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** When using [kx]dm as prefdm (/etc/X11/prefdm) the directory /etc/X11/xdm/authdir does not exists, in which case the dm -failing to store xauth cookies- falls back to using xhost authentication. Any user on the system can now grab whatever display (either local or remote) has logged into the system, and wreck havoc. If not sure type xhost at an xterm to check for security. If it shows: inet:localhost LOCAL: (etc.), your authdir does not exist. Create it now, or fear the laughter of your colleages (filling your screen with garbage) :). ------- Additional Comments From 06/05/99 15:32 ------- This doesn t seem to happen with the alpha distrib ... (shouldn t they all come from the same .src, BTW ? or this is due do different SPECS files ?) But I confirm it on i386... The problem I have now, is that I canot xhost -localhost or xhost -Mylocdispname ... the command pass silently but tese entries remain in the list ! ------- Additional Comments From pbrown 06/08/99 12:52 ------- We will soon be putting out an errata release of X that explicitly packages the authdir. Under some (unexplored) circumstances, xdm will create the directory for itself, but we cannot rely on this happening. Thank you for the report.
Fixed in errata XFree86-*-52 release.