Xfce Forum

justjim

Member

Registered: 2013-12-27

Posts: 3

[Solved] xfce newbie - I think I broke mine...

I'm new to xfce but not linux. Been running gnome for awhile but decided to try something new.

xfce version: 4.8
distro and version: Debian 7 3.2.0-4-686-pae

This is (well was) a standard network installation for alternate desktop (xfce) from the debian-7.3.0-i386-netininst.iso including webserver, fileserver, and desktop options

-added with apt-get sudo, vnc4server, vnc4viewer, gnome user-admin

If uninterupted the system boots to xfce graphical logon screed without errors. Other than root there was only one user originally defined (jim). 'jim' has sudo authority. The system worked just fine for several days but now it will not allow 'jim' to logon via the graphical window. 'jim' can log on at the command line without any apparent problems.

What happens at the xfce graphical logon when 'jim' attempts to logon is the screen briefly blinks dark and then comes back to the graphical xfce logon screen. No errors reported. Root CAN logon graphically without problems... just not 'jim'. I'm sure I hosed something on the 'jim' account but I don't know what. I tried adding a new user (newuser) from the root terminal using useradd. That seemed to work fine and I can logon to the 'newuser' account from the command line. However the 'newuser' account behaves exactly like the 'jim' account from the xfce graphical logon screen... screen blanks briefly, then returns to xfce logon with no reported errors.

I tried deleting the contents of home/jim/.catche/sessions to no avail. I also tried xfwm4 --replace. Again no change.

Help

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,713

Re: [Solved] xfce newbie - I think I broke mine...

A few things to check for:

1. Available disk space. I've seen this happen on systems where the root partition is out of space.

df -h

...will show you disk usage.

2. The ownership of the ~/.Xauthority and ~/.ICEauthority files. They need to be owned by your user but sometimes end up being owned by root. When you log in to the text console, run:

ls -al ~/.Xauthority
ls -al ~/.ICEauthority

...and if they are not owned by you either change the ownership or delete the files (sudo required). They will be re-created on next login.

3. I don't know which Display Manager is being used by Debian 7 to manage the graphical login, but it should have log files (look in /var/log) that you can review to see what is causing the system to return to the login screen.

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justjim

Member

Registered: 2013-12-27

Posts: 3

Re: [Solved] xfce newbie - I think I broke mine...

Excellent! .Xauthority was owned by root. .ICEauthority was owned by jim. Deleted both files and was then able to login immediately. Thanks so much for the help! 

BTW, how does ownership of that file get changed? It was not something I conciously did... Are there likely others?

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,713

Re: [Solved] xfce newbie - I think I broke mine...

BTW, how does ownership of that file get changed? It was not something I conciously did... Are there likely others?

As I understand it, it happens when you run graphical applications as root using the "sudo" command instead of "sudo -i" or "gksu"/"gksudo".

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Mark solved threads as [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find solutions.
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justjim

Member

Registered: 2013-12-27

Posts: 3

Re: [Solved] xfce newbie - I think I broke mine...

BTW, how does ownership of that file get changed? It was not something I conciously did... Are there likely others?

As I understand it, it happens when you run graphical applications as root using the "sudo" command instead of "sudo -i" or "gksu"/"gksudo".

Guilty as charged. Live and learn. THX!