Dumas Patrice wrote: > I have just upgraded my redhat box from a 7.0 (with lots of 7.1 and 7.2 rpm) to > 7.2. I start X from the console using startx. I did it without problem just one > time. Now I can only start X as root. As a user, I get: > > Fatal server error: > PAM authentication failed, cannot start X server. > Perhaps you do not have console ownership? > > I searched a bit on the web and I found my problem risen a lot of times, but I > haven't found a solution. I also posted this question on other mailing lists > (redhat-list and xfree86-list hosted by redhat) but I haven't have any solution > yet. > > /dev/console is in mode 600 owned by root > /var/run/console.lock is present in mode 600 owned by root > /var/run/console contains a file with name the name of the user currently > logged, owned by root with perms 600 > > the /etc/security/console.perms, /etc/pam.d/xserver are correct, and there is > nobody logged in when the user log in. > > Any idea ? > > Pat I had much the same problem (described in a posting to this list on 2001/Dec/31) except that I am using Redhat-7.1, and that i succeeded zero times as non-root user using startx. For me the solution was to create /var/lock/console/USERNAME. I cannot find one single word of documentation on the purpose of such a file anywhere in the universe !! My system does NOT have any file called /var/run/console.lock nor does it have anything similar. It does NOT have any directory called /var/run/console; but as mentioned it does have /var/lock/console. By the way, in the (Redhat) man-page for pam_console, the remark about "no other user is currently logged in at the console" is a Red-Herring; it is one of the few things I could understand in the PAM documentation, but it is also just plain wrong. Whether or not I first log in as root, makes no difference with respect to my non-root username being able to acquire console-ownership in starting X. Eugene Reimer
