On Tue, 30 Apr 2002 21:57:36 -0700 (PDT)
Hesty P <hestyp@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This might be something simple, whenever I tried
> to startx as user, I get error:
>
> Fatal Server Error:
> Cannot open log file "/var/log/XFree86.0.log"
>
> Now, I can startx as root, but that's not a solution.
> I did download and install some files from
> gatos.sourceforge.net.
>
> Any idea?
Anyone want to maintain a FAQ for this list?
You didn't mention what OS this is, but it's clearly one that's a bit
conservative about setuid. It's like this: The X server needs root
permissions when it starts up, just to open its log file (apparently
that's the first, because that's what you see) and the equipment
(keyboard, mouse, display) it uses. Once it's started it doesn't need
root permissions any more. It's not a good idea to set the suid bits on
a program as big and complex as an X server, some smart luser will find
a way to subvert it. So you have two choices: a) a small, simple
program called Xwrapper is given suid. It opens the necessary files,
then gives up its privileges and starts the X server for you, or b) use
xdm, a graphical login program. The way that works is that the X server
is started by xdm which is started by init, so it has root permissions,
but nothing is suid. In {Free,Net,Open}BSD it should be as simple as
changing "off" to "on" in the line in /etc/ttys that starts xdm. I
don't know about AppleBSD, it's bound to be complicated by the Apple
graphical stuff. Most Linux variants apparently just make the X server
suid, I guess, because it's not usually an issue.
--
Remember, more computing power was thrown away last week than existed in
the world in 1982. -- http://www.tom.womack.net/computing/prices.html
