[techtalk] Bunch of odd messages

[Rik Hemsley]

#if Darren Osadchuk
> As of this morning I'm getting a variety of weird messages, and while
> I'm guessing they're all related somehow, I'm not sure how or why. I'm
> guessing it had something to do with the fact that Gnome didn't quit quite
> right last night for some reason.
> 
> If I try to start Gnome, after I type 'startx', the system sits for a
> little bit, then I get an error message that reads:
> 
> xauth: timeout in locking authority file /home/darren/.Xauthority

Probably permissions.

> Then X will start, but all I get is a grey screen with the 'X' shaped
> pointer, and nothing else. It'll sit there for a little while, and then
> exit back to the console, with a message that reads:
> 
> Unable to lock ICE authority file /home/darren/.ICEauthority

Yep.

> Also, in Pine, I'm told that my address book is read only, and a message
> keeps flashing on the screen every few seconds that says, "Cannot open
> file for writing: permission denied".

Right, permissions.

> Also also, fetchmail started fine, but if I try to wake up the daemon, I
> get the message "fetchmail: removing stale lockfile".

Hmm, well fetchmail is screwy anyway and doesn't give informative
messages, so we'll ignore that one ;)

> At one point a message came up in Pine that said that
> "Address book directory (/home/darren) is read only", and I can't write
> anything to that directory. I have no idea how or why that would have
> happened. All the permissions are what they should be.

Now when you say 'all the permissions are what they should be', are
you saying that this definitely isn't a permissions problem ?

I mean, the first thing I would be doing would be ls -l /home
and see what the permissions on your home dir are.

By rights, they should probably be at least u+rwx.

Once you log in, can you do 'echo > .a' ?

Rik