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On 08/02/12 10:49, Neil Winchurst wrote: > This morning when I tried to log in the computer stopped at the KDE Mint > splash screen!! It just sat there for a while so I waited for any error > messages. > > Eventually I got one - > > 'No write access to /home/neilwin/.ICEauthority'. > > Then another 'Could not start ksmserver'. > > This threw me for a while. Eventually I started again in recovery mode, > logged in as root, found the file .ICEauthority and changed the > permissions. Then I logged in again as normal and all was well. I don't > think a newbie would have got that sorted. > > I have never had this error before, and I have not done anything which > could have changed those permissions. In fact, until today, I had never > heard of .ICEauthority. > > So I am asking if anyone could throw any light on this for me please. I > would be interested to hear if this has ever happened to anyone and if > so what might have caused it. > > By the way, yes I do have an up to date backup of my home folder. And I > do have a DVD of Mint 12 KDE should I ever have to start over from > scratch and install a new distro. > > Thanks for any help with this, > > Neil I have seen this before although not for a while, on both an x86 Solaris machine and an Ultrasparc Linux server (there seems to be something about Sun code that is more vulnerable to this error), and also on the Ubuntu workstation I was using to connect to them remotely from. Symptoms were exactly the same as yours and were fixed by a chmod of .ICEauthority. I eventually tracked the issue down to my frequent use of starting remote X applications over SSH forwarding with incorrect permissions, particularly when having to force the issue with sudo. I don't remember the exact details of it now but there was very little information about in on google at the time - it boiled down to because gksudo wasn't available on either the Solaris or the UltraSparc remote machines, which is normally the correct mechanism for invoking GUI apps with superuser rights, I was using sudo/pfexec to launch them instead and this triggered a bug somewhere, presumably in the handling of the X magic-cookies and/or session information. Anyway, you've found exactly the same fix I did - just chmod .ICEauthority. Incidentally, when my machines were effected by this the two linux boxes required the fix to log in to the GUI again whereas the Solaris box bitched and moaned a lot during WM startup and took an extra couple of minutes, but would still fully log in. More vulnerable and more resistant at the same time, strangely. Didn't think anyone else would bump into this bug in a hurry. You certainly don't need to rebuild or do anything drastic though. So have you been doing any remote X-forwarding over SSH recently by any chance? Regards, Mat -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq