Strange X behavior

[Sebastian Canagaratna <s-canagaratna@onu.edu>]

Hi:

  I am using testing on  Gateway. I get the strange behavior of X where
  I can login as root with xdm, but as a regular user the the window is
  closed immediately and the login prompt appears again.  On the text
  console I can login as a user. If I kill X and try, as a user, startx,
  the display appears, but I can't open any XTerms, though my .xinitrc
  should have opened 3 xterms. I can't start many programs, but some
  do start, r.g., xemacs or xfig. In one of the log files I saw the
  message: ptys.  What is happening here? I originally thought that
  this was a PAM problem , but if this were true I would not be able
  to login as user even on the text console. 


  Where do I start looking for the problem? OR do I have to reinstall
  afresh?

  Thanks for any suggestions.

  Sebastian.

  
-- 
Sebastian Canagaratna
Department of Chemistry
Ohio Northern University
s-canagaratna@onu.edu