Re: Strange X behavior

[Geoff Crompton <geoff.crompton@bjhcontrols.com.au>]

On Wed, Aug 21, 2002 at 08:40:23PM -0400, Sebastian Canagaratna wrote:
> 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?
> 

  Certainly don't just reinstall afresh. Debian shouldn't need that. Can
  you post the log line that contained that message? Which log file was it 
  in?

  Do you have pty files under /dev? How many, and are they symbolic
  links, or just files? What are the permissions on them.

  Are you running devfsd? Have you got Unix98 PTY support in your
  kernel? Do you have /dev/pts compiled in your kernel, or devfs?

  Of course, these questions don't solve the problem, but it might get the
  ball rolling.

  Geoff