Bug#618733: x11-common: startx as non-root no longer working

[Julien Cristau <jcristau@debian.org>]

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 01:22:06 +0100, Arno Schuring wrote:

> Package: x11-common
> Version: 1:7.5+8
> Severity: minor
> 
> It appears to be no longer possible to start X as non-root user, regardless
> of the x11-common configuration. I don't use this too often, so I can't say
> exactly when it broke. I do remember that this worked fine before Squeeze was
> released though.
> 
> aschuring@neminis:~$ startx
> [...]
> Fatal server error:
> Cannot move old log file "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" to "/var/log/Xorg.0.log.old"
> aschuring@neminis:~$ startx -- -logfile /tmp/Xorg.log
> [...]
> Fatal server error:
> xf86OpenConsole: Cannot open /dev/tty0 (No such file or directory)

the -logfile option makes X drop privileges.

> aschuring@neminis:~$ ls -l /dev/tty0
> crw------- 1 root root 4, 0 Mar 17 12:30 /dev/tty0
> 
> 
> If I remember correctly, I first noticed this after I removed xserver-xorg,
> however reinstalling xserver-xorg does not fix the issue. I may have simply
> overplayed my hand by pruning too much of the Xorg stack, if so, I'd like some
> pointers on how to restore previous behaviour. Simply setuid'ing the X binary
> does not have the desired effect :)
> 
Please provide the output of
- ls -l /usr/bin/X* /etc/X11/X /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config
- cat /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config

Cheers,
Julien