[SOLVED] I can login to my DE (xfce) only as root

mitsaras · 2012-07-20 22:41:13

Hi everyone, i am setting up my first arch machine and i got a weird issue.
I installed xfce and xdm according to the guide. I got the lines

id:5:initdefault:
x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon
xt:5:wait:/usr/bin/chvt 7

in my /etc/inittab file, copied .xinitrc and .xsession to home and uncommented

exec startxfce4

in .xinitrc.

Thing is when i get the xdm login prompt and enter any username and password, it fails to load, while when logging in as root, xfce loads normally.

Any help is apprecciated, thanks

Last edited by mitsaras (2012-07-21 15:26:51)

johnislarry · 2012-07-20 23:24:08

Since login works normally for root and not for the user, it's probably a permissions issue. Maybe the permissions are off on your .xsession or .xinitrc files? According to

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XDM

~/.xsession is supposed to have permissions of 744, and you should be the owner. Can you show us what

 $ ls -la ~

gives?

Trilby · 2012-07-20 23:27:22

Also when loggin in as root, X uses a whole different set of files. This is not to say that the permissions check is not a good idea - it is, but any number of things could be wrong with those files, not just permissions. When you log in as root, /home/USERNAME/{.xinitrc,.xsession} are not used, /root/{.xinitrc,.xsession} is, or - in their absence - the system-wide files (in /etc/X11).

mitsaras · 2012-07-21 09:06:33

Permissions were ok, Tribly spotted it. Had to copy .xinitrc to my regural user home and it worked just fine! Thanks a lot

johnislarry · 2012-07-21 09:23:50

Nice! You should edit the title of the thread to begin with [SOLVED] in case somebody has a similar problem later.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-07-20 22:41:13

[SOLVED] I can login to my DE (xfce) only as root

#2 2012-07-20 23:24:08

Re: [SOLVED] I can login to my DE (xfce) only as root

#3 2012-07-20 23:27:22

Re: [SOLVED] I can login to my DE (xfce) only as root

#4 2012-07-21 09:06:33

Re: [SOLVED] I can login to my DE (xfce) only as root

#5 2012-07-21 09:23:50

Re: [SOLVED] I can login to my DE (xfce) only as root

Board footer