Bug#359629: gdm: GDM Fails to read/write .Xauthority in users home dir.

[Stuart Sheldon]

Package: gdm
Version: 2.13.0.10-2
Severity: normal

After upgrade, normal user logins caused GDM to restart after this error:
gdm_auth_user_add: Could not open cookie file /home/stu/.Xauthority

GDM can create the .Xauthority file, but fails to write anything to it. It then
is unable to delete the file.

setting UserAuthDir=/tmp allows the users to login. I don't seem to have this
problem on other systems that share an nfs /home mount, but this device is a
laptop, so it stands alone.

Please let me know what further info I can provide.

Stu Sheldon
ACTUSA


-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.15-1-686-actusa
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ISO-8859-1)

Versions of packages gdm depends on:
ii  adduser                  3.85            Add and remove users and groups
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]    1.4.72          Debian configuration management sy
ii  fluxbox [x-window-manage 0.9.14-1.1      Highly configurable and low resour
ii  gksu                     1.3.6-1         graphical frontend to su
ii  konsole [x-terminal-emul 4:3.5.1-1       X terminal emulator for KDE
ii  kwin [x-window-manager]  4:3.5.1-1       the KDE window manager
ii  libart-2.0-2             2.3.17-1        Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0              1.10.3-1        The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libattr1                 2.4.31-1        Extended attribute shared library
ii  libc6                    2.3.6-3         GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libcairo2                1.0.2-3         The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libdmx1                  6.9.0.dfsg.1-4  Distributed Multihead X client lib
ii  libfontconfig1           2.3.2-1.1       generic font configuration library
ii  libglade2-0              1:2.5.1-2       library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0             2.8.6-1         The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0        2.12.0-2        A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgtk2.0-0              2.8.13-1        The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libpam-modules           0.79-3.1        Pluggable Authentication Modules f
ii  libpam-runtime           0.79-3.1        Runtime support for the PAM librar
ii  libpam0g                 0.79-3.1        Pluggable Authentication Modules l
ii  libpango1.0-0            1.10.4-1        Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpopt0                 1.7-5           lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  librsvg2-2               2.12.7-5        SAX-based renderer library for SVG
ii  librsvg2-common          2.12.7-5        SAX-based renderer library for SVG
ii  libselinux1              1.28-4          SELinux shared libraries
ii  libwrap0                 7.6.dbs-9       Wietse Venema's TCP wrappers libra
ii  libx11-6                 6.9.0.dfsg.1-4  X Window System protocol client li
ii  libxau6                  6.9.0.dfsg.1-4  X Authentication library
ii  libxcursor1              1.1.3-1         X cursor management library
ii  libxdmcp6                6.9.0.dfsg.1-4  X Display Manager Control Protocol
ii  libxext6                 6.9.0.dfsg.1-4  X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii  libxi6                   6.9.0.dfsg.1-4  X Window System Input extension li
ii  libxinerama1             6.9.0.dfsg.1-4  X Window System multi-head display
ii  libxml2                  2.6.23.dfsg.2-2 GNOME XML library
ii  libxrandr2               6.9.0.dfsg.1-4  X Window System Resize, Rotate and
ii  libxrender1              1:0.9.0.2-1     X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  lsb-base                 3.0-16          Linux Standard Base 3.0 init scrip
ii  rxvt [x-terminal-emulato 1:2.6.4-10      VT102 terminal emulator for the X 
ii  twm [x-window-manager]   6.9.0.dfsg.1-4  Tab window manager
ii  xbase-clients            6.9.0.dfsg.1-4  miscellaneous X clients
ii  xterm [x-terminal-emulat 208-3.1         X terminal emulator
ii  zlib1g                   1:1.2.3-11      compression library - runtime

Versions of packages gdm recommends:
ii  dialog                    1.0-20060221-1 Displays user-friendly dialog boxe
ii  gdm-themes                0.5            Themes for the GNOME Display Manag
ii  whiptail                  0.51.6-31      Displays user-friendly dialog boxe
pn  zenity                    <none>         (no description available)

-- debconf information:
  gdm/daemon_name: /usr/bin/gdm
* shared/default-x-display-manager: gdm