Bug#359629: Bug #359629 is triggered by home dirs with permissions of 700 (gdm Fails to read/write .Xauthority in users home dir)

[Géraud Meyer]

Package: gdm
Version: 2.18.4-1

I have the same problem as bug #359629: the following message appears in
the log:
    gdm[4431]: gdm_auth_user_add: Could not open cookie file
/home/<user>/.Xauthority
and the Xauthority file used by gdm is in /tmp.

By changing the permissions of /home/<user> from 700 to 750 (which was
the default I believe), gdm stops complaining and uses
/home/<user>/.Xauthority. /home/<user> is owned by the user <user> and
the group <user>. Permissions of 700 should work as well as permissions
of 750.

The problem appeared only very recently although the gdm package has not
been upgraded nor its configuration altered. Could it be caused by some
other package's upgrade (like an upgrade of pam)?

Incidentally I tested a gdm theme with a face browser, and gdm does not
display the different faces but only the same default face for everybody
(this even with home directories with 750 permissions). This might be a
related bug.

P.S. /home is not an NFS mount. Here is the content of /etc/gdm.conf:

[daemon]
AlwaysRestartServer=true
[security]
[xdmcp]
Enable=true
DisplaysPerHost=1
HonorIndirect=false
MaxSessions=1
[gui]
[greeter]
SoundOnLogin=false
UseCirclesInEntry=true
LockPosition=true
GraphicalThemeRand=false
[chooser]
[debug]
[servers]

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (850, 'testing'), (760, 'stable'), (10,
'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.22-desk2-k7 (PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages gdm depends on:
ii  adduser                    3.105         add and remove users and groups
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]      1.5.14        Debian configuration
management sy
ii  gksu                       2.0.0-4       graphical frontend to su
ii  gnome-session              2.20.0-1      The GNOME 2 Session Manager
ii  gnome-terminal [x-terminal 2.18.2-1      The GNOME 2 terminal
emulator appl
ii  konsole [x-terminal-emulat 4:3.5.7-4     X terminal emulator for KDE
ii  kwin [x-window-manager]    4:3.5.7-4     the KDE window manager
ii  libart-2.0-2               2.3.19-3      Library of functions for 2D
graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0                1.20.0-1      The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libattr1                   1:2.4.39-1    Extended attribute shared
library
ii  libc6                      2.6.1-5       GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcairo2                  1.4.10-1      The Cairo 2D vector
graphics libra
ii  libdbus-1-3                1.1.1-3       simple interprocess
messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2           0.74-1        simple interprocess
messaging syst
ii  libdmx1                    1:1.0.2-2     X11 Distributed Multihead
extensio
ii  libfontconfig1             2.4.2-1.2     generic font configuration
library
ii  libglade2-0                1:2.6.2-1     library to load .glade
files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0               2.14.1-3      The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0          2.20.0-1      A powerful object-oriented
display
ii  libgtk2.0-0                2.12.0-2      The GTK+ graphical user
interface
ii  libpam-modules             0.99.7.1-4    Pluggable Authentication
Modules f
ii  libpam-runtime             0.99.7.1-4    Runtime support for the PAM
librar
ii  libpam0g                   0.99.7.1-4    Pluggable Authentication
Modules l
ii  libpango1.0-0              1.18.2-1      Layout and rendering of
internatio
ii  libpopt0                   1.10-3        lib for parsing cmdline
parameters
ii  librsvg2-2                 2.18.2-1      SAX-based renderer library
for SVG
ii  librsvg2-common            2.18.2-1      SAX-based renderer library
for SVG
ii  libselinux1                2.0.15-2+b1   SELinux shared libraries
ii  libwrap0                   7.6.dbs-14    Wietse Venema's TCP
wrappers libra
ii  libx11-6                   2:1.0.3-7     X11 client-side library
ii  libxau6                    1:1.0.3-2     X11 authorisation library
ii  libxcursor1                1:1.1.9-1     X cursor management library
ii  libxdmcp6                  1:1.0.2-2     X11 Display Manager Control
Protoc
ii  libxext6                   1:1.0.3-2     X11 miscellaneous extension
librar
ii  libxfixes3                 1:4.0.3-2     X11 miscellaneous 'fixes'
extensio
ii  libxi6                     2:1.1.3-1     X11 Input extension library
ii  libxinerama1               1:1.0.2-1     X11 Xinerama extension library
ii  libxml2                    2.6.30.dfsg-2 GNOME XML library
ii  libxrandr2                 2:1.2.2-1     X11 RandR extension library
ii  libxrender1                1:0.9.4-1     X Rendering Extension
client libra
ii  lsb-base                   3.1-24        Linux Standard Base 3.1
init scrip
ii  metacity [x-window-manager 1:2.20.0-1    A lightweight GTK2 based
Window Ma
ii  openbox [x-window-manager] 3.4.4-1       standards compliant, fast,
light-w
ii  xbase-clients              1:7.3+2       miscellaneous X clients -
metapack
ii  xfce4-terminal [x-terminal 0.2.6-4       Xfce terminal emulator
ii  xfwm4 [x-window-manager]   4.4.1-3       window manager of the Xfce
project
ii  xterm [x-terminal-emulator 229-1         X terminal emulator

Versions of packages gdm recommends:
ii  dialog                    1.1-20070604-1 Displays user-friendly
dialog boxe
ii  gdm-themes                0.5.1          Themes for the GNOME
Display Manag
ii  whiptail                  0.52.2-11      Displays user-friendly
dialog boxe
ii  xnest                     2:1.4-2        Nested X server
ii  xserver-xephyr            2:1.4-2        Next Generation Nested X Server
ii  zenity                    2.18.2-1       Display graphical dialog
boxes fro

-- debconf information excluded