Hi all,
I've seen a couple of references to this sort of behavior but often with a lengthier list of problems in the .xsession-errors file.

The issue:
Regular login at the GUI accepts UID/pass, then flashes to black for a second, then re-displays the GUI splash as though it just started up. It will keep repeating that behavior. No delay or freezing, just determinedly ignoring the login. Failsafe or other logins using the options in the lower left of the screen give the same behavior. Console login works fine. Logging in as other users from the GUI also works fine; gets into their desktop environment as expected.

This is a new issue for this machine; the system has been stable for some years now (May '06), with the exception of a complete freeze when Openoffice is run (not automatic but a good probability) and Firefox shutting itself down when Java loops are played (yes an nVidia card). The other day it crashed heavily due to overburdened hard drives (last fsck had been long ago); after restoring the drives the first login attempt presented this issue.

I have seen gurus asking for the contents of ./.xsession-errors; mine is listed below. Fairly short compared with others, and definitely concerned with an X issue. Perhaps something like xhost is improperly set somewhere?

-----------start-------------
Xsession: X session started for datkinson at Thu Feb 11 17:49:31 AKST 2010
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

x-terminal-emulator: cannot connect to X server :0.0
-----------end--------------

I also saw other post that suggested possible improperly specified user settings on files in .kde (and all of the ~ directory tree); that output is below:

-----------start-------------
-rw------- 1 root root 244 2008-08-13 12:56 ./.kde/share/apps/kate/metainfos
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10711744 2008-10-26 18:27 ./.kde/share/apps/kdeprint/printerdb_cups.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 556 2009-08-13 14:13 ./.config/Trolltech.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 646 2009-08-13 14:13 ./.config/Google/GoogleEarthPlus.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 83 2009-10-08 14:53 ./.aptitude/config
-----------end--------------

A couple of potential issues but ones which would seem to be confined to specific apps (kate and cups in this case - and I see a reason my upgraded GoogleEarth no longer runs...)

Anyhow, troubleshooting ideas are welcome.

Thanks all,
Dave A.

Please remove ~/.Xauthority

Thanks. Just before I saw this post this morning I tried startx (again) from the console and just let it sit there for awhile. Every ~10 seconds it would state: "Xauth: timeout in locking authority file //.Xauthority" but after ~1 minute KDE fired up as usual.
I have go get some work done so I'll just leave it for now, but when my crunch is over I'll delete Xauthority and see if that returns it to normal functionality.

So how is it that .Xauthority can get compromised, anyways? I'm assuming the crash somehow did it, but I don't know what specifically happened to the file.

I appreciate the help.

D

The ~/.Xauthority file likely got corrupted during the crash as X has to use it to authenticate applications connecting to it.

Thanks again. I like to figure out not just what to do, but why it's being done.
D

Oh as well, changing the ownership of the GoogleEarth.conf file fixed the broken Googleearth upgrade I had performed awhile back. I suspect I must have done it as sudo or something.
D

The ~/.Xauthority file contains a list of hosts and users permitted to connect to a particular X session. This file persists across logins and is loaded by X to determine if an application should be permitted to connect.

When it got corrupted, X cannot determine if your applications are permitted to connect, and thus denies them access, preventing them from displaying on screen.

By removing it, X will generate a new one, and your apps will be able to connect once more.

Thanks again.
D