[Novalug] .dmrc question

Beartooth karhunhammas@Lserv.com
Tue Aug 14 10:36:54 EDT 2007


On Mon, 13 Aug 2007, DonJr wrote:

> On Mon, 2007-08-13 at 07:51 -0700, Beartooth wrote:
>> On Sun, 12 Aug 2007, DonJr wrote:
[...]
>>  	I was guessing that; thanks for the confirmation. Is this 
>> a SELinux thing, or is it old?
>
> It's older/younger.
>
> It's a feature of gdm the x-display-manager or graphic login 
> manager.
>
> See the following LinuxQuestion.org threads for more information:
> <http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=546104>
> and
> <http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=543505>

 	I read those, thanks! What do you think of the "chmod 
700" that some of them use (but never explain)? Should I be 
fiddling (under F7, not Ubuntu) with /gdm/custom.conf, or 
whatever it is??

 	I have :

[root@localhost ~]# cd /etc/gdm
[root@localhost gdm]# ls
custom.conf   modules      PreSession           Xsession
Init          PostLogin    securitytokens.conf
locale.alias  PostSession  XKeepsCrashing
[root@localhost gdm]#

 	I had a quick look at custom.conf, and it's going to 
require considerable study to tackle ...

 	(I skipped doing the part about Ubuntu's recovery mode : 
since nobody else ever touches my machines, I keep one tab on my 
gnome terminal su'd to root -- with a blue background, which 
alerts me to the fact I'm doing it.)

 	Incidentally, I've also tried removing .dmrc and letting 
the other thing re-create it.

>>  	I ssh'd into one of the problem machines, did only chmod 
>> 0600 .dmrc, and logged out. Then logging back in, I first told 
>> it to change session to Gnome -- and the error message popped 
>> up yet again. So I rebooted -- and got the same results. Just 
>> to check, I shut it down instead of finishing the login, and 
>> tried another time, without mentioning sessions. Got the error 
>> message yet again.
>
> ssh'ing into a system shouldn't have any effect one way or the 
> other. With systems{ie local servers} that will be always 
> live/exists behind my primary firewall, I normally even enable 
> ssh'ing in as ROOT with known key(s), at least while in the 
> configuration/setup phrase.

 	It has one effect I've refrained so far from mentioning 
-- sometimes, on the problem machines, I can't get gnome-terminal 
to accept input. (I don't have any idea what sort of 
half-functional window manager or general GUI they're making 
do with.) But ssh always does take input.

>>  	Stray thought. Suppose (as btth, not root) I delete 
>> /home/btth/.dmrc entirely? Will the first yum command 
>> re-create it? Or suppose I delete it and do mkdir .dmrc (still 
>> as btth, not root), and then a yum command?
>
> If you just DELETE /home/btth/.dmrc, 'gdm' will then create a 
> NEW one with proper permission(s) once you select a default 
> X-manger again.
>
>
> BTW
>  What is the permissions of user 'btth's $HOME directory?
> IE what does the following return:
>  ls -l /home

 	drwxrwxr-x

> Is user 'btth' home directory set to allow OTHERS to WRITE to it?
> If so then do as user 'btth':
>  chmod o-w $HOME

 	I tried that both literally (with "$HOME") and with 
"/home/btth" -- and got an error saying : "chown: `o-w': invalid 
user"

-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, Neo-Redneck Double Retiree,
Not Quite Clueless Linux Power User, with precious
(very precious) little idea where up is.



More information about the Novalug mailing list