[NBLUG/talk] XFree86 (sucking vortex): a clue?

[Ron Wickersham]

hi Dave,

from a clue-less one here:  i first thought the mit-magic-cookie thingy
was releated to kerberos and searched google for that, but learned that
it's an alternative to kerberos that keeps the password in plain text
in a user's file and doesn't encript it over the network.  so went back
to google and did mit-magic-cookie which led to a lot of solaris links
as well as debian.  so added redhat mit-magic-cookie in the search window
and got lots of links but at least the first 30 didn't address gdm.

so looked for gdm redhat mit-magic-cookie and found that the later gdm
does require files in the user directory and not just in /etc.  here's
a couple of paragraphs from
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-announce-list/2001-October/msg00013.html

- Change how FLEXI_XNEST works, be more paranoid in who we allow to
  run an an xnest, and we always run as the user who requested it.
  It requires that the user has a .Xauthority file with an
  MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 for the current display.

- X servers now run with root gid and not gdm gid

i'm not a regular reader of the gdm people's work but you gotta love the
code name "Horny Squirrel" for the 2.2.4.2 release.

some other threads talk about the same problem you're having and they
turn out to be red-hatisms:

T: [date]: 1515 X: client X rejected from local host AUTH name:
> > MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1: ID: -1"
>
> This authorization is X authorization. Look at the man page for xauth.

###

Nah, look in /etc/sysconfig or some such (I debianized my RH machine
long ago... :)) and see the goofy junk RH does when you bring up an
interface -- if the system is named 'localhost.localdomain', they check
the reverse DNS on the new IP number and name the machine thusly.

This, of course, breaks xauth which uses the hostname as an index (ie,
you have a cookie for "foo.bar:0", but that's now named
pm12-231.someisp.com).

Very very goofy setup.  The solution is to give the system a real name
(or at least not localhost.localdomain) or to install Debian and be done
with it.

###

well, it was on a debian list so you have to expect the pejorative content
-- goes with the territory :-).

but the poster with the original complaint did not use the red-hat installer
so had to do manual configuration as you're doing.

anyway, hope that get you closer to a resolution

-ron

On Sun, 7 Sep 2003, Dave Sisley wrote:

> Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2003 09:24:47 -0700
> From: Dave Sisley <dsisley at arczip.com>
> Reply-To: talk at nblug.org
> To: NBLUG <talk at nblug.org>
> Subject: Re: [NBLUG/talk] XFree86 (sucking vortex):  a clue?
>
> I may have found something...?
>
> Below is the contents of /var/log/gdm/:0
>
> Is there a clue down there in the last line?
>
> I've googled a bit for various combinations of the following:
> MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE, gdm and "client 3 rejected from local host"
>
> Somebody in the Ukraine had a problem like mine, but my Ukrainian
> is a bit rusty...
>
> -dave.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> XFree86 Version 4.3.0
> Release Date: 27 February 2003
> X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.6
> Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.18-24.8.0smp i686 [ELF]
> Build Date: 06 March 2003
> 	Before reporting problems, check http://www.XFree86.Org/
> 	to make sure that you have the latest version.
> Module Loader present
> Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
>          (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
>          (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
> (==) Log file: "/var/log/XFree86.0.log", Time: Sun Sep  7 07:46:39 2003
> (==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/XF86Config"
> AUDIT: Sun Sep  7 07:52:55 2003: 916 X: client 3 rejected from local host
>   Auth name: MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ID: -1
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