Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds

[LinuxLars]

Something just broke.

For any user except root, when I log in to an X (or KDE) session, I get the message:

Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds. If you have not logged out yourself, this could mean there is some installation problem or that you may be out of diskspace. Try logging in with one of the failsafe sessions to see if you can fix this problem.

I've been running FC2 since the week after it came out; no problems. Yesterday I noticed my browser session running extremely slow, so I sudo'ed and emptied the /tmp directory. That might have been a mistake....

I have not located any log information that might indicate the problem, and how to correct it. I can login as root without a problem, can login using ssh (text mode) as any user without a problem.

I've tried refreshing the Xorg packages, to no avail.

Anyone have any ideas on what might be happening, where to look for errors, or how I can recover?

Thanks,
Larry

[tashirosgt]

Two general types of mis-configurations could cause this. There might be a file used by the gnome session which has the wrong permissions and this only lets root use it. Or the PATH for the ordinary user might be missing a directory it needs to find a command that is run when the session is opened. See what /var/log/Xorg.0.log says after a user fails to start an X session.

If you search with Google for the error message (in quotes) "session only lasted less than 10 seconds", you can find a lot of people with the same symptom, but the causes and cures vary widely.

[Mat]

try to restart runlevel 5.. guess you deleted tmp files which were still used/needed by X..

[LinuxLars]

Thanks for the responses. The problem seems to be defined in the /var/log/gdm/:0.log file:

Release Date: 18 December 2003
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.7
Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.21-14.ELsmp i686 [ELF]
Current Operating System: Linux rocky.casadelnorte.net 2.6.8-1.521 #1 Mon Aug 16 09:01:18 EDT 2004 i686
Build Date: 26 June 2004
Build Host: tweety.build.redhat.com

Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.X.Org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present
OS Kernel: Linux version 2.6.8-1.521 (bhcompile@tweety.build.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.3.3 20040412 (Red Hat Linux 3.3.3-7)) #1 Mon Aug 16 09:01:18 EDT 2004
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/Xorg.0.log", Time: Tue Sep 7 13:25:34 2004
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
FATAL: Module agpgart not found.
[drm] failed to load kernel module "agpgart"
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
AUDIT: Tue Sep 7 13:27:08 2004: 3493 X: client 5 rejected from local host
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
AUDIT: Tue Sep 7 13:30:52 2004: 3493 X: client 5 rejected from local host
AUDIT: Tue Sep 7 14:43:51 2004: 3493 X: client 19 rejected from local host
Auth name: MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ID: -1
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
AUDIT: Tue Sep 7 14:44:41 2004: 3493 X: client 5 rejected from local host
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
AUDIT: Tue Sep 7 14:45:58 2004: 3493 X: client 4 rejected from local host
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!

It does exist in the system in /dev with chmod 664 (-rw-r--r--). I've not changed that (and won't casually). I've created a test user account from root (both with the GUI and without), and the new user gets the same error message .

It's obviously related to this file - and a new user "should" have that automaticaly in the path (not the mention the several that were on this system working fine).

Googling does open a can of worms; most of the sites are non-Fedora so I get nervous about that.

I'm really quite stumped. Any ideas?

Thanks again!
Larry

[imdeemvp]

was this after a fresh installation? and if you continue having the same issue have consider re-installing? sometimes during installation you may get errors about some packages not installing and i dont know if this happened to you....

[LinuxLars]

No, this was nowhere near installation - I've been running FC2 for some time (since it was "officially" released). I did upgrade from a RH9, then FC1 installation, but everything (except Cyrus) worked fine. I really just emptied the /tmp directory, then logged out and back in, and voila. I've done that before without a problem (maybe I was lucky before, but I didn't think anything that was stored in /tmp that was required). Reinstallation might have to happen, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

[Mat]

as I said, try
% telinit 1
% telinit 5

[imdeemvp]

sometimes during upgrades there is many thing that can go wrong.....if not ask M$ about those hot fixes they ask you to install and then your pc starts acting a little funny.

i suggest doing a back up and do a fresh installation of fc2

[tashirosgt]

Did you try Mat's idea? (Of course if we are like most of the links on Google, the problem gets solved in some unknown fashion so we don't have the satisfaction of exactly what caused it. )

I don't think the device /dev/agpgart is a module. Try /lib/modules/..../kernel/drivers/char/agp/agpgart.o

[Shadow Skill]

I usually get this error when I accidentally uninstall gnome, try reinstalling your window manager.

As an aside why in the hell are you able to essentially uninstall critical parts of say gnome without any warnings etc. ? I usually end up doing it while trying to solve some dependency. (Usually a videolan library issue.)

[LinuxLars]

I've changed the runlevel to 1, 3 and 5, with no change in behavior.

When root is logged in as level 5 (with X window), lsmod does not display agpgart. Is that normal? Every user (even root in X window) has the same error in /var/log/gdm/:0.log - FATAL: Module agpgart not found.

The contents of lsmod for root in runlevel 5 in X window:

Module Size Used by
snd_mixer_oss 14017 0
snd 45477 1 snd_mixer_oss
soundcore 7713 1 snd
mga 102405 2
parport_pc 21249 1
lp 9133 0
parport 35977 2 parport_pc,lp
autofs4 20677 0
sunrpc 141861 1
md5 3905 1
ipv6 217349 44
ppp_synctty 8129 0
ppp_async 9153 1
crc_ccitt 1985 1 ppp_async
ppp_generic 31061 6 ppp_synctty,ppp_async
slhc 5825 1 ppp_generic
8139too 22465 0
mii 3777 1 8139too
iptable_filter 2369 1
ipt_MASQUERADE 2881 1
iptable_nat 19049 2 ipt_MASQUERADE
ip_conntrack 25569 2 ipt_MASQUERADE,iptable_nat
ip_tables 13889 3 iptable_filter,ipt_MASQUERADE,iptable_nat
floppy 54001 0
sg 28513 0
sd_mod 17473 0
st 30429 0
sr_mod 14309 0
ide_scsi 13513 0
scsi_mod 105360 5 sg,sd_mod,st,sr_mod,ide_scsi
dm_mod 47317 0
uhci_hcd 28505 0
button 4825 0
battery 7117 0
asus_acpi 9177 0
ac 3533 0
ext3 96937 2
jbd 66521 1 ext3

Thanks again.

[tashirosgt]

The major error in you log might be those messages about "client ... rejected from local host". I was reading the man on Xsecurity and noticed it mentions the MIT_ MAGIC_COOKIE. Do your users have a reasonable .Xauthority file in their home directories? I've never used the xauth command to look at it, but perhaps you can figure that out.

[LinuxLars]

VERY Close!!!! The users do NOT have an .Xauthority file (or .ICEauthority or .xauth) in their directories.

I added .ICEauthority, .Xauthority, and .xauth, logging in as a user (runlevel 3) and touching them.

On exiting and logging in as a user (runlevel 5), I get the following error message:

GDM could not write to your authorization file. This could mean that you are out of disk space or that your home directory could not be opened for writing. In any case, it is not possible to login. Please contact your system administrator.

(who of course will be scratching his head).

Good clues.... but....

[LinuxLars]

I also tried creating the .Xauthority file with mkxauth <username> -c with no change in behavior (except that I get the original error message - Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds - not the GDM error message).

[tashirosgt]

I curious what a user gets when he runs the command
xauth list
And what are the permissions on .Xauthority? On mine, they are rw for root.

(I wonder if that message about contacting the system administrator originates with Windows, or does it have a long, honorable Unix history?)