Ticket #70 (closed Defect: fixed)

Opened 4 months ago

Last modified 4 months ago

error in locking authority file ~/.Xauthority

Reported by: Jan-Nik Assigned to: Jan-Nik
Priority: Low Milestone: 1.2.5
Component: main Version: 1.2.4
Severity: Minor Keywords:
Cc:

Description

On some Ubuntu machines this error appears (with DEBUG_LEVEL=3) and the installation of the support code freezes. 

/usr/bin/xauth:  error in locking authority file ~/.Xauthority
could not run xauth, pclose != 0: No such file or directory

Comment of the TODO file: "Apparently running xauth from the shell gives the same error. Running the package through sudo works fine."

The patch i submitted to the mailing list is not a good idea because deleting the file sometimes breaks your X session so that you can't open any new windows at all.

Mailing list discussion

Attachments

xauth.patch (5.9 kB) - added by Jan-Nik on 04/01/08 16:26:42.
continue as normal user if load_xauth fails

Change History

04/01/08 16:24:54 changed by Jan-Nik

  • status changed from new to assigned.
  • owner changed from taj to Jan-Nik.
  • severity changed from Blocker to Minor.

Okay, here's a new patch, which does the following: If xauth fails, it no longer freezes the installation. Instead it continues to install, but as a normal use (which should work fine). (It's the same as if an error occurred in su_needs_password)

I changed severity to "Minor", because now it no longer blocks anyone from using autopackage at all, only from installing it as root.

04/01/08 16:26:42 changed by Jan-Nik

  • attachment xauth.patch added.

continue as normal user if load_xauth fails

04/01/08 16:28:12 changed by Jan-Nik

  • priority changed from Medium to Low.
  • milestone changed from 1.2.5 to None.

04/04/08 02:17:20 changed by isak

Hmm, what are the implications of continuing if xauth fails? I bet there was a reason we aborted there.

04/04/08 10:14:31 changed by Jan-Nik

I searched for "xauth" and it seems that it's only used inside autosu.c. The "child_command" variable (which will be NULL if xauth fails) is also only used inside autosu-gtk.c/autosu-tui.c. So there should be no problems, except that you can't install anything as root.

I changed the permissions for my xauth file: chmod 000 ~/.Xauthority and a package installed the patched support code and all went right (after the warnings and of course only as user).

04/04/08 10:16:25 changed by Jan-Nik

Ups, I'm sorry: xauth is also used inside autosu-helper.c. I will have a look at it.

04/04/08 10:57:34 changed by Jan-Nik

Okay, autosu-helper is only used in autosu.c and there it would be executed AFTER load_xauth. So there should be no problems if xauth fails.

04/06/08 14:59:25 changed by isak

  • status changed from assigned to closed.
  • resolution set to fixed.
  • milestone changed from None to 1.2.5.

Patch applied in r2434