what's the XFree86.0.log

snowpony · 05-23-03, 02:38 AM

last week ,I downladed and installed the 1.0-4363 successfully,and the graphic circumstance was perfect.But today,maybe because of my mistake,it shows that there is a fatal problem that it can not open the XFree86.0.log after I inputing startx.
would someone tell me what the problem is and how to work it out? thanks a lot!

leibold · 05-23-03, 04:26 AM

Are you running "startx" from different user accounts ? The XFree86.0.log is where the X server writes a lot of important information during startup as well as any errors while running. It is usually located in the /var/log directory. You may want to check the permissions on the directory /var/log as well as those on the XFree86.0.log file if it is already present:

ls -ld /var/log
ls -l /var/log/XFree86.0.log

snowpony · 05-23-03, 08:29 AM

I did not run "startx" from a different account,and the permission was not unexpected,what's the matter?

bwkaz · 05-23-03, 05:13 PM

What are the permissions? Which user were you running startx as?

Make sure that file /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86 says something about "setuid executable", too, and make sure that root owns it.

And the exact error would be a lot more helpful, too. Copy and paste it (or do a startx >log.txt 2>&1 to save it to the log.txt file).

snowpony · 05-23-03, 10:57 PM

I am a novice to linux,so I don't know how to paste the log from linux OS to Windows,because the permission of /mnt is readonly and I couldn't chmod it.after I running startx,the error information is:
"hostname:Host name lookup failure
Fatal server error
cannot open log file "/var/log/XFree86.0.log"
xinit: No such file or directory (errno 2):unable to connect to X server.
xinit: No such process (errno 3):server error "

I ran startx as the root. the permission of /var/log is drwxr-xr-x ,
/var/log/XFree86.0.log : -rw-r----- ;and the permission of /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree : -rwxr-xr-x .
I don't know what the problem is.please help me!!

bwkaz · 05-24-03, 08:51 AM

You're running NTFS on your Windows drive, then, right? If so, you won't be able to make it writable -- Microsoft changes the filesystem format too often for the drivers to be stable enough that you won't run the risk of hosing your entire Windows partition if you enable write support.

Anyway, if those are the permissions (and not -rwsr-xr-x instead), then it's probably that your XFree86 binary needs to be installed suid root so that it can use your hardware correctly (not to mention so that it can write to /var/log). Either that, or it needs to be run as root, from xdm or gdm or kdm, but it sounds like you don't want to use those. So try (as root) doing a chmod u+s /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86 and see if that helps.

snowpony · 05-24-03, 09:38 PM

to bwkaz:
thank you!
I tried what you told me,but it didn't work.I am very depressed.Maybe I should install the OS again.

bwkaz · 05-24-03, 09:47 PM

It's still complaining, with the same error, then?

Are you sure that root owns the XFree86 binary? (the owner is listed in the ls -l output)

Do you have an entry in /etc/hosts for your machine? (I noticed a "hostname lookup failure" earlier, this can cause issues, but probably not this kind of issue) It should look like www.xxx.yyy.zzz hostname aliases, where you replace www.xxx.yyy.zzz with your IP address, and "hostname" and "aliases" with your hostname and aliases. For example, my /etc/hosts looks like:

Quote:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.2.254 beta.localdomain beta

Since my hostname is "beta", and 192.168.2.254 is my IP address. You should also have the 127 (loopback) address in there.

05-23-03, 02:38 AM	#1
snowpony Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 4	what's the XFree86.0.log last week ,I downladed and installed the 1.0-4363 successfully,and the graphic circumstance was perfect.But today,maybe because of my mistake,it shows that there is a fatal problem that it can not open the XFree86.0.log after I inputing startx. would someone tell me what the problem is and how to work it out? thanks a lot!

05-23-03, 05:13 PM	#4
bwkaz Registered User Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 2,262	What are the permissions? Which user were you running startx as? Make sure that file /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86 says something about "setuid executable", too, and make sure that root owns it. And the exact error would be a lot more helpful, too. Copy and paste it (or do a startx >log.txt 2>&1 to save it to the log.txt file). __________________ Registered Linux User #219692

05-24-03, 08:51 AM	#6
bwkaz Registered User Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 2,262	You're running NTFS on your Windows drive, then, right? If so, you won't be able to make it writable -- Microsoft changes the filesystem format too often for the drivers to be stable enough that you won't run the risk of hosing your entire Windows partition if you enable write support. Anyway, if those are the permissions (and not -rwsr-xr-x instead), then it's probably that your XFree86 binary needs to be installed suid root so that it can use your hardware correctly (not to mention so that it can write to /var/log). Either that, or it needs to be run as root, from xdm or gdm or kdm, but it sounds like you don't want to use those. So try (as root) doing a chmod u+s /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86 and see if that helps. __________________ Registered Linux User #219692

05-23-03, 04:26 AM	#2
leibold Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 66	Are you running "startx" from different user accounts ? The XFree86.0.log is where the X server writes a lot of important information during startup as well as any errors while running. It is usually located in the /var/log directory. You may want to check the permissions on the directory /var/log as well as those on the XFree86.0.log file if it is already present: ls -ld /var/log ls -l /var/log/XFree86.0.log

05-23-03, 08:29 AM	#3
snowpony Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 4	I did not run "startx" from a different account,and the permission was not unexpected,what's the matter?

05-23-03, 10:57 PM	#5
snowpony Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 4	I am a novice to linux,so I don't know how to paste the log from linux OS to Windows,because the permission of /mnt is readonly and I couldn't chmod it.after I running startx,the error information is: "hostname:Host name lookup failure Fatal server error cannot open log file "/var/log/XFree86.0.log" xinit: No such file or directory (errno 2):unable to connect to X server. xinit: No such process (errno 3):server error " I ran startx as the root. the permission of /var/log is drwxr-xr-x , /var/log/XFree86.0.log : -rw-r----- ;and the permission of /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree : -rwxr-xr-x . I don't know what the problem is.please help me!!

05-24-03, 09:38 PM	#7
snowpony Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 4	to bwkaz: thank you! I tried what you told me,but it didn't work.I am very depressed.Maybe I should install the OS again.