Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 10 SP2 - DEPLOYMENT GUIDE 08-05-2008 Deployment Manual page 835

2 Determine the directory server the machine relies on for authentication and make
sure that it is up and running and properly communicating with the other machines.
3 Determine that the user's username and password work on other machines to
make sure that his authentication data exists and is properly distributed.
4 See if another user can log in to the misbehaving machine. If another user can
log in without difficulty or if root can log in, log in and examine the /var/
log/messages file. Locate the time stamps that correspond to the login at-
tempts and determine if PAM has produced any error messages.
5 Try to log in from a console (using Ctrl + Alt + F1 ). If this is successful, the blame
cannot be put on PAM or the directory server on which the user's home is hosted,
because it is possible to authenticate this user on this machine. Try to locate any
problems with the X Window System or the desktop (GNOME or KDE). For
more information, refer to
Desktop Fails " (page 820) and
Desktop Fails" (page 821).
6 If the user's home directory has been used with another Linux distribution, remove
the Xauthority file in the user's home. Use a console login via Ctrl + Alt +
F1 and run rm .Xauthority as this user. This should eliminate X authentica-
tion problems for this user. Try a graphical login again.
7 If graphical login still fails, do a console login with Ctrl + Alt + F1 . Try to start
an X session on another display—the first one (:0) is already in use:
startx -- :1
This should bring up a graphical screen and your desktop. If it does not, check
the log files of the X Window System (/var/log/Xorg.displaynumber
.log) or the log file for your desktop applications (.xsession-errors in
the user's home directory) for any irregularities.
8 If the desktop could not start because of corrupt configuration files, proceed with
Section 46.4.3, "Login Successful but GNOME Desktop Fails "
Section 46.4.4, "Login Successful but KDE Desktop Fails"
Section 46.4.3, "Login Successful but GNOME
Section 46.4.4, "Login Successful but KDE
Common Problems and Their Solutions
(page 820) or
(page 821).
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