Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 10 SP2 - INSTALLATION AND ADMINISTRATION Installation Manual page 947

2 Log in as root and check /var/log/messages for error messages of the
login process and of PAM.
3 Try to log in from a console (using Ctrl + Alt + F1 ). If this is successful, the blame
cannot be put on PAM, 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 Section 51.4.3, "Login Suc-
cessful but GNOME Desktop Fails " (page 931) and Section 51.4.4, "Login Suc-
cessful but KDE Desktop Fails" (page 932).
4 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.
5 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.
6 If the desktop could not start because of corrupt configuration files, proceed with
Section 51.4.3, "Login Successful but GNOME Desktop Fails " (page 931) or
Section 51.4.4, "Login Successful but KDE Desktop Fails" (page 932).
The following are some common reasons why network authentication for a particular
user might fail on a specific machine:
• The user might have entered the wrong password.
• The username exists in the machine's local authentication files and is also provided
by a network authentication system, causing conflicts.
• The home directory exists but is corrupt or unavailable. Perhaps it is write protected
or is on a server that is inaccessible at the moment.
Common Problems and Their Solutions 929