Hi,
for a while, I couldn't start XFree86 as a non-root user using startx.
The problem turned out to be an incomplete <console> entry in
/etc/security/console.perms.
It seems that [1] not only /etc/securetty, but also
/etc/security/console.perms needs to be informed about the /dev/vc/*
names of the virtual consoles. From the devfs FAQ:
--- /etc/security/console.perms.orig Sat Apr 17 16:26:47 1999
+++ /etc/security/console.perms Fri Feb 25 23:53:55 2000
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
# man 5 console.perms
# file classes -- these are regular expressions
-<console>=tty[0-9][0-9]* :[0-9]\.[0-9] :[0-9]
+<console>=tty[0-9][0-9]* [0-9][0-9]* :[0-9]\.[0-9] :[0-9]
# device classes -- these are shell-style globs
<floppy>=/dev/fd[0-1]*
For me, the important line has to be changed to
+<console>=tty[0-9][0-9]* vc/[0-9][0-9]* :[0-9]\.[0-9] :[0-9]
Otherwise if I startx as a non-root user, I get the message
Authentication failed - cannot start X server.
Perhaps you do not have console ownership?
And yes, this is with XFree86-4.0.1 which, according to the FAQ, should
not have such problems at all.
A second problem solved by the above change is that without it, the
RedHat feature (violently hated by some) of letting non-root users
logged in at the console shut the computer down using /usr/bin/shutdown
instead of /sbin/shutdown, does not work. It asks for the user's
password, but doesn't accept it. With the above change, it works.
[1] This may be due to version 2.10o of util-linux I am using, but I am
not sure if it has anything to do with util-linux.
--
Martin
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