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Bug 135787 - fails without error when /tmp is not writable
fails without error when /tmp is not writable
Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE
Product: gnome-session
Classification: Core
Component: general
unspecified
Other Linux
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: Session Maintainers
Session Maintainers
Depends on:
Blocks: 158284
 
 
Reported: 2004-02-29 21:59 UTC by Sebastien Bacher
Modified: 2014-12-15 21:12 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: 2.9/2.10


Description Sebastien Bacher 2004-02-29 21:59:56 UTC 
This bug was originally reported in the debian BTS :
http://bugs.debian.org/169201

"When /tmp is not writable, GDM will fail to start a login session in a
bogus way. It will directly come back to the same screen without any error
indication.

I think it's important to tell about it, because otherwise hunting down the
problem can be a nightmare."
Comment 1 George Lebl 2004-05-28 20:22:31 UTC 
from the comments on the debian BTS and from my testing this is an issue with
gnome-session.  It is somewhat concievable that for a special purpose
application one might not have writable /tmp for the user.  In any case it
should be gnome-session that complains, it is still possible to log in with the
failsafe terminal session
Comment 2 Vincent Untz 2007-05-09 20:21:09 UTC 
What is failing when /tmp is not writable? Does gnome-session just return?
Comment 3 Kjartan Maraas 2007-10-03 11:48:27 UTC 
Did chmod a-w on /tmp and got this:

gdm pops up an error dialog:

_("GDM could not write to your authorization "
  "file.  This could mean that you are out of "
  "disk space or that your home directory could "
  "not be opened for writing.  In any case, it "
  "is not possible to log in.  Please contact "
  "your system administrator"));

Which is bogus in any case since it's trying to write to /tmp, not the users home directory.

Maybe a good next step would be to make /tmp only writable by root and see what breaks next?
Comment 4 Kjartan Maraas 2007-10-03 11:49:03 UTC 
this is from slave.c::gdm_slave_session_start() btw
Comment 5 Ray Strode [halfline] 2014-12-15 21:12:40 UTC 
not sure if this was supposed to be a GDM bug or gnome-session bug initially. either way it references obsolete code.