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Re: Can not Login from console

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On Monday, 10 September 2001 21:24:13 UTC+2, Xiaoqin Qiu  wrote:
> Hi Skylar,
> 
> Thank you very much for your information. I agree that the problem sounded
> like an X-related problem.
> I checked ~/.xsession-errors file, and I found the following error for the
> user that couldn't login:
> 
> /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession: XKB_IN_USE: unbound variable
> logout
> 
> Any idea about this error? I am using gdm-2.0beta2-45 rpm on this RedHat 7.1
> machine. And this user doesn't have ~/.xsession or ~/.Xclients directory.
> 
> Thanks again for your help!
> 
> Xiaoqin
> 
> Skylar Thompson wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, 5 Sep 2001, Xiaoqin Qiu wrote:
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > > The behavior is that they typed in login and password, and the system
> > > tried to log them in, after a while, the login window showed up again
> > > with no error message. In the system log file, there is no error message
> > > either. Just open session and close session for the user. And this login
> > > problem didn't happen very consistently. It happened in most cases we
> > > tried.
> > >
> > > On the other hand, the user account we created locally on the box can
> > > login without any problem.
> >
> > This sounds like an X-related problem. Is there anything in
> > /var/log/xdm-errors or /var/log/XFree86.log? Another thing you might try
> > is loggin in on the console using a user who can't log into X, and then do
> > "Xwrapper <localhost> >& X.log" (with localhost replaced by whatever the
> > hostname of the localhost is). After the X server dies, look at X.log for
> > details on the error, and post it if you still can't solve it. HTH. HAND.
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > --
> > -- Skylar Thompson (<e-mail removed>)
> >
> > P(4.2.2) + "Skylar DXLIX" DMPo L:36 DL:2500' A++ R+++ Sp w:Stormbringer
> > A(JLE)*/P*/Z/J64/Ad L/O H+ D+ c f-/f PV+ s TT- d++/d+ P++ M/M+
> > C- S++ I+/I++ So B+ ac GHB++ SQ++ RQ+ V+ F:JLE F: Possessors strong again

Hi All, and sorry for answering to a thread that's more than a decennium old.

OK, 
So this thread is extremely old (in Internet Terms), however since I did not find the problem solved in this thread, and I encountered the exact same problem (.xsession-errors file holds error indication "XKB_IN_USE: unbound variable"), which caused me to search and find this thread, I post this solution anyway.

The error XKB_IN_USE: unbound variable prevented me effectively from logging in (as a specific user) through the graphical user interface.
The problem is that the X-session startup script (/etc/X11/xdm/Xsession in the quoted case) is "dirty" in so far that it uses an environment variable that is not defined 
(it's even a bit trickier than that: the environment variable (in my case) is used in a test to check whether the variable is defined <ironic>: [ -z "$XKB_IN_USE" ]).
The error causes the Xsession script to terminate (preventing the X-login to continue).  The origin is that "somewhere" in the system-activation threads there is a setting activated that treats undefined environment variable expansion as an error (The instruction is    "set -u").

Solutions vary:
* change the user's profile and add "set +u" at the head,
* change /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession and prepend the (first) XKB_IN_USE holding line by the instruction "set +u"
* look for the culprit "set -u" instruction (in my case this was in my personal ~/.profile file).

grts.
d

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Re: Can not Login from console ddemerre@gmail.com - 2014-01-09 11:26 -0800
  Re: Can not Login from console Jerry Peters <jerry@example.invalid> - 2014-01-09 21:02 +0000

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