[FreeNX-kNX] /tmp/.X11-unix problems with nx-3.0.0 and freenx-0.7.1

[Akemi Yagi]

On Sat, 27 Oct 2007 09:38:10 -0500, Johnny Hughes wrote:

> OK, here is the scenario:
> 
> Server in runlevel 3 and rebooted, so it has no /tmp/.X11-unix directory. 
> Using either RHEL4, RHEL5, CentOS-4 or CentOS-5.
> 
> (as a side note, if X has ever been started by a normal user via startx
> _OR_ if shifted to run level 5, /tmp/.X11-unix exists)
> 
> When connecting to KDE in that scenario, there is no /tmp/.X11-unix
> directory and there is a considerable delay in starting KDE.  The file
> that is normally in /tmp/.X11-unix for a session (X1000) does not get
> created anywhere that I can find and other things in KDE after startup can
> sometimes take much longer.
> 
> If I manually create the directory /tmp/.X11-unix (owned by root.root with
> 1777 permissions) everything works OK when logging in.
> 
> If I the owner of the /tmp/.X11-unix is anyone other that root (the group
> does not seem important if the perms are 1777) then the directory is
> ignored and it is as if it does not exist.
> 
> Now to my question.
> 
> Should nxnode create /tmp/.X11-unix with owner root and permissions 1777
>  if that directory does not exist?  If it should, how would one create
> that directory with the owner root?
> 
> As stated before, this is only an issue if the server is started in
> runlevel 3 (which is at the commandline with no X).
> 
> As a temporary work around, I have just added a command to properly create
> the directory in /tmp/ on startup in rc.sysinit (just like ICE-unix) but
> what I am wondering is where this scenario should correctly be handled.
> 
> When running xinit (startX calls that) the directory /tmp/.X11-unix is
> properly created, so this is only a problem for (at least for me) when
> trying connect to the server with X not running using NX.
> 
> Thanks,
> Johnny Hughes

This is indeed an issue that needs to be resolved.  I install all my
servers with runlevel 3.  When I upgraded NX from 2.x to 3.0, NX became
almost useless to me because not only it took many minutes just to
initiate a session but, in KDE, some things were broken.  For example,
konsole, when started from a Desktop icon, produced an error and I could
not refresh the Desktop while it was running.  gnome seemed to be less
problematic compared to KDE.

I had been scratching my head until I eventually saw what was described by
Johnny Hughes in his post.  Manually creating the /tmp/.X11-unix directory
was the solution and I have since added this to the boot process. 

It would be great if someone comes up with a fix for this problem that may
potentially cause a headache to other users.

Akemi Yagi