[X2Go-User] X authorization issues

[Michael DePaulo]

On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 7:41 PM, Mihai Moldovan <ionic at ionic.de> wrote:
> On 10.04.2015 12:53 AM, Michael DePaulo wrote:
>> This brings up an issue with our documentation though. We should
>> document (probably on our wiki) that a user's .bashrc / .profile /
>> .bash_profile file can interfere with X2Go. Perhaps we should update
>> the error message in x2goclient also.
>
> Well... this coin has two sides, as always.
>
> X2Go Server's Xsession script sources ${HOME}/.profile. The "default"
> Xsession script provided in Debian as /etc/X11/Xsession does not. On the
> other hand, GDM, LightDM and other login managers would have been
> running into the same problem and not been able to start any desktop
> environment, because they all also source ~/.profile.
>
> Doing questionable stuff in ~/.*profile or ~/.*rc will always lead to
> problems. But putting that on the wiki is like adding "Deleting
> /etc/passwd might cause problems with X2Go" there. It sure will - but
> that's not an insulated X2Go problem.
>
> Mihai
>

Most beginner Linux sysadmins know that bad things will happen if you
delete /etc/passwd. Very few beginner Linux sysadmins know that your
desktop environment might not start if you have weird syntax in
~/.*profile or ~/.*rc . A moderately skilled Linux sysadmin who rarely
uses a GUI is unlikely to know about this also.

So I think we should document it somewhere on the wiki, perhaps under
a troubleshooting section.

Also, a more helpful error message might still be worth implementing.

-Mike#2