Could not update iceauthority file

[boomslang20117]

hi I'm running on ubuntu 9.10. After a restart I got the error Could not update iceauthority file /home/dntel/.iceauthority

followed by there is a problem with the configuration server. (/usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconf-sanity-check-2 exited with status 256

and then nautilus could not create the following required folders: /home/dntel/desktop, /home/dntel/.nautilus. Before running nautilus, please create these folders, or set permissions such that nautilus can create them.

[boomslang20117]

Btw chown doesn't work as the message was no such file or directory

[Craig Bakkala]

I too have just run into the exact same problem and cannot get ubuntu to boot!

I have already tried the following:
sudo chown craig:craig /home/craig/.ICEauthority
sudo chmod 600 /home/craig/.ICEauthority

and get the following error:
cannot access '/home/craig/.ICEauthority' :no such file or directory

[kamikaze.tnt]

As I've figured out, the problem here is the automatic login, so you just have to disable it.

Try this:
from root directory: sudo vi /etc/gmd/custom.conf
there you should see

[daemon]
TimedLoginEnable=false
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
TimedLogin=mazlik
AutomaticLogin=mazlik
TimedLoginDelay=30

and just change the "true" in the second row to "false"

this has just done the trick for me.. been struggling with this for about 2,5 hours..

[Craig Bakkala]

As I've figured out, the problem here is the automatic login, so you just have to disable it.

Try this:
from root directory: sudo vi /etc/gmd/custom.conf
there you should see

[daemon]
TimedLoginEnable=false
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
TimedLogin=mazlik
AutomaticLogin=mazlik
TimedLoginDelay=30

and just change the "true" in the second row to "false"

this has just done the trick for me.. been struggling with this for about 2,5 hours..

OK, I have tried this however after entering sudo vi /ect/gmd/custom.conf I get a screen with blue tildes all down the left side of the screen and "/ect/gdm/custom.conf" [New DIRECTORY] at the bottom.

notice that I changed the gdm. I believe that gmd may have been a typo. Please correct me if I'm wrong as I am a newbe and only using Ubuntu for a few days now.

I tend to agree that this has to do with the automatic login because I had just activated it prior to restarting.

[boomslang20117]

Yes that's what I got too

~
~
~
"/etc/gmc/custom.conf [new directory]

[Craig Bakkala]

Boomslang... I don't have enough time to post it right now but I did find a way to fix it just this morning. I promise to post what I did as soon as I get home from work this afternoon.

[boomslang20117]

Thanks that would be of great help

[Craig Bakkala]

Ok.. here is what I did.

boot into recovery mode

drop to root shell prompt

type:
login

you will get this prompt:
<name>-desktop login: enter you user account name
password: enter your password (NOTE: you will not see the characters that you type here)

at the next prompt type:
startx

This will log you into your normal user account. The Login Screen menu item will be accessable at this point but, it will not work.

in a terminal window enter this command:
sudo gedit

enter your password when prompted. This will open gedit with root permissions.

in gedit click open then under file system browse to /ect/gdm/custom.conf

you should see a file that looks like this:

[daemon]
TimedLoginEnable=false
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
TimedLogin=craig
AutomaticLogin=craig
TimedLoginDelay=30

simply change AutomaticLoginEnable=true to =false

shutdown as normal. this will drop you back into the recovery mode. Close out from that and restart. From there everything should be good.

Please let me know if this works for you too.

[boomslang20117]

I manage to edit it but sadly it didn't work for me. I still get the same error even though I'm manually logging in now