Observations on problem "kdm_greet memory corruption, /dev/null perm denied"

[ruedihofer]

Hi

I had put this post in the ubuntu forums, but I think it is more adequate to put it here since its kdm related..

After an updating my Dapper Drake to the latest packages (kde 3.5.4, kernel vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-k7) I can't start kde anymore (AMD K7 with Nvidia Geforce2 MX400). In my syslog I see the following error messages:
Aug 4 21:05:05 localhost kdm_greet[8949]: Can't open default user face
Aug 4 21:05:25 localhost kdm_greet[8949]: Internal error: memory corruption detected

Since I thought the problem was kdm related, I renamed /etc/kde3/kdm to something else and restarted kdm. I logged in and kde started up but showed only a xterm with error messages:
/dev/null permission denied

I chmod /dev/null to 777 and tried again. (Who had changed the permission of /dev/null to 400?) Anyway, I restarted kdm again and a xterm without decoration started up. From there I was able to start kicker, konqueror, kate... but all without decoration.

What I definitely can't start is the 'Appearance' part of the Kontrol Center. (There I was looking on how to enable the decorations.)

Has someone observed the same behaviour? I need further help on how to start the Windows Manager so that it shows the decorations!

Thank you!

[a_l_a_n]

Re: Observations on problem "kdm_greet memory corruption, /dev/null perm denied"

Ouch.

I just thought Id say that I too have the greeter error

kdm_greet[6189]: Internal error: memory corruption detected

but that its never had an observable consequences for me. Perhaps that means you can rule it out of consideration in your investigation.

Godd luck.