Error: Could not update ICEauthority file /var/lib/gdm/.ICEauthority

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 Service Pack 1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1

Situation

Error: "Could not update ICEauthority file /var/lib/gdm/.ICEauthority" immediately following a new installation.

Resolution

There are two known causes for this error:

AutoYaST deployments (but does not happen every time)
Including the pulseaudio-gdm-hooks package in the installation

Resolution for the error is to correct the permissions on the directory /var/lib/gdm:

chown gdm:gdm /var/lib/gdm

The correct permissions/ownership settings should then look like:

localhost:~ # ls -ld /var/lib/gdm/
drwxr-x--- 11 gdm gdm 4096 2010-08-12 17:42 /var/lib/gdm/

Additional Information

The AutoYaST XML file contains entries for the user gdm and sabayon-admin. As those users are created during RPM installation it is safe to delete them from the XML file. To avoid such situations it should be considered not to clone system users but have them get created by their respective RPMs.

Bug submitted to add %attr(0750, gdm, gdm) to the /var/lib/gdm line in the pulseaudio-gdm-hooks spec file.

Disclaimer

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