Why do I receive .Xauthority file error messages?
When you open a new terminal session with X forwarding turned on (ssh -X ...),
the .Xauthority file in your home directory gets updated by the xauth program.
This file is used to keep X authentication keys in order to prevent unauthorized
connections to your local display.
Sometimes, the .Xauthority file cannot be updated due to the
temporary issues with the Lustre file system, where your home
directory is located, and you might experience an error message like:
/usr/bin/xauth: error in locking authority file ~/.Xauthority
/usr/bin/xauth: timeout in locking authority file ~/.Xauthority
In general, problems with your .Xauthority file should not prevent you from
logging in, but X11 forwarding will fail if you receive one of the error
messages above. In case of severe Lustre errors, the login might
also hang. To ensure that the login failure is caused by Lustre issues
(and not by specific issues of your user account or local system) you can
first check DKRZ system notifications or
system status monitor.
If the above does not apply, please provide the debug output of the
ssh command:
ssh -vvv -X <userid>@levante.dkrz.de
and information about your operating system to support@dkrz.de.
To clean up stale locks of .Xauthority file you can try the
following command:
xauth -b -f ~/.Xauthority
or simply rename the .Xauthority file if you think it might be
corrupted. A new .Xauthority file will automatically be created
on login.
