Saturday, June 4, 2011

Troubleshooting: Could not update .ICEauthority file

Here is the error message that might encounter duing gnome desktop startup. 
Could not update .ICEauthority file 
/var/lib/gdm3/.ICEauthority
I have resolved this problem by simply removing that file and let gdm3 daemon re-create it. The commands below must be executed with root privileges. 
/etc/init.d/gdm3 stop
rm /var/lib/gdm3/.ICEauthority*
/etc/init.d/gdm3 start
Note, restarting gdm not helps all the time, so try reboot computer instead.
Posted by Andriy Kornatskyy at 8:00 PM
Labels: ,

17 comments :

  1. AnonymousDecember 11, 2011 at 8:17 PM

    I tried that to no avail. finally, I just reinstall, and that did the trick.

    sudo apt-get install --reinstall gdm3

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 12, 2011 at 11:55 AM

    Try reboot computer (instead of starting gnome)... gdm3 reinstall seems a long way...

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2012 at 5:59 PM

    Thanks a lot!
    Save me a big headache.
    Allan

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 26, 2012 at 9:25 PM

    Thanks for this, just hit this problem in Debian 6 stable. I tried reinstalling to no avail, but deleting the .ICEauthority* files as described worked perfectly.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMarch 1, 2012 at 3:51 AM

    saved me too, bigtime...
    in my case had to remove gdm.

    sudo apt-get remove gdm

    sudo apt-get install gdm

    answer gdm to the gdm/kde default desktop manager question.

    Reboot. starnge thing is it came up as KDE Plasma Desktop, but it's working and I'm a happy guy.
    No more .ICEauthority error upon login.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Andriy KornatskyyMarch 1, 2012 at 4:38 PM

    This issue happens pretty often... however I have never removed gdm, just simple file removal per post. Note, that restarting gdm not helps all the time, so try reboot computer instead.

    ReplyDelete
  7. MichaelMarch 10, 2012 at 3:11 PM

    Thanks! Saved me grief, headache and pain.
    Followed your post to the letter and it worked on my Linux Mint LMDE box.

    //Michael.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJune 6, 2012 at 7:42 PM

    gracias me saco de apuros!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousJuly 21, 2012 at 9:40 PM

    shared knowledge is the key! thanks

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousNovember 22, 2012 at 3:34 PM

    I tried to do that but there was no file .ICEauthority in the /var/lib/gdm3/ directory. The directory is totally empty. Any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andriy KornatskyyNovember 22, 2012 at 3:45 PM

      Note, that file is `hidden`. Try ls -lha /var/lib/gdm3/ as root since regular user might have no permission.

      Delete
  11. AnonymousJanuary 1, 2013 at 11:15 PM

    Sufficed Just That: "rm /var/lib/gdm3/.ICEauthority*.".

    Muito obrigado!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2013 at 4:46 PM

    Thanks mate, that was really helpful! Worked for me ;)

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousAugust 25, 2014 at 4:38 PM

    Wow my debian just died at the end of my master thesis. Your fix saved my life! I had no time to reinstall!

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousNovember 19, 2014 at 12:22 PM

    merci pour votre aide

    ReplyDelete
  15. UnknownDecember 3, 2015 at 8:55 AM

    Thank you it works f9....

    ReplyDelete
  16. JLJune 23, 2017 at 4:29 AM

    thanks a lot it was very usefull

    ReplyDelete

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