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Peter.O
Asked: 2010-11-01 01:08:03 +0800 CST

What does this startup dialog message mean "Could not update ICEauthority file"

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I restarted Ubuntu a few minutes ago, and got a warning dialog early in the bootup process (before the desktop was up)...

It wasn't just a scrolling message which flitted off the screen of its own accord.
It was a dialog which stopped proceedings, until I acknowledged it. 

Could not update ICEauthority file /home/me/.ICEauthority

What, Why, and Who dun it? :)

boot permissions dialog

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Your .ICEauthority file probably isn't owned by your user (maybe because you ran something as root/with 'sudo' that has overwritten it). You can check this by running (in a terminal):

    ls -l /home/you/.ICEauthority

    If it says something other than

    -rw------- 1 you you ...

    you need to make it owned by your user again:

    sudo chown you:you /home/you/.ICEauthority

    maybe you also need to correct permissions:

    chmod 600 /home/you/.ICEauthority

    To avoid such problems, don't run X applications with 'sudo' - use graphical sudo instead (addendum by Murat Gunes).

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