redhat 7.3 xauthority problem

[michael shiloh <michael michaelshiloh com>]

hi,

i've searched the archives of this and other related
lists, and the web in general, but i have yet to see
a description of this problem. i wonder if it's due
to some combination of what packages i chose to install
when installing redhat 7.3 on my sony vaio pcg-z505js.

i've had rh 7.1 running on my laptop for well over a year,
with no occurrence of the problem described below. 

i decided today to install 7.3.  as i have no critical data
on my laptop, i just did a fresh install from CDs, erasing
all data on my laptop. following the install i configured
for the redhat network and ran up2date, picking up a new
kernel.

most everything seems to work fine,  i log in, start up x,
and run applications, opening and closing xwindows with wild
abandon.


but every so often the system seems to forget how to get x
authority. the symptoms are that opening any X application
gives:

  Error: Can't open display: :0.0
  Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
  Xlib: No protocol specified

at this point i can't open any new X applications. any
existing x sessions continue to run fine. 

a reboot restores things to normal, until it forgets again.

i haven't yet been able to identify a sequence of events
which cause this problem. the last time this happened i was
downloading an rpm using netscape. it's possible this
started when the download progress window would pop up, but
i'm not 100% sure.

my .Xauthority file exists, seems to have a valid key (as
near as i can tell, using xauth to read it), and has read
permission by me.

any ideas?

thanks in advance,
michael shiloh