Cannot open shared object file errors preventing boot up

[Rick Stevens]

Bob McClure Jr wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 10, 2004 at 04:04:31PM +1000, Graeme Nichols wrote:
> 
>>
>>Rick Stevens wrote:
>>
>>>Graeme Nichols wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hello Folks, I don't know if I have been hacked or have simply managed 
>>>>to corrupt something but I cannot start any apps. and cannot really 
>>>>boot the system.
>>>>
>>>>The errors I am receiving all say 'error while loading shared library 
>>>><some library: cannot open shared object file: no such file or directory"
>>>>
>>>>While trying to boot the first error encountered says: "Starting xfs: 
>>>>xfs: error while loading shared library libXfont.so.1: cannot open 
>>>>shared object file: no such file or directory."
>>>>
>>>>The when the graphical login screen is trying to load I get the error 
>>>>"Id X respawning too fast. Disaabled for 5 minutes"
>>>>
>>>>If I manage to boot into run level 3 then try to run 'startx' I get 
>>>>about 6 lines of errors similar to the following: " Xauth: error while 
>>>>loading shared libraries: libXmuu.so.1; cannot open shared etc. etc. 
>>>>No such file or directory"
>>>>
>>>>I was running mrtg at the time and it failed with the same type of error.
>>>>
>>>>The only other thing I was doing at the time was installing epiphany 
>>>>using the package manager, which finished normally but epiphany would 
>>>>not run. Said it was starting but it bombed out. Trying to start it 
>>>
>>>>from a terminal resulted in a similar error to all the above.
>>>
>>>>Help Please... I'm sending this from Win 98, not good.
>>>
>>>
>>>Some of your X environment got stomped on.  Boot up in run level 3 or
>>>single user mode, dig up your CDs and run
>>>
>>>   rpm -Uvh --force XFree86-devel*.rpm
>>>
>>>Hopefully that should fix it unless other bits got munched, too.
>>
>>Hi Rick, thanks. re-installed all the xorg-X11* rpms on the 4 FC2 CDs. 
>>This had an impact in that 'startx' tries to do things now but 
>>eventually bombs out on the 'unix/7100' (or something) font path and 
>>then 'cannot load 'fixed' fonts' I've googled around but cannot find any 
>>answers yet.
>>
>>Have you any further ideas on what may be happening now and how I can 
>>work out just where this font path refers to?
>>
>>-- 
>>
>>Kind regards,
>>Graeme Nichols.
> 
> 
> It'll be another nine hours before Rick comes on-line, so I'll take a
> shot at this.  (Don't ask why I'm up this late.)
> 
> Your symptoms indicate your X font server is not running.  As root,
> run
> 
>   service xfs status
> 
> You should get something like
> 
> xfs (pid 1032) is running...
> 
> If not, run
> 
>   service xfs start
> 
> That gets it starting right now.  If that comes up ok, run
> 
>   chkconfig --list xfs
> 
> You should get something like
> 
> xfs             0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
> 
> If not, run
> 
>   chkconfig xfs on
> 
> That makes it come on next time you boot.  If it won't come up and
> stay up, look in /var/log/messages for clues.

That's exactly right.  xfs must be running.  Many people turn it off
thinking it's a security risk, but it's not as it only runs on Unix
sockets.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-              Where there's a will, I want to be in it.             -
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