Cannot open shared object file errors preventing boot up

[Bob McClure Jr]

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.

Cheers,
-- 
Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
robertmcclure at earthlink.net  http://www.bobcatos.com
Grace happens.