[Wylug-help] Strange Xorg - Ubuntu Breezy

[Geoff Richards]

On Sat, Jul 16, 2005 at 08:08:47PM +0100, Dave Fisher wrote:
> I've just 'upgraded' one box to Breezy (i.e. Ubuntu's 'unstable'
> release) in order to take a look at the developing schooltool package,
> and run into a strange situation.
> 
> X is broken, but it's the error message thrown up that has me puzzled.
> 
> I can't cut 'n' paste it, but the gist of it is:
> 
>   "can't read symbolic link /etc/X11/X, invalid argument"

That file is normally a symlink to the X server binary.  E.g., on
my Debian unstable box:

$ ls -l /etc/X11/X
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 20 2003-02-27 19:53 /etc/X11/X -> /usr/bin/X11/XFree86

If something is complaining about it not being a symlink then it must
be trying to be 'clever' in the way it finds the executable, rather than
just running it.  Maybe.  I don't know what to suggest.  Perhaps moving
it to a different filename and putting that symlink in would help.

Obviously be careful not to delete either that binary or any other X
servers binaries you have lying around.

I expect some sort of configuration thing is responsible for creating
the symlink, so it sounds like a packaging mistake.  Or something that
Xorg does differently, and there's an older incompatible bit of software
lying around?

> The strange thing is that /etc/X11/X is definitely _not_ a symbolic
> link.  
> 
> It has an ordinary file's permission bits, and it's 1.7M, which
> is pretty damn big for a symlink.  
> 
> A quick look inside it with vim, further suggests that it is an ordinary
> ELF binary.
> 
> Anyone know what's going on, or can hazard a guess?
> 
> Could this just be a packager's cock-up? (e.g. dereferencing the link?) 
> 
> The /etc/X11/X file is very nearly as big as the Xorg binary in
> /usr/X11R6/bin
> 
> Dave
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 

--- Geoff Richards -------------><-------------- http://ungwe.org/ ---
"I tried to fling my shadow at the moon,
 The while my blood leapt with a wordless song."  --  Theodore Roethke