Timeout in locking /.Xauthority

Question

I have google searched and everyone who has this problem has an error in locking /home/user/.Xauthority. The issue is that it is trying to lock /.Xauthority. Obviously there is no .Xauthority in /, and even if there was it would not be accessible to a user. This problem is only occuring with one user, all other users work fine. What should I check? Here's what happens:

[root@box dir]# ssh USER@HOST
USER@HOSTS's password: 
Last login: Thu Jul 25 10:09:19 2013 from OTHER_HOST
(30 sec later)
/usr/bin/xauth:  timeout in locking authority file /.Xauthority

Check out [this similar question](http://unix.stackexchange.com/q/215558/22734) on the Unix Stack Exchange — Brad Parks, Sep 17 '16 at 00:32

Michael Hampton · Answer 1 · 2020-09-04T00:17:41.443

0

Check that your user actually has a valid home directory, which exists and is accessible by that user. This error indicates that the user's home directory is set to /, which is not going to be valid.

edited Sep 04 '20 at 00:17

answered Jul 25 '13 at 14:18

Michael Hampton

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Yes the user has a valid home directory. – network-tech Jul 25 '13 at 14:20
I can't even do a normal ssh into there without X11 forwarding. It connects and just closes. – network-tech Jul 25 '13 at 14:31
My contexts and perms on my home dir are the same as other users who can login (different name of course) – network-tech Jul 25 '13 at 14:31

Timeout in locking /.Xauthority

1 Answers1