I did yum update the other day and it downloaded and installed a bunch of stuff, including a kernel. Didn't have time to reboot until today. today when I reboot, I get a message something like this during boot (from memory since it doesn't seem to be saved in dmesg anywhere):
CRITICAL unknown class console at line 23 in /etc/security/console.perms
and when the system finishes booting, only root can log in. X won't start, keeps erroring out because, well, I can't be sure. whenever I try to log in as myself it thinks for a few seconds then I get a blue screen saying there already seems to be a ":0" running, would I like to start ":1". If I say yes it tries to start another one and fails the same way.
here's an excerpt from /etc/security/console:
<mainboard>=/dev/apm_bios <pmu>=/dev/pmu <bluetooth>=/dev/rfcomm* <raw1394>=/dev/raw1394
# permission definitions <console> 0660 <floppy> 0660 root.floppy <===== line 23 <console> 0600 <sound> 0600 root <console> 0600 <cdrom> 0660 root.disk <console> 0600 <pilot> 0660 root.uucp <console> 0600 <jaz> 0660 root.disk
I cannot log in on a text console either, only root can. When I try it instantly returns to the login prompt. Sometimes I'll see a short message flash for a hundredth of a second that looks like it might be the same one approximated above.
I saw a series of messages from someone else saying he had to back out to the previous kernel, apparently because of a NVIDIA driver issue, so I tried that and it made no difference. He also suggested adding "pci=noacpi pci=biosirq" to the grub boot command, but the thing wouldn't even boot when I tried that. so, this must be some other problem.
This is centos-4 32-bit xi6 on an Athlon XP 2600+, Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 motherboard that has been running either Tao or Centos for 2 1/2 years.
Advice would be appreciated!
Fred