[CentOS] URGENT: libdvdcss install hosed /var

Thu Dec 11 19:19:55 UTC 2008
Robert Nichols <rnicholsNOSPAM at comcast.net>

MHR wrote:
> I am running CentOS 5/2 (latest updates) with the GNOME DE on a 32-bit
> machine (at work).
> 
> I have k3b installed, and I was trying to copy a DVD earlier this
> morning, but k3b said it couldn't read encrypted DVDs.
> 
> So, I installed libdvdcss from rpmforge and restarted k3b.  It hung
> the system.  I rebooted, and / had been damaged.  After running e2fsck
> from the repair prompt, I rebooted and a whole slew of errors
> revolving around various /var directories that did not ecist occurred.
> 
> I have been trying to repair /var, and so far with a fair modicum of
> success, but I've hit an interesting wall - two, actually.
> 
> 1) The gdm refuses to come up.  It claims that "Server Authorization
> directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm, but this does not
> exist...."
> 
> However:
> 
> # ll -d /var/gdm
> drwxrwx--T 2 root gdm 4096 Dec 11 10:31 /var/gdm
> # ll /var/gdm
> total 8
> -rw-r----- 1 root root 45 Nov 26 10:47 :0.Xauth
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 63 Dec 11 09:14 :0.Xservers

A common cause of failures like that is damaged directory permissions
near the top of the filesystem hierarchy, often as a result of
unpacking a tar archive into the root directory.

-- 
Bob Nichols     "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address.
                 Do NOT delete it.