[CentOS] more newbie questions -- init 5 works, init 3 doesn't for "normal" users

[Gordon Messmer]

On 06/10/2015 05:25 PM, Kay Schenk wrote:
> I get /home/<username> not found when it's there and setup with correct
> permissions -- well here I am using it in run level 5 just fine!

Log in as root, and watch /var/log/messages, /var/log/secure, and 
/var/log/audit/audit.log while a "normal" user logs in.

# tail -n0 -f /var/log/messages /var/log/secure /var/log/audit/audit.log

> So, my normal user is left logged in at /root.

/root or / ?  The two are different, and non-root users should not have 
access to /root

> My next step is to take a look at the gnome startup script vs startx to
> see if I can figure out the differences if no one has encountered this
> before.

startx runs the X server, which will in turn run an X session.  Gnome 
doesn't have a "startup script" per se, but if it did, it would be an X 
session, something that runs after / under startx.  There's nothing 
there to compare.

However, you could capture startx output and execution for debugging:

$ sh -x /usr/bin/startx > startx.trace 2>&1

The file "startx.trace" will have a list of all of the commands run, and 
all of their output (including errors).

/var/log/X* might be interesting as well.