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I'm trying to install a .deb package in Natty using gdebi package installer:

gdebi package installer

But when I click "Install", the following error message comes up:

Error message

Also, when I try to install anything from the Software Center, nothing happens. I'm guessing this is related to the above error.

Could someone please help me out with this?

EDIT: My home folder does not have a .Xauthority file.

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  • Can you open a terminal, enter ls -l .Xauthority and add the output to your question?
    – qbi
    May 5, 2011 at 12:23
  • I'm having the same problem. ls -la ~/.Xauthority gives ls: cannot access /home/mithu/.Xauthority: No such file or directory @qbi Jul 21, 2018 at 10:42

2 Answers 2

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Please check the permission, user name and user group of .Xauthority

ls -la ~/.Xauthority

It needs to be owned by you and the permissions should be -rw-------
To alter name and group:

sudo chown youruser:youruser ~/.Xauthority

To alter persmission to -rw-------
chmod u+rw ~/.Xauthority

(Replace youruser by your username.)

If this is the cause: Did you install anything prior to this package or issue sudo commands? There are some things in the past that I saw messing up the permission for this file. Notably things like samba, sudo ssh.

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  • The problem seems to be occurring randomly. I tried installing the package 20 minutes after posting this question, and it worked! So the problem has been solved (temporarily atleast). Surprisingly, the .Xauthority file does not exist in my home folder. Should I create an empty file with the above permissions? Will that be a permanent fix? May 7, 2011 at 8:31
  • And, btw, there seems to be a tiny syntax error in your answer: The first command should be "ls -la ~/.Xauthority" :) May 7, 2011 at 8:41
  • The file should be automatically created on log-on. It looks like some package is messing up the file. From what I have read candidates are: Gnome3, ssh and/or a wrongly type sudo command in your home dir.
    – Rinzwind
    May 7, 2011 at 8:43
  • of the possible causes you mention, I think ssh might be the culprit. I don't have GNOME3 installed. So should I create the .Xauthority file myself and change its permissions to the appropriate ones? May 7, 2011 at 9:38
  • Even though the .Xauthority file does not exist in my home folder, everything seems to working fine now, so I'll accept your answer. May 8, 2011 at 15:43
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Here is what I found by simple Googling,

First make sure that users .Xauthority file is present in their home directory and make sure it has the correct permissions. running ls -l /home/username/.Xauthority should result in this output:

-rw------- 1 username username 319 2008-08-22 19:35 .Xauthority

If it doesn't look like that, you may have to change the ownership and permissions manually: sudo chmod 600 /home/username/.Xauthority sudo chown username:username /home/user/.Xauthority Be sure to change all instances of username to the correct username.

Credits eightmillion

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