XQuartz crashes and restarts in a loop

[logustus@…]

OS 10.7.3 XQuartz 2.7.2

Any application that requires XQuartz to start up automatically (ActiveWorlds and Plastic SCM specifically) will cause this to happen. It will continue until the machine is rebooted.

Here's the error from X11: An error occurred while starting the X11 server: "Cannot establish any listening sockets - Make sure an X server isn't already running"

Here's what I dug out of the console:

Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.ICE-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.ICE-unix-D1tRpeWk
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.ICE-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.ICE-unix-Kcj6LpDG
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.ICE-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.ICE-unix-XXEXIPM7
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.ICE-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.ICE-unix-hguFisez
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.ICE-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.ICE-unix-8LgFrxAG
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: Could not successfully create /tmp/.ICE-unix
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.X11-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.X11-unix-aqk8tIdS
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.X11-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.X11-unix-OkgiSCM2
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.X11-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.X11-unix-lNXda7os
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.X11-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.X11-unix-Ut1Tsiy5
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.X11-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.X11-unix-3QVpEDRh
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: Could not successfully create /tmp/.X11-unix
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.font-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.font-unix-vVBK4fDl
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.font-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.font-unix-0Hms6N3j
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.font-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.font-unix-hFvMtpmp
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.font-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.font-unix-PcLYs714
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs: line 50: mv: command not found
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: /tmp/.font-unix exists but is insecure.  It has been moved into /tmp/.font-unix-Zgedv5Gp
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: Could not successfully create /tmp/.font-unix
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: lockfile: Sorry, giving up on "/opt/X11/var/run/font_cache.lock"
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: font_cache is already running.
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[89570]: If you believe this to be erroneous, please remove /opt/X11/var/run/font_cache.lock.
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89562]: 
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.stub[89669]: Xquartz: Unable to locate waiting server: org.macosforge.xquartz.X11
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.stub[89670]: Xquartz: Starting X server: /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app/Contents/MacOS/X11 --listenonly
Jun 20 21:41:21 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89562]: 
	
Jun 20 21:41:23 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89562]: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections 

When I hit Quit on the crash window, this log appears:

Jun 20 21:41:18 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.stub[89407]: Xquartz: start_x11_server: (ipc/mig) server died
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89301]: .
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89301]: /opt/X11/bin/xinit: giving up
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89301]: /opt/X11/bin/xinit: unable to connect to X server: Operation timed out
Jun 20 21:41:19 carbon org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[89301]: /opt/X11/bin/xinit: server error

[logustus@…]

Cc Me!

[jeremyhu@…]

This is bizarre:

mv: command not found

Why would you not have 'mv' in your path? The 'mv' is supposed to "fix" the issue that you are facing, but it's not working properly. Try debugging the /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs script. Add in some things like:

echo $PATH
which mv

etc to figure out what is going wrong.

[logustus@…]

I'm not sure why mv wouldn't be found. I execute commands like that all the time from my terminal. It makes me wonder if there's a .profile or something that works specifically with apps launched from the dock and somehow it's whacked on my machine.

It turns out which isn't on the path either. I also caught this in the logs:

/opt/X11/bin/font_cache: line 272: rm: command not found

I'll have to do some research to ensure my machine is in a more pristine state. When I was debugging the script I happened to run it from my terminal (which has a full path configured) and it cleared up the crash problem like you said it would, so I'll need to find another way to produce the error again. Until then at least we have a workaround - just run the /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d/10-tmpdirs script as root. Thanks for the help!

[jeremyhu@…]

To reproduce the error, do this as your normal user account:

rm -rf /tmp/.X11-unix
mkdir /tmp/.X11-unix

That should make that directory with incorrect permissions (and blow away whatever else was there beforehand).