# xauth: file /home/niatross/.serverauth.18249 does not exist



## Niatross (Nov 27, 2012)

I have a bunch of ".serverauth.<number>" files in my home directory and receive the following error everytime I execute "startx":


```
xauth: file /home/niatross/.serverauth.18249 does not exist
```

Why are these files created in my home directory and how do I resolve the error (above)?


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## Niatross (Nov 30, 2012)

Anyone???


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## SirDice (Nov 30, 2012)

xauth(1)

It's not an error. And you probably have several of them because X didn't shutdown properly or you are using remote X.


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## Niatross (Nov 30, 2012)

SirDice said:
			
		

> xauth(1)
> 
> It's not an error. And you probably have several of them because X didn't shutdown properly or you are using remote X.



Is there a special way that X11 should shut down? I use Fluxbox and choose "Exit". I don't see any errors and it shuts down cleanly.

Everytime I use "startx", I see the following error flash before it enters the GUI:


```
serverauth.18249 does not exist
```

Why does serverauth.18249 (or any other serverauth number) have to exist?

PS: I don't even know what "remote X" is. I use X locally (server and client) on the same machine.

How do I disable these xauth messages? I don't want to see these xauth messages anymore. I'm sick of 'em.


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## SirDice (Nov 30, 2012)

Niatross said:
			
		

> Why does serverauth.18249 (or any other serverauth number) have to exist?


It doesn't. It's a file that contains a security key, which gets generated when you start X.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Nov 30, 2012)

Niatross said:
			
		

> Is there a special way that X11 should shut down? I use Fluxbox and choose "Exit". I don't see any errors and it shuts down cleanly.



I never use the Exit option in fluxbox. I always shut down from the terminal, but that's just me:

`# shutdown -r now`


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## fossette (Feb 1, 2015)

Sorry to revive an old thread, but the problem is still current for FreeBSD 10.1.  Fortunately, I did a little digging+testing and I have a solution (at least, it's good for me).

It's my understanding that the .serverauth.123 files are created during the X server startup, and they are deleted when it exits normally.  My FreeBSD desktop rebooted by itself without any warning quite a few times (off-topic issue for this post) preventing the X server from exiting normally.  For me, these files were created by `startx`, a `sh` script in the /usr/local/bin/ directory.  `startx` does quite a few things, perhaps good for full blown complex system, but for a simple desktop, the default parameters for commands are usually good enough.

So, in the first few lines of the `startx` script, you'll see:


```
enable_xauth=1
```
I set it to *0* and the errors/warnings magically went away. 

Dominique.


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## altaf (Sep 22, 2018)

xauth:  file /root/.serverauth.762 does not exist


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## SirDice (Sep 24, 2018)

altaf don't start X as root.


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