Can login through telnet but not at local machine?

["Harlan Crystal" <harlanc@earthlink.net>]

Greetings:

I installed slink on a friend's machine a little while back.  I recently got
a email from him saying that he moved to potato and now he can log in
through telnet but not at his own keyboard.  He was asking me how to fix it,
and if he couldn't log in at all I would have some suggestions, but given
that he can get in through telnet but not onscreen, I'm stumped.  The only
difference I can cite is that when he logs on screen he says he's using "a
graphical login" (I assume XDM...)  and it won't let him in.  He said that
he can "alt-F2" to a console and try to log in but that gives him the same
result.

I myself moved from slink to potato without glitches like this numerous
times without major problems.  I haven't personally seen his machine since
the problem but I will be soon.  Does anyone have any idea what I can look
at when I go there to try to fix it?


thank you,

 - Harlan



--
Harlan Crystal		E-mail: harlanc@earthlink.net
AIM: 'Harlan Crystal'	www: http://sdf.lonestar.org/~harlan/