new case for "XWin Server fails to start with keymap failure"
Hello, Since a recent massive update of Cygwin, I am not able to run startx (see beyond for complete output). I have already closely followed the FAQ 9.15 and 9.16. , with no success. I have, most notably, completely rebased Cygwin . I have also checked the similar previous case here : https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2015-06/msg00122.html, but the special version of strace.exe for diagnosis is no more available here : https://cygwin.com/faq.html#faq.using.bloda Regular strace provide this : $ strace -o log XWin 0 [main] strace (7872) C:\cygwin\bin\strace.exe: *** fatal error - cygheap base mismatch detected - 0x612FB400/0x26FB400. This problem is probably due to using incompatible versions of the cygwin DLL. Search for cygwin1.dll using the Windows Start->Find/Search facility and delete all but the most recent version. The most recent version *should* reside in x:\cygwin\bin, where 'x' is the drive on which you have installed the cygwin distribution. Rebooting is also suggested if you are unable to find another cygwin DLL. Segmentation fault However, I have already checked cygwin1.dll, rebased everything and rebooted many time. startx still does not work. Any help appreciated. --- Benoit THIERRY (a french user) Original Xwin error : $ startx Welcome to the XWin X Server Vendor: The Cygwin/X Project Release: 1.17.4.0 OS: CYGWIN_NT-6.1-WOW Nostromo 2.3.1(0.291/5/3) 2015-11-14 12:42 i686 OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 [Windows NT 6.1 build 7601] (WoW64) Package: version 1.17.4-1 built 2015-10-29 XWin was started with the following command line: /usr/bin/X :0 -auth /home/Dallas/.serverauth.6332 (II) xorg.conf is not supported (II) See http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/cygwin-x-faq.html for more information LoadPreferences: /home/Dallas/.XWinrc not found LoadPreferences: Loading /etc/X11/system.XWinrc LoadPreferences: Done parsing the configuration file... winDetectSupportedEngines - DirectDraw4 installed, allowing ShadowDDNL winDetectSupportedEngines - Returning, supported engines 0005 winSetEngine - Using Shadow DirectDraw NonLocking winScreenInit - Using Windows display depth of 32 bits per pixel winWindowProc - WM_SIZE - new client area w: 1904 h: 1092 winFinishScreenInitFB - Masks: 00ff ff00 00ff MIT-SHM extension disabled due to lack of kernel support XFree86-Bigfont extension local-client optimization disabled due to lack of shared memory support in the kernel (EE) AIGLX: No native OpenGL in modes with a root window (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap (II) AIGLX: Loaded and initialized swrast (II) GLX: Initialized DRISWRAST GL provider for screen 0 (EE) Error compiling keymap (server-0) (EE) xkbcomp exit status 0x7f00 (EE) XKB: Couldn't compile keymap (EE) XKB: Failed to load keymap. Loading default keymap instead. (EE) Error compiling keymap (server-0) (EE) xkbcomp exit status 0x7f00 (EE) XKB: Couldn't compile keymap XKB: Failed to compile keymap Keyboard initialization failed. This could be a missing or incorrect setup of xkeyboard-config. (EE) Fatal server error: (EE) Failed to activate core devices.(EE) (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file. winDeinitMultiWindowWM - Noting shutdown in progress xinit: giving up xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused xinit: server error -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
RE: XWin Server fails to start with keymap failure, strace log attached.
This shows that the crash looks like it is in ntdll.dll, while we are doing some socket initialisation, but the interesting thing I note is LavasoftTcpService64.dll being loaded. Apparently this belongs to Lavasoft Web Companion. I'd suggest you try upgrading or uninstalling that. I am unable to successfully uninstalled Lavasoft Web Companion. A secondary program LavasoftTcpService64 is still installed and I can't get rid of it. I am going to reinstall Lavasoft Web Companion and try again to uninstall the two pieces. If that doesn't work I will have to reformat the disk and reinstall the OS which will have to be done over the weekend. John T. Kerich 7203 Morrison Drive Greenbelt, MD 20770-2445 johnkeri...@hotmail.com -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
RE: XWin Server fails to start with keymap failure, strace log attached.
John T. Kerich wrote [text rewrapped]: I am unable to successfully uninstalled Lavasoft Web Companion. A secondary program LavasoftTcpService64 is still installed and I can't get rid of it. I am going to reinstall Lavasoft Web Companion and try again to uninstall the two pieces. If that doesn't work I will have to reformat the disk and reinstall the OS which will have to be done over the weekend. Perhaps you won't have to do that. You write you can't uninstall LavasoftTcpService64. The name suggests that it's a service. If it isn't properly stopped and removed as such, you might be able to can do so manually (from a Windows shell running as administrator) with sc.exe stop LavasoftTcpService64 sc.exe delete LavasoftTcpService64 (if that's also its name as a service). If you can't find LavasoftTcpService64 in Programs and Features in Windows, you might be able to find and uninstall it from within PowerShell (also running as administrator) with (this may take some time) Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object { $_.name -match ^LavaSoft } If this finds an IdentifyingNumber then you can specify it to the Windows Installer to try uninstallation like this msiexec.exe /uninstall {12345678-90AB-CDEF-1234-567890ABCDEF} Horst Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Dr. Karl Eugen Huthmacher Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Bolt, Prof. Dr. Sebastian M. Schmidt
Re: XWin Server fails to start with keymap failure, strace log attached.
On 09/06/2015 00:09, John T. Kerich wrote: I've uploaded a patched version which collects more information at [1], perhaps you download that, put it in /usr/bin and try that strace command again. (You may need to chmod +x it after downloading) [1] ftp://cygwin.com/pub/cygwinx/x86_64/strace.exe I assume the patched version was this strace.exe. I downloaded it and ran it in the /usr/bin after renaming the original strace.exe. This is what showed up on the terminal window. Attached is log_v2. Thanks very much. --- Process 4416 created --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\ntdll.dll at 778B 208 43787800 [waitproc] XWin 11016 cygthread::stub: thread 'waitproc', id 0x1A80, stack_ptr 0x4F0CCD0 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll at 7763 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\KernelBase.dll at 07FEFDFD --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\cygwin64\bin\cygwin1.dll at 00018004 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\cygwin64\bin\cygiconv-2.dll at 0003FD14 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\cygwin64\bin\cygintl-8.dll at 0003FD12 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\cygwin64\bin\cygncursesw-10.dll at 0003FCB0 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\cygwin64\bin\cygreadline7.dll at 0003FC62 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\user32.dll at 7731 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\gdi32.dll at 07FEFE3B --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\lpk.dll at 07FEFE58 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\usp10.dll at 07FEFEB3 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\msvcrt.dll at 07FEFE42 1 1 [main] sh (4416) ** 66 67 [main] sh (4416) Program name: C:\cygwin64\bin\sh.exe (windows pid 4416) 21 88 [main] sh (4416) OS version: Windows NT-6.1 19 107 [main] sh (4416) ** 62 169 [main] sh (4416) sigprocmask: 0 = sigprocmask (0, 0x0, 0x1802E30A8) 95 264 [main] sh 4416 child_copy: cygheap - hp 0x5E8 low 0x180303400, high 0x180310FE8, res 1 22 286 [main] sh 4416 child_copy: done 93 379 [main] sh 4416 open_shared: name shared.5, n 5, shared 0x18003 (wanted 0x18003), h 0x6C, *m 6 26 405 [main] sh 4416 user_heap_info::init: heap base 0x6, heap top 0x6, heap size 0x2000 (536870912) 26 431 [main] sh 4416 open_shared: name (null), n 1, shared 0x18002 (wanted 0x18002), h 0x54, *m 6 21 452 [main] sh 4416 user_info::create: opening user shared for '' at 0x18002 20 472 [main] sh 4416 user_info::create: user shared version AB1FCCE8 44 516 [main] sh (4416) open_shared: name cygpid.4416, n 4416, shared 0x18001 (wanted 0x18001), h 0x74, *m 6 22 538 [main] sh 4416 time: 1433804555 = time(0x0) 19 557 [main] sh 4416 pinfo::thisproc: myself dwProcessId 4416 24 581 [main] sh 4416 fhandler_pty_slave::fixup_after_fork: /dev/pty0 inherited, usecount 4 20 601 [main] sh 4416 fhandler_pty_slave::fixup_after_fork: /dev/pty0 inherited, usecount 4 19 620 [main] sh 4416 fhandler_pty_slave::fixup_after_fork: /dev/pty0 inherited, usecount 4 10703 11323 [main] sh 4416 fhandler_base::fork_fixup: handle 0x328 already opened 66 11389 [main] sh 4416 fhandler_base::fork_fixup: handle 0x32C already opened --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\ws2_32.dll at 07FEFED6 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\rpcrt4.dll at 07FEFE61 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\nsi.dll at 07FEFE3A 1846 13235 [main] sh 4416 wsock_init: res 0 47 13282 [main] sh 4416 wsock_init: wVersion 514 21 13303 [main] sh 4416 wsock_init: wHighVersion 514 20 13323 [main] sh 4416 wsock_init: szDescription WinSock 2.0 19 13342 [main] sh 4416 wsock_init: szSystemStatus Running 18 13360 [main] sh 4416 wsock_init: iMaxSockets 0 18 13378 [main] sh 4416 wsock_init: iMaxUdpDg 0 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\LavasoftTcpService64.dll at 002D --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\mswsock.dll at 07FEFD54 --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\IPHLPAPI.DLL at 07FEFCEB --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\winnsi.dll at 07FEFCEA --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\advapi32.dll at 07FEFE2C --- Process 4416 loaded \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\sechost.dll at 07FEFE4C
Re: XWin Server fails to start with keymap failure, strace log attached.
On 06/06/2015 16:37, John T. Kerich wrote: • Check that /usr/bin/xkbcomp can be run from a bash shell. If that fails, see if cygcheck /usr/bin/xkbcomp reports any missing DLLs. The cygcheck output looks correct. I assume you also checked that xkbcomp can be run? I am not sure what the input file should be see all I see is the error message Error: No input file specified. If you know what the path is I will run it and see if it works. That's fine, it just shows that xkbcomp does exist and can be run. If that doesn't help, perhaps you can run 'strace -o log XWin' and attach the resulting log file? Log file attached. This is what I see in the Cygwin64 terminal. Thanks. The interesting bit is: 1 1 [main] sh (8156) ** 54 55 [main] sh (8156) Program name: C:\cygwin64\bin\sh.exe (windows pid 8156) 22 77 [main] sh (8156) OS version: Windows NT-6.1 20 97 [main] sh (8156) ** 56 153 [main] sh (8156) sigprocmask: 0 = sigprocmask (0, 0x0, 0x1802E30A8) 105 258 [main] sh 8156 child_copy: cygheap - hp 0x5F0 low 0x180303400, high 0x180311008, res 1 20 278 [main] sh 8156 child_copy: done 54 332 [main] sh 8156 open_shared: name shared.5, n 5, shared 0x18003 (wanted 0x18003), h 0x6C, *m 6 27 359 [main] sh 8156 user_heap_info::init: heap base 0x6, heap top 0x6, heap size 0x2000 (536870912) 23 382 [main] sh 8156 open_shared: name (null), n 1, shared 0x18002 (wanted 0x18002), h 0x54, *m 6 17 399 [main] sh 8156 user_info::create: opening user shared for '' at 0x18002 18 417 [main] sh 8156 user_info::create: user shared version AB1FCCE8 34 451 [main] sh (8156) open_shared: name cygpid.8156, n 8156, shared 0x18001 (wanted 0x18001), h 0x74, *m 6 21 472 [main] sh 8156 time: 1433604545 = time(0x0) 19 491 [main] sh 8156 pinfo::thisproc: myself dwProcessId 8156 24 515 [main] sh 8156 fhandler_pty_slave::fixup_after_fork: /dev/pty0 inherited, usecount 4 19 534 [main] sh 8156 fhandler_pty_slave::fixup_after_fork: /dev/pty0 inherited, usecount 4 19 553 [main] sh 8156 fhandler_pty_slave::fixup_after_fork: /dev/pty0 inherited, usecount 4 26 579 [main] sh 8156 fhandler_base::fork_fixup: handle 0x324 already opened 18 597 [main] sh 8156 fhandler_base::fork_fixup: handle 0x32C already opened 22042801 [main] sh 8156 wsock_init: res 0 502851 [main] sh 8156 wsock_init: wVersion 514 192870 [main] sh 8156 wsock_init: wHighVersion 514 172887 [main] sh 8156 wsock_init: szDescription WinSock 2.0 162903 [main] sh 8156 wsock_init: szSystemStatus Running 162919 [main] sh 8156 wsock_init: iMaxSockets 0 162935 [main] sh 8156 wsock_init: iMaxUdpDg 0 --- Process 8156, exception c005 at 7764DAE1 641327 37070714 [main] XWin 13060 child_info::sync: pid 8156, WFMO returned 1, exit_code 0xC41D, res 0 15 37070729 [waitproc] XWin 13060 pinfo::status_exit: *** STATUS_0xC41D 212 37070941 [main] XWin 13060 wait4: calling proc_subproc, pid 8156, options 0 1 37070942 [waitproc] XWin 13060 pinfo::maybe_set_exit_code_from_windows: pid 8156, exit value - old 0x0, windows 0xC41D, cygwin 0x8007F00 This shows that sh is crashing in some DLL early in the attempt to use it to run xkbcomp. I'm not quote sure how this translates to termination status 0x7F00. Unfortunately strace doesn't quite capture enough information to identify which DLL. I've uploaded a patched version which collects more information at [1], perhaps you download that, put it in /usr/bin and try that strace command again. (You may need to chmod +x it after downloading) This is suggestive of some other software interfering with Cygwin somehow. [1] ftp://cygwin.com/pub/cygwinx/x86_64/strace.exe -- Jon TURNEY Volunteer Cygwin/X X Server maintainer -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Re: XWin Server fails to start with keymap failure,
On 04/06/2015 22:46, John T. Kerich wrote: I have google the web and found this type of problem in a number of locations dating a back to 2011. However, none of the checks so a problem and no of the solutions fix the startup problem. See after log. Thanks for the detailed report. [ 5753.129] (EE) Error compiling keymap (server-1) [ 5753.129] (EE) xkbcomp exit status 32512 [ 5753.145] (EE) XKB: Couldn't compile keymap [ 5753.145] (EE) XKB: Failed to load keymap. Loading default keymap instead. I think this is status 0x7F00, which indicates that spawning a shell to run xkbcomp failed with exit code 127 which means command not found. This is somewhat confusing, as you clearly do have xkbcomp. This problem started after I updated Cygwin. I uninstalled Cygwin, deleted all directories, and reinstalled. No change. /var/lib/xkb/, but this directory didn't exist. – Is does. I don't understand this sentence. This directory should exist, containing a README.compiled, created by the xorg-server-common package. $ ls -l total 0 drwxr-xr-x+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:15 alternatives drwxr-xr-x+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:20 dbus drwxr-xr-x+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:15 rebase drwxr-xr-x+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:19 xkb ls /usr/share/X11 - /usr/share/X11/xkb/compiled/ is pointing (symbolic link) to /var/lib/xkb/, - I see no link This suggestion is very out of date. If you found these instructions on the cygwin website, please tell me where so I can update it. • Check that /usr/bin/xkbcomp can be run from a bash shell. If that fails, see if cygcheck /usr/bin/xkbcomp reports any missing DLLs. The cygcheck output looks correct. I assume you also checked that xkbcomp can be run? This is all I found googling. I have no idea on how to proceed. Any help would be most appreciated. FAQ 9.15 also refers you to 9.16, which refers on to [1] for various software which can interfere [1] https://cygwin.com/faq.html#faq.using.bloda If that doesn't help, perhaps you can run 'strace -o log XWin' and attach the resulting log file? -- Jon TURNEY Volunteer Cygwin/X X Server maintainer -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
XWin Server fails to start with keymap failure,
I have google the web and found this type of problem in a number of locations dating a back to 2011. However, none of the checks so a problem and no of the solutions fix the startup problem. See after log. The pop up error was: A fatal error has occurred and Cygwin/X will now exit. Failed to activate core devices. Please open /var/log/xwin/XWin.0.log for more information. Vendor: The Cygwin/X Project Release 1.17.1.0 Contact: Cygwin@cygwin.com Package: version 1.1.17.1-5 built 201505-01 XWin was started with the following command-line: /usr/bin/XWin :0 multindow auth /home/JohnKerich/.serverauth.12262 cat /var/log/xwin/XWin.0.log Could not load crashreporter dll Welcome to the XWin X Server Vendor: The Cygwin/X Project Release: 1.17.1.0 OS: CYGWIN_NT-6.1 JohnKerich-PC 2.0.2(0.287/5/3) 2015-05-08 17:00 x86_64 OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 [Windows NT 6.1 build 7601] (Win64) Package: version 1.17.1-4 built 2015-05-01 XWin was started with the following command line: /usr/bin/XWin :1 -multiwindow -auth /home/JohnKerich/.serverauth.8036 ddxProcessArgument - Initializing default screens winInitializeScreenDefaults - primary monitor w 1680 h 1050 winInitializeScreenDefaults - native DPI x 120 y 120 [ 5752.318] Could not load crashreporter dll [ 5752.334] (II) xorg.conf is not supported [ 5752.334] (II) See http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/cygwin-x-faq.html for more information [ 5752.334] LoadPreferences: /home/JohnKerich/.XWinrc not found [ 5752.334] LoadPreferences: Loading /etc/X11/system.XWinrc [ 5752.334] LoadPreferences: Done parsing the configuration file... [ 5752.380] winDetectSupportedEngines - DirectDraw4 installed, allowing ShadowDDNL [ 5752.380] winDetectSupportedEngines - Returning, supported engines 0005 [ 5752.380] winSetEngine - Multi Window or Rootless = ShadowGDI [ 5752.380] winScreenInit - Using Windows display depth of 32 bits per pixel [ 5752.380] winAllocateFBShadowGDI - Creating DIB with width: 1680 height: 1050 depth: 32 [ 5752.396] winFinishScreenInitFB - Masks: 00ff ff00 00ff [ 5752.396] winInitVisualsShadowGDI - Masks 00ff ff00 00ff BPRGB 8 d 24 bpp 32 [ 5752.396] MIT-SHM extension disabled due to lack of kernel support [ 5752.396] XFree86-Bigfont extension local-client optimization disabled due to lack of shared memory support in the kernel [ 5752.396] glWinSelectGLimplementation: Loaded 'cygnativeGLthunk.dll' [ 5752.474] (II) AIGLX: Testing pixelFormatIndex 5 [ 5752.490] GL_VERSION: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 350.12 [ 5752.490] GL_VENDOR: NVIDIA Corporation [ 5752.490] GL_RENDERER: GeForce GTX 650 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 [ 5752.490] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_SGI_make_current_read [ 5752.490] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer [ 5752.490] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_SGI_swap_control and GLX_MESA_swap_control [ 5752.490] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_SGIX_pbuffer [ 5752.490] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_ARB_multisample and GLX_SGIS_multisample [ 5752.490] (II) 482 pixel formats reported by wglGetPixelFormatAttribivARB [ 5752.490] (II) AIGLX: Set GLX version to 1.4 [ 5752.505] (II) 323 fbConfigs [ 5752.505] (II) ignored pixel formats: 0 not OpenGL, 54 RBGA float, 69 RGBA unsigned float, 0 unknown pixel type, 36 unaccelerated [ 5752.505] (II) GLX: Initialized Win32 native WGL GL provider for screen 0 [ 5753.129] (EE) Error compiling keymap (server-1) [ 5753.129] (EE) xkbcomp exit status 32512 [ 5753.145] (EE) XKB: Couldn't compile keymap [ 5753.145] (EE) XKB: Failed to load keymap. Loading default keymap instead. [ 5753.223] (EE) Error compiling keymap (server-1) [ 5753.223] (EE) xkbcomp exit status 32512 [ 5753.223] (EE) XKB: Couldn't compile keymap [ 5753.223] XKB: Failed to compile keymap [ 5753.223] Keyboard initialization failed. This could be a missing or incorrect setup of xkeyboard-config. [ 5753.223] (EE) Fatal server error: [ 5753.223] (EE) Failed to activate core devices.(EE) [ 5753.223] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file. === Things I have tried. This problem started after I updated Cygwin. I uninstalled Cygwin, deleted all directories, and reinstalled. No change. Verify /var/tmp is 777. It is. $ ls -l total 0 drwxr-xr-x+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:20 cache drwxr-xr-x+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:20 lib drwxrwxrwt+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:25 log drwxrwxrwt+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:15 run drwxrwxrwt+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:15 tmp /var/lib/xkb/, but this directory didn't exist. Is does. $ ls -l total 0 drwxr-xr-x+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:15 alternatives drwxr-xr-x+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:20 dbus drwxr-xr-x+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:15 rebase drwxr-xr-x+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:19 xkb ls /usr/share/X11 - /usr/share/X11/xkb/compiled/ is pointing (symbolic link) to /var/lib/xkb/, - I see no link $ ls -l total 80 drwxr-xr-x+ 1 JohnKerich None 0 May 31 18:18 locale -rw-r--r-- 1 JohnKerich None 17315 Jul 28 2013