After an upgrade from debian 3.1 to 4.0 it looks like there isn't a font server (googling around) this is the /var/log/XFree86.0.log Code: Warning: font renderer for ".pcf" already registered at priority 0 Warning: font renderer for ".pcf.Z" already registered at priority 0 Warning: font renderer for ".pcf.gz" already registered at priority 0 Warning: font renderer for ".snf" already registered at priority 0 Warning: font renderer for ".snf.Z" already registered at priority 0 Warning: font renderer for ".snf.gz" already registered at priority 0 Warning: font renderer for ".bdf" already registered at priority 0 Warning: font renderer for ".bdf.Z" already registered at priority 0 Warning: font renderer for ".bdf.gz" already registered at priority 0 Warning: font renderer for ".pmf" already registered at priority 0 Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list! As normal user startx doesn't work it does as root .Files in /home/user are all owned by user:user (.Xauthority) .... help !