What does this startup dialog message mean "Could not update ICEauthority file"

I restarted Ubuntu a few minutes ago, and got a warning dialog early in the bootup process (before the desktop was up)...

It wasn't just a scrolling message which flitted off the screen of its own accord.
It was a dialog which stopped proceedings, until I acknowledged it.

Could not update ICEauthority file /home/me/.ICEauthority  

What, Why, and Who dun it? :)

Solution 1:

Your .ICEauthority file probably isn't owned by your user (maybe because you ran something as root/with 'sudo' that has overwritten it). You can check this by running (in a terminal):

ls -l /home/you/.ICEauthority

If it says something other than

-rw------- 1 you you ...

you need to make it owned by your user again:

sudo chown you:you /home/you/.ICEauthority

maybe you also need to correct permissions:

chmod 600 /home/you/.ICEauthority

To avoid such problems, don't run X applications with 'sudo' - use graphical sudo instead (addendum by Murat Gunes).