http://linux.die.net/man/4/tty_ioctl http://linux.die.net/man/4/tty_ioctl suggests that TIOCCONS, which xconsole uses, has been supported as recently as 2.6.x,

http://linux.die.net/man/4/tty_ioctl http://linux.die.net/man/4/tty_ioctl suggests that TIOCCONS, which xconsole uses, has been supported as recently as 2.6.x, when it started requiring privilege (before, it allowed anyone to call it). Maybe that change made xconsole stop working for many users.