Sorry, I'm sure this problem has been addressed already... When I start X as a normal user, open up an xterm, su to root, and try to start an X application, I get the following error: Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server Xlib: Client is not authorized to connect to Server Is this a consequence of security? Is there some cheap way around it? I'm willing to forgo some security on my home desktop to do run things like qtcups. Thanks!