xhost +localhost doesn't work

["Larry Alkoff" <labradley@mindspring.com>]

Forgive me for posting a Libranet question here
but Libranet is a very close Debian clone
and there is a much greater volume of expertise here.

I'm trying to use xhost +localhost in Libranet 2.7 
to load programs as root in X-windows - eg Synaptic.

I _believe_ xhost +localhost _used_ to work but now it does not.

The only thing that works is
xhost +
which opens up the computer to anyone.

An example of a program I want to start is synaptic 
which requires to be run as root.

Here is what I would expect to work:     (I think it _used_ to work)
  As user:
  xhost +localhost
  su
  synaptic                  Now get error Synaptic: could not open display

Here is what works:
  As user:
  xhost +                                         Opening up to the world
  su
  export DISPLAY=:0                   I didn't use to do this - did I?
  synaptic

Am I doing something wrong or did I break something?

As a workaround I've installed sudo, added a group wheel and added myself to that group.
Now I can simply type
sudo synaptic
and it works fine without the need to use xhost.

However I wish someone could give me a hint how to fix xhost.


Larry Alkoff




Larry Alkoff N2LA - Austin TX