Re: Simple little basic config questions

[brownh@hartford-hwp.com (Haines Brown)]

> No, I think if you had actually started X as root then you certainly
> would have an appropriate $DISPLAY. The issue is not really rootness,
> it's that $DISPLAY is set in the environment of the X session which is
> run as the user who started X, and .Xauthority is in the home directory
> of the user who started X, and it's quite easy to lose all that when
> changing users. 'sux' is not a workaround, it's a valid solution.

I notice that .Xauthority in /root has zero size. If it is going to
authenticate root for the x server, I should think there would be
something in it.

When you say "changing users," do you refer to logging in as user and
then running "su - root"? I assume virtually everyone does this
regularly and successfully, and so I assume my inability to do it is a
sign that I need to do a fix.

For years I didn't "loose all that", but could "su - root" as I
needed. I still don't know whether my system's busted or if it is me
;-) That is, is "loosing all that" a natural occurance or a flaw in my
setup? 

I presume every debian user who is both user and administrator of his
machine (probably the majority) will occasionally want to su to become
root (I assume everyone does that regularly). Certainly they all don't
have Sux installed.  

I appreciate that one does not want to run as root, but I do it when
installing a new system or retreat to it when user's account ceases to
function. 

Haines