Re: su and X question

[Chris <list.hurschler@gmx.de>]

Thanks, I'll look into sux....

On Wednesday 12 April 2006 19:14, Casey T. Deccio wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-04-12 at 18:49 +0200, Chris wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > Hi I'd like to open X-applications like the in the example below from an
> > su Terminal, but get an Xlib connection error.  I have set up sudo so
> > that: sudo kwrite /etc/fstab works, but how come it doesn't in a normal
> > su Terminal?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > athlon:/home/stoffel# kwrite /etc/fstab
> > Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
> > Xlib: No protocol specified
> >
> > kwrite: cannot connect to X server :0.0
>
> The credentials for using an X server are found in the .Xauthority file
> of each user's home directory.  If you run 'xauth list' from the
> non-privileged user account, you will see the credentials to the X
> server you are working on.  However, root does not have appropriate
> credentials in its .Xauthority until they are granted.
>
> When sudo is used, the HOME directory is not modified, so even though
> root is running the program, the HOME is still that of the original
> user, so the .Xauthority contains the appropriate credentials.
>
> However, when using su, the HOME changes to root's home directory, and
> the appropriate credentials do not exist in ~root/.Xauthority .  'man
> xauth' for more details.
>
> There is a wrapper package for su called sux, which grants the resulting
> su user permissions to the current X server when sux is called.
>
> Casey

-- 
C. Hurschler