hi,
ok, this works. after su, i enter this command and then X apps work again. is there any way how this could be 'automated'?One possibility is xauth -f /home/user/.Xauthority extract - $DISPLAY | xauth merge - where "user" is the user that logged on to xdm. This will extract the user's authorization cookie for the current display and merge it into root's authority file. Then root should be able to access the display until user logs out again. (I tested this with kdm, but I assume it works for xdm as well.)
regards, -- Lubos _@_" http://www.lubos.vrbka.net