Running GUI apps frm terminal while logged in as normal user

Hello, I seem to have a problem running gui apps as 'root' from the commandline while logged in as a normal user. Output from screen from a typical attempt is as follows:

root@debian:/home/deviant# gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

kedit: cannot connect to X server :0.0

What solutions are there for me? Do I need to edit some config files and if so which ones? What lines must I add and which part of the file or files i.e. top or end of file/files? Or do I just need to pass some commands in a terminal to fire up gui apps as 'root' while logged in as an ordinary user from the shell?

thanks 4 any help in advance

Problem resolved. Found a solution but I suspect it could be a "per session" fix and not a permanent answer.

export XAUTHORITY=/home/"normal user"/.Xauthority

Where "normal user" = name of normal user running X

Originally posted by muttley Problem resolved. Found a solution but I suspect it could be a "per session" fix and not a permanent answer.

Put it in your /root/.bashrc and it will be there every time you su to root as the user named in the line. This assuming of course that you have uncommented the lines in the /root/.bash_profile to source the .bashrc.

Originally posted by HappyTux Put it in your /root/.bashrc and it will be there every time you su to root as the user named in the line. This assuming of course that you have uncommented the lines in the /root/.bash_profile to source the .bashrc.

Thank you HappyTux. Edited /root/.bashrc with nano and inserted the appropriate i.e. above-mentioned line as advised. Things are working fine thus far.