Root can't open display, but normal user can?
 

Hi,
I'm using Slackware 10.1 with a 2.6.10 kernel.
If I load up Fluxbox (or KDE, whichever GUI it doesn't matter), load up a terminal and run something like xine, it works perfectly in my user.
However, if I go su and then try and run xine (or anything that tries to use X) I get an error message:

Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

Cannot open display

Any ideas? I need to be able to run programs as root in the GUI really.
Thanks

Had this problem in debian as well.

The best solution would be to use sux (su in X) or su-to-root (or any other graphical su like gksu, kdesu and so on).

you can also type " xhost + " in a console as user.
that gives others permission to use the graphics.

egag

Yes. But I don't think it's quite as clean a solution as using a graphical su program to launch GUI apps. ;)

But both methods should work well for you.

Just remember to run the xhost + every time you reboot or save this in your bootup script in /etc/rc.d.

kde already has a "run as root" GUI interface.

but yeah, basically i would normally do the xhost command mentioned above as it can be tedious typing the root password many times.

Or this better way:

export DISPLAY=:0 #assuming it wasn't set already
xauth merge ~user_in_x/.Xauthority

Also "xhost +local:" is better than just "xhost +", but not as good as the above. The above xauth command only allows root to use X, "xhost +local:" allows anyone locally at the computer, "xhost +" allows anyone who can connect to your computer. And the xauth usually only works as root and the xhost only works as the user currently in X.

Just wanted to add, I'm sure you must know this, but just in case, you can startx as root. And if you've display 0 running with your user, you can use startx -- :1 to open another X server (can access it with CTRL+ALT+F8).