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

sw67 · 06-04-2005, 11:14 AM

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

vharishankar · 06-04-2005, 11:17 AM

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).

egag · 06-04-2005, 11:27 AM

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

egag

vharishankar · 06-04-2005, 11:31 AM

Quote:

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

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.

slackwh0re · 06-05-2005, 09:25 PM

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.

aaa · 06-05-2005, 10:20 PM

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.

gbonvehi · 06-05-2005, 11:48 PM

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).