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Old 04-11-2005, 05:23 AM   #1
pingu
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"can't determine DISPLAY"


I'm currently using Mepis 3.3, but this problem comes up with any Debian-variant I've tried on any computer:
When I login to kde as user, 'su -' to root in a terminal, I can't start any application.
Message is "can't determine DISPLAY"
The only thing that message tells me is it should be an easy fix, just tell what display to use... however I can't find anything about how to?
 
Old 04-11-2005, 05:44 AM   #2
bigearsbilly
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$DISPLAY is a variable in your shell set by X.
(probably = :0.0)
needed to tell X where to send it's drawings.

When you su - you relogin so getting a new environment
and removing DISPLAY.
You can set it explicitly but then maybe you will get an xauth error.
users cannot generally use each others display. You can allow other
users to do this, though I've never got round to trying it myself.


try it with su no hyphen, see what happens.
 
Old 04-11-2005, 07:07 AM   #3
pingu
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Quote:
When you su - you relogin so getting a new environment
I know, that's what I want - I want root's PATH and a few other things set.
I tried with only 'su' but then:
Code:
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used.
Xlib: Connection to ":0,0" refused by server
A few more errors like that.
Quote:
users cannot generally use each others display
Now you are completely wrong.
Not being able to do that is specific to Debian. RedHat, Mandrake, Slackware, SuSe..... no problem. Only sound doesn't work, everything else does. (Also works with both xorg & XFree)
This is pretty essential to me, if I can't get this to work I will not use Debian. I need it and I'm used to it.
What do you think, is it related to X or to system? It should be X, since it's the X-server that refuses connection - but the problem is Debian-specific so it should be something in systems configuration?
I can run 2 computers beside each other to try to find the differences, but it would be good to know where to look!
 
Old 04-11-2005, 09:50 AM   #4
jschiwal
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SuSE has a sux command that is similar to su but sets up the permissions to use the X display. Perhaps you also have this command. If you want to run an X application, you might want to use kdesu instead of su.
 
Old 04-12-2005, 03:46 AM   #5
pingu
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'sux' did it!
'kdesu' works to just start an app as root, but I want the root-terminal. Also, kdesu requires you to enter pasword each time... (Yes, I'm lazy! Very lazy.) Also, starting a program from terminal gives you lots of messages which sometimes is very handy.

But 'sux' works good, thanks for that!
So the problem is solved, I am one step closer to migrate to Debian, but just out of quriosity I'd like to know the difference - 'su' works in RedHat-style but not Debian-style distro's? Where is the difference
- in the command 'su', it does have slightly different parameters (like 'su -' in Debian = 'su -l' in RedHat)
- or in the Xserver-configuration
- or something else in the distro's setup?
 
  


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