Having Problems with X11 Forwarding and root

[Mark Phillips]

Great!

I have this so far:

mark at swordfish:~$ echo $DISPLAY
swordfish:11.0
mark at swordfish:~$ xauth list
swordfish/unix:11  MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1  00607ba4fc7c6a2ea9debc6ad5776376
swordfish/unix:10  MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1  892fa0c2d392d8517dd525a7bcdc212b
swordfish.phillipsoasis.com:1  MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1
ce767df80405a8d280be4e258f06fed8
swordfish/unix:1  MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1  ce767df80405a8d280be4e258f06fed8
swordfish.phillipsoasis.com:10  MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1
d635d049952882222e1b238f7a8d1fbd
swordfish.phillipsoasis.com:11  MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1
cdb5f42e697aed89f9ff934ae36df625

So, which magic cookie goes with $DISPLAY=swordfish:11.0?

Also, how do I make this permanent? Or, do I have to export the DISPLAY and
copy the magic cookie every time I su to root?

Mark

On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 5:31 PM, James Mcphee <jmcphe at gmail.com> wrote:

> ok.  So you start on box1, ssh -X to box2.  echo $DISPLAY.  xauth list.
> su to user2 on box2.  export DISPLAY=<the display from user1>.  xauth add
> $DISPLAY . <the hash from the correct display from xauth list>.  Launch X
> application.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 5:21 PM, Mark Phillips <mark at phillipsmarketing.biz
> > wrote:
>
>> There is an application I need to run as root on my Linode server, but it
>> has to run in a gui.
>>
>> I have ssh and X11 forwarding set up between my Ubuntu 14.04 system and
>> my Linode (swordfish). It works just great for a non-root user (xcalc,
>> xconsole, the application I need to run, etc). However, when I try to run
>> the application on the server as root, I get the error message "X11
>> connection rejected because of wrong authentication." For xcalc running as
>> root, I get
>> X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication.
>> Error: Can't open display: swordfish:10.0
>>
>> I have tried all sorts of google solutions - copying the user's
>> .Xauthority to /root/ (also changing the ownership and permissions). But I
>> just can't seem to log into swordfish as a normal user using ssh -X, su to
>> root, and get the X11 forwarding to work.
>>
>> I also went so far as to install vnc4server on the Linode, xfce window
>> manager, and vnc4viewer on my Ubuntu machine. That all works when I access
>> the vnc server as a normal user, but I can't get any X11 apps to run as
>> root (ie from a root command line in a terminal in the vnc window). The
>> error message when I try to run xcalc or other X11 apps is "No protocol
>> specified. Can't open display :1".
>>
>> What are the special Linux guru magical incantations/spells to make X11
>> forwarding work for root?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> James McPhee
> jmcphe at gmail.com
>
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