[ale] I'd like to be able to run X programs from root

[Lightner, Jeff]

On a RHEL6 box I just tested doing standard ssh -X or ssh -Y it works the same as it did on RHEL5 (and RHEL4 and HP-UX 11i):

Open the session to the box as normal user.
Run "echo $DISPLAY" to see what display it set for that user e.g. localhost:10.0

sudo su -

After switch to root:
export DISPLAY=<normal user's display> (e.g. export DISPLAY=localhost:10.0)
export XAUTHORITY=<normal user's home directory>/.Xauthority  (e.g. export XAUTHORITY=/home/jlightner/.Xauthority).

Run xterm as a test to see if it displays back properly.

If it works on RHEL6 it should work on CentOS6.

I tested this both from a Windows XP workstation running Cygwin (X Win) and from a CentOS 5 workstation and it worked to display the Xterm to both of those workstations from the RHEL6 server.






-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Jim Lynch
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 8:38 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] I'd like to be able to run X programs from root

On 01/31/2012 06:59 AM, Jim Kinney wrote:
>
> Ah. Root has to build an xauthority file. Login from console as root
> and run startx and that should do it. Then ssh -X wiil work as long as
> you su and not su -.  Your nonroot ssh user also must loginto X once
> from console as well.
> Gvim is not a security sensitive application.
>
>
OK thanks, I'll give it a try.

Jim.
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