[arch-general] Which security setting in Arch prevents forwarding X apps when su root?

[Damjan Georgievski]

> Which setting in Arch prevents forwarding apps when you ssh -X in an Arch box,
> su and then try to start a kde app, etc.? X forwarding works just fine as a
> user, but when trying it su'ed to root, I get the following error:
>
> [23:29 archangel:/etc] # kwrite
> X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication.
> kwrite: cannot connect to X server localhost:10.0

In order for X apps to connect to the X server they need to provide a
security cookie. The standard path for the cookie is ~/.Xauthority .
ssh -X does append the cookie to this file  so that's why you can
start X apps when logged in as user. But when you "su",  ~/.Xauthority
is now another file (/root/.Xauthority) and that one doesn't have the
cookie.

As Eric said, kdesu or gsu are sollution ... or you could copy the
Xauthority file

> kdm config? X config? Any pointers/links would be appreciated.

none


-- 
damjan