You completely missed the point. The problem is not the missing
DISPLAY (you can send your X packets to anywhere you like, including
:0.0), the problem is the missing *AUTHORITY* to connect to the
specified X server (in this case, :0.0). You can set DISPLAY until
you're blue in the face if the X server tells you to get stuffed. And
it will (on any decent setup).

You are absolutely correct. My response was quick and off the cuff. I wasn't thinking the problem through.

su only changes your effective user ID but doesn't deal at all with any
X stuff. sux is designed to do an su *as well* as carrying over the X
connection authority and setting your DISPLAY.

How handy. However RedHat doesn't come with sux. As Perry pointed out, RedHat uses pam_xauth instead to perform this function so it is transparent to the user.

Regards




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Oliver Jones § Senior Software Engineer § Deeper Design Limited.

oliver@deeper.co.nz § www.deeperdesign.com § +64 (21) 41-2238