Shell – Running GUI Application as Another Non-Root User

shellsux11xorg

Let's say I have 2 user accounts user1 and user2. When I login as user1, and then switch to user2 using su, I can execute command-line programs, but GUI programs fail.

Example:

user1@laptop:~$ su - user2
user2@laptop:~$ leafpad ~/somefile.txt
No protocol specified
leafpad: Cannot open display:

So how can I run a GUI application?

Best Answer

su vs. su -

When becoming another user you generally want to use su - user2. The dash will force user2's .bash_profile to get sourced.

xhost

Additionally you'll need to grant users access to your display. This is governed by X. You can use the command xhost + to allow other users permission to display GUI's to user1's desktop.

NOTE: When running xhost + you'll want to run this while still in a shell that belongs to user1.

$DISPLAY

When you become user2 you may need to set the environment variable $DISPLAY.

$ export DISPLAY=:0.0

Related Solutions

X11 forwarding does not work if su to another user

The below steps should fix the issue for you.

Say it's working for user1 and you want to use it for user2

For user1:

$ xauth list $DISPLAY
<output1>
$ echo $DISPLAY
<outoput2>

Switch to other user , i.e user2

$ xauth add <output1> 
$ export DISPLAY=<output2>

Try:

$ xclock