I cannot start graphical apps as root

Question

I used to be able to do so, but something as simple as this fails now:

gksudo gedit

and this also fails:

sudo gedit

I receive the error:

Cannot open display.

I haved checked this:

.Xauthority and .ICEauthority have my user as owner and also read/write permissions
As both files are binary, I cannot understand them and check if they are corrupted

Probably, I have some misconfiguration. I have read this before and many other guides before asking.

I'm using Ubuntu Precise 12.04 64-bit.

Why was this closed? The linked answer is quite obviously for a completely different question. — EML, Aug 04 '22 at 17:41

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 14 '12 at 06:01

0

You can try executing export DISPLAY=:0 before the command as a workaround.

Or, alternatively, use DISPLAY=:0 gksudo gedit.

answered Jul 14 '12 at 06:01

int_ua

Thanks for the answer, but it doesn't solve my problem. – Sanete Jul 26 '12 at 10:16

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

0

the answers you are locking for are

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Community

answered Jul 17 '12 at 21:26

Boris

Thanks Boris, I've discovered new tricks. But in my case it doesn't work. Muy user has permissions to sudo. – Sanete Jul 26 '12 at 10:22

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 02 '13 at 20:43

-1

Try this in a terminal:

su -

this will ask root password and give a root terminal session, this worked for me, I could run gedit without problems, for example.

answered Nov 02 '13 at 20:43

Elias

3 Answers3