I've seen this question a lot on this list, and although this (xhost) is a working solution, it seems to be considered to be a bit of a security hole (anyone logged on to the localhost can access the X-Server, and thus monitor keys and find out peoples passwords).
If you set the XAUTHORITY variable in your environment as root to be /<home_path_of_the_person_running_the_xserver>/.Xauthority, eg by adding: export XAUTHORITY=/home/<user>/.Xauthority to the .bashrc of root (if you are using the bash shell), then root can open windows on user's xserver. Beware, however, that you will have a problem if you try to start an X-server as root, as it will try and use an old/non-existent(?) copy of .Xauthority from user's home directory. To get around this, you would need to unset the XAUTHORITY variable in root's environment. However, I belive running X as root is also considered to be the wrong thing to do. hope this help Rich Phil Dyer wrote: > > Pollywog wrote: > > > I am getting this MAGIC COOKIE error when I try to run some X stuff as root. > > Is there something I can add to my profile in order to avoid it? > > > > Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server > > Xlib: Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key > > ktail: cannot connect to X server :0.0 > > > > thanks > > > > -- > > Andrew > > > > -- > > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < > > /dev/nullman > > man xhost > > -- > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null