[Bug 1652282] Re: Xwayland not using XAUTHORITY, prevents root applications from connecting

[Phillip Susi]

On 12/7/2017 3:39 PM, Jeremy Bicha wrote:
> $ sudo su
> root at mycomputer:/home/me# gedit
> No protocol specified
> Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
> 
> (gedit:4492): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0

sudo defaults to scrubbing the environment; use sudo -E gedit instead of
sudo su.  Or on Debian just use su without the - argument.  sudo was
explicitly configured to not scrub DISPLAY so that users can still run
X11 applications after sudoing, but has not been updated to include
WAYLAND_DISPLAY in that list.  You can also of course, simply set
WAYLAND_DISPLAY after sudoing to root.

> Therefore, I'm closing this bug. Sorry.

I'm sorry, but as long as the man page for gdm says that it will
configure an XAUTHORITY and it does not, this is ipso facto, a bug,
whatever you think about gui applications running as root.

If this really was an intentional change upstream, they should document
it in the NEWS and man page.  I certainly have not been able to find
anything in the changelog or git commit history that indicates this was
intentional, and of course, the man page should be updated to match the
new implementation if it was intended.



** Changed in: gdm3 (Ubuntu)
       Status: Won't Fix => New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1652282

Title:
  Xwayland not using XAUTHORITY, prevents root applications from
  connecting

Status in gdm:
  Confirmed
Status in GParted:
  Fix Released
Status in Ubuntu GNOME:
  Invalid
Status in gdm3 package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in gparted package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  When running wayland, GDM fails to set up an XAUTHORITY file and instead
  relies on the process UID for authentication.  This prevents
  applications run as root, like gparted or synaptic from connecting to
  the server.  GDM needs to set up the XAUTHORITY file when running
  Xwayland just like it does when it runs the conventional Xorg.

  A large list of applications broken by this can be found here:

  https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=Exec%3Dsu-to-
  root+filetype%3Adesktop+path%3A*%2Fapplications%2F*&perpkg=1

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