X11 forwarding after su

[cah]

I was having issues export X apps to local workstation from UNIX servers after su to other users.
It either shows no display or broken X.

I did some research and found the key is the .Xauthority. If I can get it to merge into other users' .Xauthority, the X11 forwarding under SSH would work perfectly.

Attached is a step by step instruction to show users how to get it done with screenshots in it.

The steps are:

1. Connect to the server as yourself (no special account like root, admin and others)
2. Find DISPLAY value
   • echo $DISPLAY (keep this for later use)
3. Change permission on .Xauthority
   • chmod 644 .Xauthority
4. Become root user by using sudo
   • sudo su
5. Become app user by using su
   • su - <appuser>
6. Merge your .Xauthority into this app user’s .Xauthority (it will create a new one if it does not exist)
   • HP-UX: /usr/bin/X11/xauth merge $HOME/.Xauthority ($HOME is your home directory)
   • Solaris: /usr/openwin/X11/xauth merge $HOME/.Xauthority ($HOME is your home directory
7. Set DISPLAY environment variable
   • HP-UX: setenv DISPLAY xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:yy.z (value from step 5a)
   • Solaris: export DISPLAY=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:yy.z (value from step 5a)
8. Try to launch X Clock
   • HP-UX: /usr/bin/X11/xclock
   • Solaris: /usr/openwin/X11/xclock
9. It works if you see the xclock!!

Here comes the attachment with screenshots.

X11 forwarding after su.pdf

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