X11: run a gnome app as another user

Question

I have ubuntu + x11 + gnome.

I want to run a graphical application as another user.

However, when I start it from the command line using sudo -u otheruser app I get the error "No protocol specified".

How can I work arround this?

will be moved to superuser.com – Jeff Atwood Jul 14 '09 at 08:56 — Jeff Atwood, Jul 14 '09 at 08:56

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 14 '13 at 15:41

13

xhost '+si:localuser:USERNAME'

answered Nov 14 '13 at 15:41

mykhal

19,175
11
72
80

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 01 '11 at 15:37

8

Execute this command first:

$ sudo xhost +

Then run the command you want as the other user:

$ sudo -i -u username
$ command you want to run

When you are done:

$ sudo xhost -

edited Feb 01 '11 at 15:37

Justin Weeks

368
3
5

answered Jul 14 '09 at 08:44

codeape

97,830
24
159
188

Nice find. Now Chrome and Flash runs fine as different user, but to get audio you need to pkill the pulseaudio-daemon of the current user first. – Stefan Steiger Apr 30 '11 at 11:32
8

`sudo xhost +local:` if you don't want connections from the internet – maxy Jul 24 '11 at 11:57
1

`xhost +` is **highly unsafe**: It will allow any user to connect to your X session and open windows to you. – trapicki May 22 '17 at 18:29
xhost +username to add username to list of users with access to the X server. Then xhost -username to remove that user afterwards – miller the gorilla Oct 25 '18 at 08:09

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 14 '09 at 09:01

3

Use

xdg-su -u user -c command

answered Jul 14 '09 at 09:01

Robert Munteanu

67,031
36
206
278

I believe you still need to use xhost to allow local connections from any user. – codeape Jul 15 '09 at 08:16
man xdg-su: xdg-su is for use inside a desktop session only. – Robert Munteanu Jul 15 '09 at 08:46

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 07 '21 at 04:27

Most solutions provided here don't integrate with Wayland and PulseAudio.

I wrote ego (Alter Ego) for this use case, it automatically handles xhost and Wayland and PulseAudio socket sharing: https://github.com/intgr/ego

So you just run ego app or ego -u somebody app

If you run into problems, please open an issue on GitHub. I may be the only user of it, so it hasn't gotten much testing yet.

(And I notice that I'm a decade late with this answer, but hopefully it will help somebody :D)

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 14 '09 at 08:42

1

You probably need to tell your X server to accept connections from another user than the one owning the server instance (you). Look into the xhost command.

answered Jul 14 '09 at 08:42

unwind

391,730
64
469
606

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 14 '09 at 13:53

0

gksudo -u command

answered Jul 14 '09 at 13:53

Tried this on my Ubuntu desktop, it did not work (same error msg. as in question). – codeape Jul 15 '09 at 08:14

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered May 22 '17 at 18:27

gksu -u <user> -c <command>

Replace <user> with the username to run the command as, and <command> with the command you want to run. Remember that the program will be run in the <user>s context, but in the current directory.

In the popping up window, enter the password of the target <user> of course.

X11: run a gnome app as another user

7 Answers7

Linked