Arch Linux

band-aid

Member

Registered: 2008-06-07

Posts: 10

issues running things as root inside KDE

This is my first attempt at running KDE4 so things are a bit alien to me. On my laptop, which uses xfce4 and ratpoison as window managers, I am able to run applications as root by opening an xterm (or whatever terminal), su'ing to root, and doing what needs to be done. However if I su to root and try to edit a file as root using vim for example, I get an error message upon close that looks like this.

Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 keyInvalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 keyInvalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key

Also, if I try to run wireshark as root to do some packet captures or some other GUI application that requires root I get an error like this.

(process:3949): Gdk-WARNING **: locale not supportedby C library

(process:3949): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supportedby C library.
        Using the fallback 'C' locale.
Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key
(wireshark:3949): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0

From what I understand about the problem KDE is preventing other users from starting applications inside an X session that they did not start. What is the best way to rectify this situation? I would prefer to not open up gaping security holes.

Is this a KDE specific thing? Why haven't I had these problems on my laptop which is also running arch?

Thanks for your time,
band-aid