quick reminder: Getting X11 forwarding through ssh working after running su

$ xauth list $DISPLAY
You’ll get something like

somehost.somedomain:10 mit-magic-cookie-1 4d22408a71a55b41ccd1657d377923ae

Then, after having done su, tell the new user what the cookie is:

$ xauth add somehost.somedomain:10 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 4d22408a71a55b41ccd1657d377923ae

(just copy’n-paste the output of the above ‘xauth list’ onto ‘xauth add’) That’s it. Now, you _should_ be able to start any X application.

references:

1. http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/494

related:

1. http://www.windowsecurity.com/whitepapers/Improving_XWindows_security.html