"E233: cannot open display" when starting gvim on root shell

TsanChung · 08-30-2009, 08:49 AM

"sudo gvim" is ok on a non-root shell.
$ sudo gvim /etc/fstab
[sudo] password for ts:

However, "E233: cannot open display" error appears when starting gvim on ubuntu 8.04root shell.
# gvim /etc/fstab
E233: cannot open display
Press ENTER or type command to continue
# kdesudo gvim /etc/fstab
kdesudo: cannot connect to X server

tredegar · 08-30-2009, 10:40 AM

Use gtksu gvim /etc/fstab or, if running KDE kdesu ....

TsanChung · 08-31-2009, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

Use gtksu gvim /etc/fstab or, if running KDE kdesu ....

# kdesu gvim x
kdesu: cannot connect to X server

tredegar · 08-31-2009, 08:24 AM

Quote:

# kdesu gvim x
kdesu: cannot connect to X server

No, you cannot use kdesu (are you running KDE or Gnome?) like this.
You need to be running as a regular user, then for KDE:

Code:

tred@vaio:~$ kdesu kate x

or for gnome:

Code:

tred@vaio:~$ gtksu kate x

If you are in a "real" terminal like <CTRL><ALT><F1-6> (and not a terminal window in your GUI) then neither method will work for you.

TsanChung · 09-08-2009, 09:10 AM

The problem is solved by
$ sudo cp $HOME/.Xauthority /root/.Xauthority

NGC_7492 · 04-26-2020, 01:18 PM

I found that copying .Xauthority from my user account to my root account did not work. I still got the error "E233: cannot open display" when starting gvim from the root account.

What DID work was adding this line to root's .basrc file:

export DISPLAY=':0.0'

where 0.0 is what is shown when you enter this command from your user account's terminal:

echo $DISPLAY