[Sussex] Newcomer

[John D.]

Steve Dobson wrote:

>Dave
>
>On Tue, Sep 20, 2005 at 10:39:02AM +0100, Dave Chapman wrote:
>  
>
>>Login as martin then in the xterm type 
>>su
>>    
>>
>
>When `su'ing to root one should always use "su -".  The flag causes the
>su(1) command to throw away the current users profile and replace it
>with the new users (the default being root).  Of course to be really
>safe you should use "/bin/su -" to make sure your not using a user
>hacked version of su(1).
>
>This is a good security step.  An environment can over anything on a 
>*nix system, and the users could have trogan horse libraries that 
>capture passwords and the like.
>
>  
>
>>	then the root password that you should have setup during install
>>Then type 
>>yast2
>>	If that does not work try
>>yast
>>
>>yast2 is the nicer graphical version of yast
>>    
>>
>
>If you're going to be using a graphical program then before using "su -"
>one needs to first run the command "xhost +".  This allows any user to
>put a graphical window upon the user's display.  If you don't use "su -"
>but just "su" then the user's environment is still in place and his
>graphic authority is being used.
>
>Once you have "su -"ed then you also need to issue the command:
>   export DISPLAY=:0.0
>in order for the graphics programs to know where to put their displays.
>
I wondered how that was done - because I have a rubbish memory for 
commands and the like, except when I try the above I just get

john at localhost ~ $ xhost +
access control disabled, clients can connect from any host
john at localhost ~ $ su -
Password:
localhost ~ # xhost +
xhost:  unable to open display ""
localhost ~ #

Correct me if I've understood what you posted wrongly Steve, if I do the 
xhost + command, when I then do the su- (or is it suspace-???) it should 
allow me to open a graphical root window (like I'd get if I was actually 
logged in graphically as root) ???

regards

John D.