Can not run Programs that Require Root Access

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

Ashley Pritchard wrote:
> OK I was at work today & was thinking about what I was doing before my
> problem of not being able to run programs as root from my user acct &
> did a little bit of research on the issue.
> In this process I cam over the suggestion to edit /root/.bashrc & add:
> export XAUTHORITY= /home/awp/.Xauthority so I did.
> The result was: export '/home/awp/.Xauthority': not a valid identifier
> The next suggestion I found was to use the command '-d' which just did
> not work at all because it was not recognized at all.
> Then the next suggestion was to use xhost to verify that it is set to
> permit connections from machine. The result was:
> access control enabled, only autherized clients can connect
> INET: localhost.localdomane
> SI: localuser:awp
> 
> Then the next suggestion I found was back to 'xhost +localhost' before
> useing su to log in to root & then doing 'export DISPLAY=:0' aft loging
> in as root. Well this did not work better that the last time I used the
> command xhost +localhost.
> Then I found another suggestion which is to use the command 'xauth merge
> /home/awp/.Xauthority'
> The result:
> xauth merge /home/awp/.Xauthority
> xauth: creating new authority file /home/awp/.Xauthority
> xauth: (argv):1: merge: unable to open file /home/awp/.Xauthority
> 
> So none of the suggestions seem that I could find seemed to work for me
> & the last suggestion was to uninstall & reinstall X. I did not want to
> do this so I started thinking & recalling what exactly I did before this
> issue occurred. Other than installing DVD & mp3 support I was messing
> with xnest attempting to open GDM in a nested window so that I could
> graphically login as root via my user account. So I uninstalled
> xorg-x11-server-xnest but that did not resolve my issue.
> 
> Then I remembered that I had changed my intel integrated graphics driver
> from the  'Intel - Experimental mode setting driver for Intel integrated
> graphics chipsets' to  the 'i810 intel integrated graphics chipset
> including i810, i815, 830m, 845G, 852GM, 865G, 915G, 915GM, 945GM'. So I
> switched the graphics driver back the the 'experimental' driver. That
> did not work either.
> 
> Then I had found a file /root/.bash_history which contains the history
> of bash commands made in the terminal. A series of commands that I had
> entered jarred my memory. I was attempting to get another desktop
> manager installed call Enlightenment & int the process one of the
> dependencies was XFree86. When I attempted to install XFree86  it
> required several directories to be created: /usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontdir and
> /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth so I had created those directories. And that is
> when thiss issue started occurring.
> 
> SO THE SOLUTION TO MY ISSUE: was to delete /X11R6/bin/xauth & /mkfontdir
> in the /usr directory.
> Now I am able to use su root to login as root from my user account once
> again so that I can use programs that require root.
> 
> Thanks for all the attempts to help me.
> 
You didn't install XFree86 from an RPM, did you? Both Xorg and
XFree86 are X server packages. As you have discovered, they do not
co-exist too well together. You may discover other strange problems
down the road. It all depends on what files from Xorg were replaced
with files from XFree86, and how they differ. Xorg was forked off of
XFree86 when the licence for the XFree86 package was changed, and
from what I have read, most of the developers moved to the Xorg, and
development on XFree86 ground to a halt. You may be better off in
the long run to re-install the Xorg packages after removing XFree86.
(It is possible to use rpm to install an already installed package
again, but I do not think yum supports it.)

Mikkel
-- 

A:  Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q:  Why is top-posting a bad thing?


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