AIX

disabled the direct root login on all the AIX LPARs. So' only can become root by "su" to root from normal/regular user account.

Issue is, I cannot open xwindows (xterm or xming) from my LPAR as a root. But I can open/access Xwindows using a USER account.

Code:

[root@aixlpar]/>xclock
Error: Can't open display:

X11forwarding enabled in ssh config file.

i did checked online, found below post. But it did not help.
How to handle X11 Forwarding using SSH


As a work around, enabled direct login. and restarted the sshd. Then, it worked. (middleware team requested us to provide this capability, they need to upgrade something via installtion manager)

Please let me know, How can we access/open xwindows/xterm as root (when direct root login disabled).

looks more like you didnt set your DISPLAY variable:
to confirm:

Code:

echo $DISPLAY

If empty , that is your issue...

This is waht it could look like when using ssh:

Code:

 $ echo $DISPLAY
localhost:17.0

if you can start X11 applications using your own user, but not root, run the command from vbe's post (echo $DISPLAY) first as user, then as root and find the difference.

Thanks for the reply vbe.

echo $DISPLAY

did not write anything. But, if you directly login using root. It automatically set DISPLAY to

localhost:12.0


I did tried after setting up DISPALY for root,

Code:

[user@aixlpar]/home/user>su - root
root's Password:
[root@aixlpar]/>bash
[root@aixlpar]/>echo $DISPLAY

[root@aixlpar]/>export DISPLAY=localhost:17.0
[root@aixlpar]/>echo $DISPLAY
localhost:17.0
[root@aixlpar]/>xclock
Error: Can't open display: localhost:17.0
[root@aixlpar]/>

---------- Post updated at 10:30 AM ---------- Previous update was at 10:28 AM ----------

@agent.kgb,

Thanks for the reply. I've tried using user and as a root. please see above post. still its an issue.

---------- Post updated at 10:44 AM ---------- Previous update was at 10:30 AM ----------

difference is here,

as user
[user@aixlpar]/home/user>echo $DISPLAY
localhost:10.0


as root
[root@aixlpar]/>echo $DISPLAY

What's wrong with having to do a su to root?
I would not accept that either and would use sudo... because now you have a user who knows the root passwd...
As a user if you sudo as root, the DISPLAY variable follows also...

What you are trying to do might take time, as it was discussed years ago as a security breach : we used to block access to root except on console, but the rascals coul connect as root via X11...
I remember seeing it was corrected ( didnt try though...) but did not follow to see how/what was done...
That said here no middleware team has root access, e.g. when installing ORACLE , at a point they need to execute root.sh as root, they have to ask a sysadm to do that... They dont ask me because I want to see the script and analyse first what its doing...

oh about :

Code:

as root
[root@aixlpar]/>echo $DISPLAY

Is that a new ssh connection? if so its has another display affected...
But if its an ssh from a new xterm of the user e.g.
Here I did ssh n12...

Code:

n12:/home/vbe $ echo $DISPLAY
n12:/home/vbe $ export DISPLAY=localhost:17.0
n12:/home/vbe $ xclock&
[1]     8585272

and using sudo:

Code:

n12:/home/vbe $ sudo su
n12:/home/vbe $ id
uid=0(root) gid=0(system) groups=2(bin),3(sys),7(security),8(cron),10(audit),11(lp)
evian12:/home/vbe $ xclock&
[1]     6160640

@Vbe

Thanks for the reply. here " user " am referring it to as a system admin who knows the root password.
and has the capabilities to do su - root using their USER ID's. root password is not shared to other regular/app/db users.

I agree with you. But here in this case, unfortunately middle ware software installed using root credentials. (by co-ordinating with UNIX team, not shared the password).

there is no need to enable X11 at all for root, if they can run/upgrade via command line option.
but, they want to go with GUI mode/Installation Manager option. (which needs browser/X11)

This particular test server does not have sudo. will isntall and try your suggestion.

Thanks for your time.

maybe it is not the best solution to your problem, but everytime you log in as a user, issue the command and look at the output.

Code:

[user@aixlpar]/home/user>echo $DISPLAY
localhost:10.0

Then, after you did su or sudo just the variable again to the value, you've observed earlier:

Code:

[user@aixlpar]/home/user>su - root
[root@aixlpar]/> export DISPLAY=localhost:10.0
[root@aixlpar]/> xclock