[sf-lug] root, X11 8-O (was: GKsu has long been EOLed)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu):

> Feel free to comment on the great/horrible security, etc.
> (dis)advantages to the above approach (and other bits I mentioned about
> specific X access/permissions) ... and, apologies that I've not already
> (or at least not recently) looked on Rick's relevant web page to see if
> that might already be covered there.

Roping in virt-manager for the task isn't covered, but the rest of what
you mention of messing with the DISPLAY variable and grabbing and
reusing the MIT magic cookie (traditionally using xauth) is covered --
because that's the primordial solution, after all.

It was always messy and fiddly enough, especially having to work around
permission issues, etc., that it inspired creation of all
of those X11-forwarding wrapper tools (including GKsu), specifically to
avoid having to think about that stuff and get it right.  (ssh -Y
root at localhost) has the same no-brainer appeal.)

Personally, I like simple and reliable and easy to understand and
works-everywhere-there's-ssh.  ;->