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Ubuntu 17.10 Tip: Graphical Apps Doesn’t Launch via Root, Sudo, Gksu

Last updated: October 11, 2017

Ubuntu 17.10 uses Wayland in the default session and Xorg for optional. However, many graphical applications need to run as root so far does not launch in Wayland.

You’ll get following similar errors while running graphical applications via root:

  1. For some applications, e.g., Synaptic Package Manager, Grub Customizer, Gparted, and Ubuntu Tweak, they does not launch in Wayland.

    Or you may get following error when trying to launch them via gksu command:

    Failed to run *** as user root. Unable to copy the user’s Xauthorization file.

  2. Starting graphical application via sudo in terminal window will get error:

    No protocol specified. Gtk-WARNING **: Cannot open display: :0

The most straightforward workaround is to use xhost to temporarily allow the root user to access the local user’s X session.

To do so, run command:

xhost si:localuser:root

After running the command, these graphical applications can be launched from app launcher or via sudo, gksu, pkexec commands until you log out.

To make this work automatically at login, search for and launch Startup Applications utility, click the “Add” button to run the command at startup:

  • name: whatever
  • command: xhost si:localuser:root
  • comment: whatever

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    31 responses to Ubuntu 17.10 Tip: Graphical Apps Doesn’t Launch via Root, Sudo, Gksu

    1. Alex October 11, 2017 at 11:13 pm

      You can also use xhost + to allow and xhost – to return it to the default state.

    2. Hemal October 21, 2017 at 4:39 pm

      Thanks a lot !!

    3. Turunci October 23, 2017 at 10:43 pm

      You are the boss!

    4. Nikolay October 25, 2017 at 4:10 pm

      Thanks a lot! You saved me a lot of time!

    5. RandLoki October 26, 2017 at 12:56 pm

      Great! Do you think this is just a short term fix?

    6. Kahina October 30, 2017 at 7:40 pm

      Thank you man! I finally found a solution after a whole day of searching the web. I tried everything but nothing seemed to work.

    7. irf November 5, 2017 at 4:58 am

      thanks, it works for me!

    8. caravaglia November 8, 2017 at 2:58 am

      Thanks, saved me hours of work. All the best, Caravaglia

    9. Otto November 9, 2017 at 12:47 pm

      Here are some workarounds that I use…

      Gedit: use ‘sudo -e’ which copies the file to a temporary location, edits it, then copies it back

      Gparted: use the Gnome ‘disks’ which is installed by default

      Synaptic Package Manager: use ‘apt show ‘ and ‘apt list **’

    10. Dan November 9, 2017 at 4:01 pm

      HI, need help…cannot start Unetbootin with this workaround…any idea? Thx

      Dan

      • Ji m November 9, 2017 at 4:24 pm

        Unetbootin is an exception. However, it should launch via terminal command:

        sudo unetbootin

        Or leave Wayland and select login with session ‘Ubuntu on Xorg’.

        • Dan November 10, 2017 at 11:11 am

          HI, thx a lot!

          my system seems to be f*ed up… with sudo I see an empty unetbootin box and get a multitude of error messages in terminal (invalid shared segment parameter)

          and (after installing and deinstalling many desktops to play) I dont have the option of x.org anymore

          hmmmm…

          can I reinstall 17.10 without overwriting everything?

          Thx a lot

          Dan

          • Ji m November 10, 2017 at 2:50 pm

            Reinstalling Ubuntu overwrites everything, unless you installed /home in a separate partition.

            Try timeshift to create system restore point, so you can easily restore your Ubuntu to original status after messing it up.

      • Ben Leverett April 4, 2018 at 3:23 am

        It took me trying just about everything I could think of; (hehe, I couldn’t resist) “on Earth, and throughout Heaven above; but, after about (and significant amounts of hair pulling) three hours, I finally found “a” (at least; at the very “minimum requirements” baseline; necessarily, only for Unetbootin, and only one single instance) productive workaround. I don’t know how long it’ll continue to work’; the full GUI of Unetbootin, is presently running, as I’m typing this response, but for how long ——- I make no promises; but it’s working right now, and that’s good enough for me.

        • Ben Leverett April 4, 2018 at 3:48 am

          Now; suffice to say; I tried a number of different things, but the specific combination of thing, that I think did it for me, are/were: 1. I installed Gnome-Panel; 2. I logged out, then immediately (without restarting my computer) back in, which; I can only guess, inferring from my observation’s; forced the system to use Xorg, instead of wayland; 3. Finally, I edited the command, of the Startup Menu entry, for Unetbootin, to use the code (/usr/bin/unetbootin ‘rootcheck=no’) of the original error I got, while trying to run from the Terminal, with user @Ji m’s previous suggestion.

    11. Jakub Sobolewski November 10, 2017 at 8:28 pm

      Thank you! This post is exactly what i was looking for for last 30 minutes.

    12. Bleachbiter December 8, 2017 at 6:21 pm

      Bleachbit doesn’t work.

    13. Mateo December 16, 2017 at 6:07 pm

      Thank you! It works for me!

    14. Aditya January 1, 2018 at 5:28 pm

      Hello Ji m,
      I tried the above command but it says
      No Protocol Specified
      xhost: unable to open display “:0”

      Please help me

    15. Bob January 11, 2018 at 8:47 pm

      $ sudo -H nautilus
      $ pkexec nautilus
      $ nautilus admin:///

    16. narioinc January 12, 2018 at 1:49 pm

      Thanks works like a charm !!!

    17. chau.laurent January 13, 2018 at 11:05 am

      你好
      多谢
      .
      Bonjour,
      Merci beaucoup.
      (fr)

    18. Mike Kribuy January 16, 2018 at 7:59 am

      Doesn’t work at all. xhost si:localuser:root simply gives a bunch of “out of bounds” errors and other gobbledygook, and nothing changes.

    19. Joseph January 20, 2018 at 1:39 pm

      That’s great thank you bleach bit it’s working.

    20. nans January 26, 2018 at 6:26 pm

      Please – Can you help?

      xhost si:localuser:root
      No protocol specified
      xhost: unable to open display “:0”

      it doesn’t work for me.

    21. darren February 22, 2018 at 7:48 pm

      I find this version of Ubuntu to have many unresolved bugs. I do not think it is at standard to be released into the wild unless you much have time to waste finding bug solutions. I have decided to remove this version.

    22. ghada ezzat March 25, 2018 at 9:57 am

      it worked for me ,thanx

    23. Hamza Awan April 3, 2018 at 6:44 pm

      Still Same Error
      /home/hamza/Pictures/Screenshot from 2018-04-03 23-43-38.png

    24. David Fleener April 15, 2018 at 12:18 pm

      Just found this post. I tried this on my computer and it worked for me! Now, I can run Synaptic Package Manager again. Thanks!

    25. Geoff May 10, 2018 at 2:14 pm

      Awesome! Thanks mate