X11 Connection Rejected Because of Wrong Authentication

Question

I'm trying to run gparted on my Raspberry Pi. After logging in with ssh -X pi@pi and trying to run sudo gparted, I get the error message...

X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication.

When I try xauth list, nothing is shown, meaning that the xauth file is missing. What is the easiest way of getting the X11 forwarding to work?

Edit: I tried the suggestion from below, but the first step already fails:

root@raspberrypi:~# xauth list $DISPLAY

xauth: file /root/.Xauthority does not exist

How do I generate this file?

Is there actually an X session to forward the remote session to? You're not doing this in putty are you?! — Jivings, Aug 26 '12 at 21:03

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 25 '12 at 21:39

13

A convenient way is to use the gksudo command instead. (From the debian package "gksu").

answered Aug 25 '12 at 21:39

sourcejedi

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Yeah, this is probably a better, easier solution. – Jivings Aug 26 '12 at 10:44
I tried solutions using xauth and similar stuff but this was the only solution that actually worked for me! – Hiura Oct 17 '16 at 09:02

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 25 '12 at 20:58

10

The problem is that the X session for the superuser doesn't know what the cookie is.

After logging into the Pi execute the following:

$ xauth list $DISPLAY

This prints the cookie, something like this:

pi:10 mit-magic-cookie-1 4d22408aga55sad1ccd165723g77923ae

Then switch the superuser with su and set the cookie:

# xauth add pi:10 mit-magic-cookie-1 4d22408aga55sad1ccd165723g77923ae

X-forwarding should now work for root.

answered Aug 25 '12 at 20:58

Jivings

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Is there an arguement you can pass to sudo? – Alex Chamberlain Aug 25 '12 at 21:33
@AlexChamberlain Not that I know of. – Jivings Aug 26 '12 at 10:43
This doesn't work, unfortunately. See my edit in the original post. – Eekhoorn Aug 26 '12 at 16:46
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@zenbomb It appears you ran xauth list as root, which of course fails. You want to list the cookies for the user and add them for root. – XTL Aug 27 '12 at 06:41
xauth merge is so much more convenient than xauth list followed by xauth add. – Jon Watte Oct 27 '17 at 00:45

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 30 '20 at 10:07

5

So I had the same error:

xauth: file /root/.Xauthority does not exist

when trying to add the cookie to the root account using (example only)

xauth add pi:10 mit-magic-cookie-1 4d22408aga55sad1ccd165723g77923ae

I solved this problem by creating the missing /root/.Xauthority file (logged in as root):

touch /root/.Xauthority

The command touch creates an empty file. I hope this helps.

edited Dec 30 '20 at 10:07

Greenonline

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answered Jan 22 '13 at 19:32

nagalman

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 06 '15 at 10:48

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Solution:

1. ssh mitter@host'

2. $ sudo su

3. # xauth merge /home/mitter/.Xauthority

Configure $DISPLAY variable, if it is not configured.

answered Oct 06 '15 at 10:48

Mitter Singh Thakur

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what is mitter? – Steve Robillard Oct 06 '15 at 18:53
"mitter" is his particular user name. What user name you want to merge depends on what system you're running, and what user you're logging in as initially. On a Raspberry Pi, the default user name is "pi." On many Ubuntu installations, the default user name is "ubuntu." – Jon Watte Oct 27 '17 at 00:44

score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 09 '15 at 15:26

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i fixed it with a symbolic link:

ln -s /home/[my username]/.Xauthority /root/.Xauthority

answered Oct 09 '15 at 15:26

Pfuscher

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Bad idea. That will create a permissions problem for [username] if you use the root account with X. – goldilocks Oct 09 '15 at 17:41

score -2 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 26 '14 at 06:20

-2

i just cp'ed the .Xauthority from /home/user to /root

answered Dec 26 '14 at 06:20

steve summers

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This is officially frowned upon because it establishes bad habits which get you in trouble on multi-user machines. Works like a treat on single user machines. – hildred Dec 26 '14 at 12:51

X11 Connection Rejected Because of Wrong Authentication

6 Answers6