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Date:      02 Jul 2000 13:05:09 -0700
From:      Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com>
To:        freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: X-display from laptop to desk
Message-ID:  <m2n1k08fii.fsf@reader.ptw.com>
In-Reply-To: Ollivier Robert's message of "Sun, 2 Jul 2000 19:19:02 %2B0200"
References:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007011813061.500-100000@heaven.gigo.com> <m2bt0gy1qp.fsf@reader.ptw.com> <20000702191902.A34291@keltia.freenix.fr>

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Ollivier Robert <roberto@keltia.freenix.fr> writes:

> According to Harry Putnam:
> > Ahhh... ok so su root *before* ssh'ing  that make sense.
> 
> But you don't want to ssh as root.
> 
> Instead of ssh-ing as root, use some utility such as calife (found in
> ports/security/calife) or sudo to become root. That way, the authentication is
> not a problem anymore.

A private poster has had this to say on the subject (hope he doesn't
mind my posting it)

When you connect ssh creates a cookie file that contains a random secret
that X applications use to authenticate themselves to the X server (to
prevent other users on the same system hijacking your X session).  An
environment variable called XAUTHORITY is created with the path to this
file.  An environment called DISPLAY is also created which tells X clients
which host and ports the X server is running on.  e.g. on my system when I
ssh to another host my environment will have something like the following:

	DISPLAY=server.domain.ac.uk:11.0
	XAUTHORITY=/tmp/ssh-jsQ74750/cookies


Sounds as if (posters suggestion) another good way to do this is to
set those VARS in the root shell created.   I'm using plain su like:

$ su <PASSWORD> <RET> Using bash shell on both user and root accounts
but I do *NOT* see the XAUTHORITY var.

$  echo $XAUTHORITY ..... nothing  from the sshed shell on remote.

In fact I've done a little experimenting and find that the ENV settings
hardly change.  Here is what I did:

ssh satellite to get shell as user reader on remote <satellite>

$ env >reader.env

$ su <PASSWORD>
 # env >root.env

Now run diff on the two files:

diff root.env  reader.env

   10,11c10,11

   <   PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:\
       /usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/root/bin

   < HOME=/root
   ---

   > PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:\
     /usr/X11R6/bin

   > HOME=/home/reader
   13c13
   < PS1=`id -un`@`hostname|sed s/[.].*n//` `pwd`\nbsd # 
   ---
   > PS1=`id -un`@`hostname|sed s/[.].*n//` `pwd`\nbsd > 
   22c22
   < SHLVL=2
   ---
   > SHLVL=1

Nothing concerning authorization of any kind.  Yet after suing I call
vim I get the error messges mentioned

Another factor in this is that the initial xterm on the local machine
is an xterm created by `ssh-agent' and `ssh-add' to add the
authorization.

From that shell I'm ssh'ing to remote running 4.0 snap 06/24.  

So still don't quite see what is happening here.


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