Knowledge Base

Preserving for the future: Shell scripts, AoC, and more

Use su with ssh X-forwarding

This is a shameless ripoff of Howto use su with ssh x-forwarding [coderwall.com] If you ssh to a server and want to do X forwarding, make sure the server allows it in /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

X11Forwarding yes

And then your ssh command should include -X, or make sure your ~/.ssh/config includes:

ForwardX11 yes

Command:

ssh -X servername

And once on the server, prepare your xauth file to be shared the other user before switching and merging it.

xauth extract /tmp/x $DISPLAY
chmod 0644 /tmp/x
su otherusername
xauth merge /tmp/x
updated 2020-11-17

Make sure that xauth is installed on your system!

References

Web searches

ssh x forwarding with su

Comments