[Bug 1652282] Re: Xwayland not using XAUTHORITY, prevents root applications from connecting

[Nikita Yerenkov-Scott]

I am afraid that this is a Wayland security feature and that it is not
going to be removed just because some users don't like it or don't
understand why it is there. As a workaround you can just carry on using
Xorg, but under Wayland the program has to be adapted in order not to
run the whole program and GUI as root but rather just the specific
things within it that need that.

I'm not sure that there actually is anything the Ubuntu people can
actually do about this though unless they hack at Wayland and make it
less secure. If you want to change Wayland then file an upstream report
about this. Ubuntu is really just packaging and redistributing this
stuff.

** Changed in: gparted (Ubuntu)
       Status: Invalid => Confirmed

** Summary changed:

- Xwayland not using XAUTHORITY, prevents root applications from connecting
+ GParted does not work in GNOME on Wayland

** Tags added: yakkety

** Description changed:

- When running wayland, GDM fails to set up an XAUTHORITY file and instead
- relies on the process UID for authentication.  This prevents
- applications run as root, like gparted or synaptic from connecting to
- the server.  GDM needs to set up the XAUTHORITY file when running
- Xwayland just like it does when it runs the conventional Xorg.
+ I have found that after switching from Xorg to Wayland on Ubuntu GNOME
+ 16.10 with GNOME 3.22 that GParted does not run when I try to run it as
+ root. That is when I click the icon and enter my password nothing
+ happens. I have found that when running what is run when the icon is
+ clicked that the output in Terminal is (gparted-pkexec):
+ 
+     Created symlink /run/systemd/system/-.mount → /dev/null.
+     Created symlink /run/systemd/system/boot-efi.mount → /dev/null.
+     Created symlink /run/systemd/system/boot.mount → /dev/null.
+     Created symlink /run/systemd/system/run-user-1000.mount → /dev/null.
+     Created symlink /run/systemd/system/run-user-120.mount → /dev/null.
+     Created symlink /run/systemd/system/tmp.mount → /dev/null.
+     No protocol specified
+ 
+     (gpartedbin:16832): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0
+     Removed /run/systemd/system/-.mount.
+     Removed /run/systemd/system/boot-efi.mount.
+     Removed /run/systemd/system/boot.mount.
+     Removed /run/systemd/system/run-user-1000.mount.
+     Removed /run/systemd/system/run-user-120.mount.
+     Removed /run/systemd/system/tmp.mount.
+ 
+ So I am now unable to launch and use GParted as root which is really the
+ only way I can run it in order to make changes.
+ 
+ ProblemType: Bug
+ DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.10
+ Package: gparted 0.25.0-1
+ ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.8.0-32.34-generic 4.8.11
+ Uname: Linux 4.8.0-32-generic x86_64
+ ApportVersion: 2.20.3-0ubuntu8.2
+ Architecture: amd64
+ CurrentDesktop: GNOME
+ Date: Fri Dec 23 11:13:13 2016
+ InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-05-15 (221 days ago)
+ InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Release amd64 (20151021)
+ SourcePackage: gparted
+ UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to yakkety on 2016-10-19 (64 days ago)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1652282

Title:
  GParted does not work in GNOME on Wayland

Status in gdm:
  Unknown
Status in GParted:
  Fix Released
Status in Ubuntu GNOME:
  Triaged
Status in wayland:
  New
Status in gparted package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  I have found that after switching from Xorg to Wayland on Ubuntu GNOME
  16.10 with GNOME 3.22 that GParted does not run when I try to run it
  as root. That is when I click the icon and enter my password nothing
  happens. I have found that when running what is run when the icon is
  clicked that the output in Terminal is (gparted-pkexec):

      Created symlink /run/systemd/system/-.mount → /dev/null.
      Created symlink /run/systemd/system/boot-efi.mount → /dev/null.
      Created symlink /run/systemd/system/boot.mount → /dev/null.
      Created symlink /run/systemd/system/run-user-1000.mount → /dev/null.
      Created symlink /run/systemd/system/run-user-120.mount → /dev/null.
      Created symlink /run/systemd/system/tmp.mount → /dev/null.
      No protocol specified

      (gpartedbin:16832): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0
      Removed /run/systemd/system/-.mount.
      Removed /run/systemd/system/boot-efi.mount.
      Removed /run/systemd/system/boot.mount.
      Removed /run/systemd/system/run-user-1000.mount.
      Removed /run/systemd/system/run-user-120.mount.
      Removed /run/systemd/system/tmp.mount.

  So I am now unable to launch and use GParted as root which is really
  the only way I can run it in order to make changes.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.10
  Package: gparted 0.25.0-1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.8.0-32.34-generic 4.8.11
  Uname: Linux 4.8.0-32-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.3-0ubuntu8.2
  Architecture: amd64
  CurrentDesktop: GNOME
  Date: Fri Dec 23 11:13:13 2016
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-05-15 (221 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Release amd64 (20151021)
  SourcePackage: gparted
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to yakkety on 2016-10-19 (64 days ago)

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