[plug] apologies, real n00b question.

[Kirk Turner]

> > >When I do the xhost, I get :
> > >db2inst1 at Selous:~> xhost + selous
> > >xhost:  unable to open display "selous:0"

What system are you using? I know on debian that remote connections to
the desktop are disabled by default. I forget the configuration
setting that turns it back on (I'm not currently on debian) - but I
normally get around this by using sudo instead to run root commands on
the existing desktop.

If it is a permissions issue you might be able to do the following:
test at localhost:~$ su -
root at localhost:~# xauth merge ~user/.Xauthority
root at localhost:~# export DISPLAY=:0.0
root at localhost:~# xterm #or whatever Xwindow program you want to run

I grabbed this code from here:
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Security/root-with-x11.html

Hope that helps,
Kirk