sudo not working in ubuntu

[Arghya Basak]

when I try sudo gedit the command does not work.
following is a sample output in terminal

arghya@arg-u2:~$ sudo gedit /etc/hosts
[sudo] password for arghya:
error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set in the environment.

(gedit:11805): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:
arghya@arg-u2:~$

pardon me for being a linux newbie.

[Filip Sohajek (filip-sohajek-deactivatedaccount)]

It's not a bug. SuperUser has no XDG_RUNTIME_DIR variable set. To fix it, replace sudo gedit call with
pkexec env DISPLAY=$DISPLAY XAUTHORITY=$XAUTHORITY gedit

[Arghya Basak (sendarghyamail)]

Working fine! But I wonder how in some machines(with the same ubuntu 14.04
LTS) just the 'sudo gedit ' command works ok.
Anyway, thanks a lot. :)

ARGHYA BASAK
Roll No. - ME13M006
M.Tech, Mechanical Engineering Department
IIT Madras

On Tue, Jun 17, 2014 at 6:49 PM, Filip Sohajek <email address hidden>
wrote:

> It's not a bug. SuperUser has no XDG_RUNTIME_DIR variable set. To fix it,
> replace sudo gedit call with
> pkexec env DISPLAY=$DISPLAY XAUTHORITY=$XAUTHORITY gedit
>
>
> ** Changed in: pam-xdg-support (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Invalid
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1330154
>
> Title:
> sudo not working in ubuntu
>
> Status in “pam-xdg-support” package in Ubuntu:
> Invalid
>
> Bug description:
> when I try sudo gedit the command does not work.
> following is a sample output in terminal
>
> arghya@arg-u2:~$ sudo gedit /etc/hosts
> [sudo] password for arghya:
> error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set in the environment.
>
> (gedit:11805): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:
> arghya@arg-u2:~$
>
> pardon me for being a linux newbie.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pam-xdg-support/+bug/1330154/+subscriptions
>

[Xavier (xavier-depedro)]

Hi there.

I wouldn't call it "invalid" bug report (considering the end-user perspective). As far as I remember, this hack (pkexec env DISPLAY=$DISPLAY XAUTHORITY=$XAUTHORITY gedit) was not needed in previous versions of Ubuntu, so it looks like a "regression" bug to me.

Anyways, is there any way to get this partial solution stored more permanently in the computer? (adding something to some .bashrc or something; sorry, I'm not that expert in handling default values of environment variables, so some tips would help end users).

Thanks in advanced for your support, of course.

[sokolov (daniel-sokolov)]

Filip's proposed solution does not work for me.

[sokolov (daniel-sokolov)]

PS: The problem only occurs if I start a program from a Root terminal. If I start it with sudo from a normal terminal, I do not run in the bug at all. There are some error messages in the terminal, but everything works fine.