To run any console-based programs remote, you typically just:

  1. ssh to remote machine
  2. sudo whatever-console-program

To run X11 application as the ssh user, it is also straight-forward:

  1. ssh to remote machine
  2. whatever-x11-application

It gets a bit complicated when you need to do both - to run an X11 application as root user on a remote machine. In my case, I wanted to run gparted as root on a remote linux machine.

  1. Enable X11 forwarding on remote machine, /etc/ssh/sshd_config

     # Ensure that this line is present
 # If you had to modify the file, then you will have to restart sshd
 X11Forwarding yes

  2. Start ssh session to remote machine with -X option

     ssh -X -C NON_ROOT_USER@remote_machine

 # Ensure X11 forwarding succeeded
 echo $DISPLAY

  3. Swith remote user to root in the ssh session

     # Let the new shell inherit some environment variable crucial for X11/Wayland to work
 sudo -EH -s

  4. Check connection access. The error is expected.

     xhost
 X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication

  5. Add NON_ROOT_USER credentials to root user /.Xauthority

     xauth add $(xauth -f ~NON_ROOT_USER/.Xauthority list | tail -1)
 xhost
 # Output message may vary
 access control enabled, only authorized clients can connect

 # Voila! Now you can run your X11 application

Remove access credentials

xauth remove $DISPLAY

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