Bug#872376: Wayland session does not configure Xwayland authorization; cannot run apps as root

[Josh Triplett]

On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 01:22:52PM +0200, Andreas Henriksson wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 16, 2017 at 02:48:42PM -0700, Josh Triplett wrote:
> [...]
> > Personally, I'd suggest the second approach, but either would work.
> 
> Personally I consider it a feature that you're not able to run
> gui applications as root under wayland session. Modern applications
> should really implement privilegies separation and the supported
> way in gnome is via polkit..... just my opinion though.

Applications *should* do that, yes, and by all means let's push
applications to do so.

In the meantime, however, this represents a regression from X-based
GNOME sessions. In those sessions, you could by default run graphical
applications with sudo and have them Just Work. In the Wayland-based
sessions, you cannot do so, and you'll get mysterious errors instead.

I ran into this issue precisely because I'd upgraded and otherwise
transparently found myself running Wayland, right up until I tried to
run an application as root.

- Josh Triplett