[Cialug] SSH annoyance

[Daniel A. Ramaley]

Since upgrading my machines from Debian Etch to Lenny, i've noticed an 
annoyance with SSH. It is fairly common for me to ssh to other 
machines, su to another user, and then try to run graphical 
applications. Usually if i restart X on my local machine i have to mess 
with .Xauthority files on the remote machine, but that's no big deal as 
i don't restart X very often.

But since upgrading to Lenny, now whenever i ssh to another machine and 
su, i *always* have to fix .Xauthority. Previously i could ssh multiple 
times to a remote machine (so i could have multiple terminals open to 
it) and run graphical apps over each connection without any problem. No 
longer.

I think the problem has to do with the DISPLAY variable. The SSH that 
comes with Lenny mangles that variable in an odd way. On my local 
machine, DISPLAY is set to ":0.0". When i ssh to somewhere else it is 
set to something like "localhost:10.0". But with each new connection to 
a remote machine, the "10" is incremented. I no longer have a machine 
with X and the old SSH available to me to see what the older (correct) 
behavior is.

Does anyone happen to know off hand what changed recently in SSH, and 
how to restore the old behavior?

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118, Drake University
Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave
+1 515 271-4540                        Des Moines IA 50311 USA