Susan G. Kleinmann: > a) is there some reason that setting DISPLAY to :0.0 is undesirable? This > seemed like the most direct solution to the problem, so I wonder why > it wasn't suggested as the best solution.
DISPLAY should already be set. There's lots of situations where setting DISPLAY to :0.0 (or :0) is fine, but there are other situations where it's not the right thing to do. For example, sometimes you might have several virtual consoles running X (:0 on one, :1 on another, ...). Also, you might have occasion to run programs on a machine other than the one with the display and keyboard. Then, you want the host name of the machine before the :. -- Raul
