Many X clients break when only the pathname socket is available #10

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ophestra · 2025-09-02T20:38:17+09:00

ophestra commented

2025-09-02 20:38:17 +09:00

During testing for #1 it appears that X clients refuse to use the pathname socket with DISPLAY=:0, and the unix: syntax appeared to have fixed it. That however turns out to be untrue for many clients due to implementation-specific behaviour or bugs.

Programs like Steam and Vial straight up refuse to connect, while MikroTik WinBox somehow works perfectly fine despite also using the qt framework. The silliest failure comes, as expected, from GNU, where the toolkit supports the pathname socket correctly, and the main UI works perfectly fine, however the code responsible for starting the export dialogue somehow turns unix:/tmp/.X11-unix/X0 into unix:/tmp/.0, preventing images from being exported.

Currently, acb6931f3e works around these regressions by allowing individual apps to revert to the abstract socket.

During testing for https://git.gensokyo.uk/security/hakurei/pulls/1 it appears that X clients refuse to use the pathname socket with `DISPLAY=:0`, and the `unix:` syntax appeared to have fixed it. That however turns out to be untrue for many clients due to implementation-specific behaviour or bugs. Programs like [Steam](https://steampowered.com/) and [Vial](https://get.vial.today/) straight up refuse to connect, while MikroTik WinBox somehow works perfectly fine despite also using the qt framework. The silliest failure comes, as expected, from [GNU](https://www.gimp.org/), where the toolkit supports the pathname socket correctly, and the main UI works perfectly fine, however the code responsible for starting the export dialogue somehow turns `unix:/tmp/.X11-unix/X0` into `unix:/tmp/.0`, preventing images from being exported. Currently, https://git.gensokyo.uk/security/hakurei/commit/acb6931f3e4af62f92dc2ef85ef7c1ac9f7867e4 works around these regressions by allowing individual apps to revert to the abstract socket.

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ophestra added the

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enhancement

labels 2025-09-02 20:38:17 +09:00

ophestra added

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help wanted

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