WSL - GEDIT Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
It's probably because you are running it with root user. Run it as non-root user.
(If you don't know that if you are running it as root or not, enter the command below and if it returns 0, it means you are root and you must to login to non-root user: id -u
)
(If you had run sudo su
or something like that, It means you are root and you must use exit
to go back!)
To fix this problem
Step 1- Download and Install this Windows X Server https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/
Step 2- Open XLaunch
Step 3- Select " Full screen " option
Step 4- Choose " Start no client " option
Step 5- Simply do next and finish
Step 6- Open terminal and type :
export DISPLAY=0:0
gedit filename
In case your Linux machine is available with host name = 'hostname' and you'd want to ssh into the hostname and then open gedit
then execute the following commands:
- Enable
X11Forwarding
in the ssh server
[hostname] $ vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config
# and set X11Forwarding to yes
X11Forwarding yes
- Set the
DISPLAY
env in the client terminal and then ssl with-X
flag
export DISPLAY=0:0
ssh -X yourusername@hostname
[hostname] $ gedit filename
You need an X server to run graphical applications like gedit
.
I use VcXsrv or Xming on my Windows desktops, both are very small and easy to install,
but there exist other servers like Cygwin/X.
Short instructions for VcXsrv/Xming:
- download and install the Windows package
- start XLaunch or Xming
export the DISPLAY variable in your WSL terminal and start gedit
export DISPLAY=0:0 gedit
I have the problem that some checkboxes in gedit's preferences are not working (dconf error, I don't care), but other than that the editor is usable.
Related:
- What's the easiest way to run GUI apps on Windows Subsystem for Linux as of 2018? (askubuntu.com)