Linux: as root, veracrypt only runs as command line; as a user, veracrypt comes up as a GUI

[Tim]

New install (well, upgrade) of the latest veracrypt, 1.23, on Xubuntu, a Ubuntu derivative.

If I run

/usr/bin/veracrypt

from the command line (whether I append & to the end or not), when I run it as an ordinary user (meaning not as root), the GUI comes up. When I run it as root (exec su -), I get the help listing (command-line options) and that's all. As root, I can use it only as a command line utility -- I did use that command line to mount a container.

Any idea why this might be the case?

I do have a large .bashrc file that does different things for root versus a regular user, and it's possible that it sets some environment variable differently in the two cases. Also, the windowing system is run as that particular regular user.

I created another regular user by adduser, keeping the default .profile, .bashrc, and such. It gets the GUI too.

xhost + doesn't affect it (that "drops shields", allowing any user to run a GUI).

Interestingly, I note that the regular users have a ~/.config/VeraCrypt directory, but root does not.

[Mark-Oliver Wolter]

Do any other X applications work, e.g. xterm?
(At least xterm will tell you if DISPLAY is not set)

[Tim]

That is exactly it! I'm slapping my forehead, because I'd long since learned about DISPLAY. Many thanks!

[Tim]

BTW, please let me know if there's a way for the Original Poster to tag a discussion as "solved", "completed", or the like.