Authorization required, but no authorization protocol specified

[dingiso]

Every time I run X11 applications (including xhost), I get the following error messages in the shell:

shellAuthorization required, but no authorization protocol specified
Error: Can't open display: :0

I found a discussion about this issue, but it didn’t help resolve my problem.

Here’s some relevant information:

Running xauth list returns: xauth: file /home/xxx/.Xauthority does not exist
My DISPLAY environment variables are:

shell$ env | grep DISPLAY
WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-1
DISPLAY=:0

The `XAUTHORITY`` environment variable is not set.

The hyprpolkitagent is already running on the machine

➜  ~ ps -ef | grep -i "polkit"
polkitd     1080       1  0 19:51 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/polkit-1/polkitd --no-debug
rjl6246     9845    3806  0 20:07 ?        00:00:00 /nix/store/h501r8qhax7c4z2z6hnvq3a957ckswp2-hyprpolkitagent-0.1.3/libexec/hyprpolkitagent

The Xwayland process is running as: rjl6246 9901 9705 0 20:07 tty2 00:00:00 Xwayland :0 -rootless -core -listenfd 53 -listenfd 54 -displayfd 108 -wm 105

Other things maybe related: I have ubuntu and gnome installed on my desktop (because it is a university controlled desktop) and the Xwayland created by gdm indeed has -auth, but I stop the gdm.service before start Hyprland.

Below is the output of Hyprland --systeminfo

➜  ~ hyprland --systeminfo
Hyprland 0.50.1 built from branch v0.50.1-b at commit 4e242d086e20b32951fdc0ebcbfb4d41b5be8dcc  ([gha] Nix: update inputs).
Date: 2025-07-19
Tag: v0.50.1, commits: 4e242d086e20b32951fdc0ebcbfb4d41b5be8dcc
built against:
 aquamarine 0.9.3
 hyprlang 0.6.3
 hyprutils 0.8.4
 hyprcursor 0.1.13
 hyprgraphics 0.1.5


no flags were set


System Information:
System name: Linux
Node name: I4-GL-HQH5357-6.AD.PSU.EDU
Release: 6.8.0-79-generic
Version: #79-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Aug 12 14:42:46 UTC 2025


GPU information: 
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation RocketLake-S GT1 [UHD Graphics 750] [8086:4c8a] (rev 04) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])


os-release: PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION_ID="24.04"
VERSION="24.04.3 LTS (Noble Numbat)"
VERSION_CODENAME=noble
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
UBUNTU_CODENAME=noble
LOGO=ubuntu-logo


plugins:
	unknown: not runtime

Any help would be greatly appreciated—I’m really frustrated at this point.