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Start an Ubuntu Gnome Application as Root User

Ubuntu Linux runs the the desktop as a regular user account, and so all programs launched are launched in the context of a normal user account.

To run a command-line program with superuser(root) priviledges, you normally will preceed the command with "sudo", as shown in this example:

sudo gedit filename.txt

Ubuntu provides a graphical alternative to the sudo command that you have probably seen if you try to run any administrative tool:

You can easily and quickly run any program as root by preceeding the command with the "gksu" command. For instance, let's launch xterm as root by hitting Alt+F2 to bring up the quick run dialog:

We'll first see the password dialog shown above, enter your password… and there we go - we now have a terminal running as root:

Easy stuff! 

The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. When he's not coming up with great how-to articles, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 11/25/06 and tagged with: Ubuntu, Ubuntu Tips & Tweaks

Comments (1)

  1. jasperism

    Thank you for the very good and useful information! I applied it to my Limewire using Ubuntu. First, I am really much tired looking for any solution to run my limewire as root without using the gnome-terminal. Using 'gksu' command, I found it easy!!! Thanks again!


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