Superuser Problem

[elder73]

I downloaded the Kubuntu 13.04 that allowed me to try it out, which I did, and then I installed from the invitation on the installed program.

It was set up as a dual system and everything worked fine. I used apt-get to dowload a couple of files, it asked for my password, I gave it and everything came down fine.

Then I wanted to mount windows via the fstab file. Called it up in Knotes, added the line for the windows mount and I could not save it, no authority. I went to the command line and tried too become the superuser with the "su" command, it asked for my password, I gave it and it bombed with a "No Authentication".

When I installed Kubuntu I was not asked to set up a superuser, so I was not all that surprised when the above did not work.

Is there a solution to this difficulty I am having. I thought about re-installing but with the disk I have all it does is bring up Kubuntu.

Your help and advice would be appreciated.

[richb]

Kubuntu does not use su. Use sudo instead. eg sudo dolphin will bring up dolphin as root. There is a way to enable su, but sudo is the preferred method to become superuser temporarily.

[Snowhog]

IF you are launching a GUI app from the console, and need to do so with root privileges, use kdesudo app_name. This protects your /home directory contents ownership from being (potentially) changed to root; not a good thing. Use sudo from the console for non-GUI apps if required/needed for/with root privileges.

[jones.young]

The most failsafe method is to open a terminal and type in "sudo nano /etc/fstab"

This works on every distro- you don't have to worry about if you should be using su, sudo, gksu, kdesudo, the list goes on...

It will never change permissions or add text formatting like some graphical editors can. Kate and Kwrite seem to be ok, and I've never had that issue; but editing grub with libre write, for example, will often render the file unusable by the system.

"Nano" turns your terminal into a graphical editor, anyway; and you can set it up to be pretty easy to use (see konsole settings)

Personally, the only time I will use any graphical editor as "root" is for non-system (non-critical) edits to themes or whatnot. When it come to editing files like fstab, grub, mdadm.conf, and the like, I always use a terminal editor. The first time your system fails to boot because a graphical editor added hidden "new line" and "paragraph" formatting to fstab, you will see why

[Rog132]

Root & Tools

Root & Ubuntu


The Ubuntu Community Documentation - RootSudo: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo is explaining the background and how to get and use the root powers.


Tools

The KDE user community is providing additional tools to manipulate the root owned files. File manager (Dolphin) > Settings > Configure Dolphin >Services > Download New services...




KDE Service Menus /1/ from the KDE-Apps /2/ : http://kde-apps.org/index.php?xcontentmode=287

Root Actions Servicemenu - http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=48411

Root Actions servicemenu provides a convenient way to perform several actions 'as root', from the right-click context menu in KDE filemanagers.

It aims to be distribution agnostic,...

Simple Root Actions Menu - http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php...?content=72762

This is menu that I use, I thought it would be useful for some people so I decided to share it.



It is very simple, it contains 8 menu entries:...

More

1. Creating KDE Service Menus: http://techbase.kde.org/Development/..._Service_Menus

2. The KDE-Apps is part of the openDesktop.org . The openDesktop.org FAQ: http://opendesktop.org/help/faq1.php?

[elder73]

Thank you to everyone who replied to my original message. It has all been most helpful.

[tek_heretik]

@Rog132...wow, cool, thanks for the tip, I've been looking for something like that, I'm one of those dweebs that's addicted to right click menu thingys, lol.