Sudo is not allowed for Dolphin, Kate, etc in Kubuntu 18.04 Beta

[funkybomber]

As the title says. When I try to execute dolphin with sudo I get this message:
"Executing Dolphin as root is not possible".

Similar for Kate:
"Executing Kate as root is not possible (blah-blah)".

I may be in the minority, but I think that this is nonsense. I want TOTAL control over my machine.

Is it possible to have this functionality unlocked once again? Please?

[wizard10000]

Wayland doesn't allow privilege escalation in the GUI and since that's where we're headed it's unlikely that's going to change.

There are workarounds, though - others will have different great ideas but since I have openbox installed as a backup in case Sid ever breaks my toys I just use pcmanfm and geany for gooey root things.

[Bings]

For editing root files with Kate, open the file you want to edit like you would open any other, edit the file and it will prompt your password when you save it.

For performing operations in Dolphin that need root permission, it will work the same as with Kate but it's not been fully finished yet. In the meantime if you want to have a file manager open as root, midnight commander is an awesome one and you can install it with

sudo apt install mc

[TWPonKubuntu]

...
I may be in the minority, but I think that this is nonsense. I want TOTAL control over my machine.
...

[rant on]
I totally agree. I'm not a child who needs their hand held to cross the digital street... This also smacks of tactics used by the crew in Redmond: "We know what is best for you, you will do it our way..."

This change in Dolphin will seriously break my workflow. I do website development and frequently use Dolphin to create new folders, not just files, with various ownership permissions. ARGGGH!

We need another Root Access Menu tool to restore this functionality. "Open as Root", "Create as Root", etc.

And thanks for the advice about Midnight Commander. I'll be testing it. If Dolphin does indeed become deliberately broken, then it goes bye-bye and I put a black mark in my book of "things to avoid"...

[rant off]

[GreyGeek]

mc is nice, once you figure out how to use it. Did I say it was FASSST?

[vinnywright]

I prefer Krusader to mc myself and it has a "root mode" that still works .



But this is all old news and has been this way since late 16.04-17.04 and is not new to 18.04 their are several other posts hear on KFN about it .

VINNY

[TWPonKubuntu]

Vinny, will Krusader do split screen, with two folders visible at once?

[vinnywright]

Vinny, will Krusader do split screen, with two folders visible at once?

thats what your seeing in the screen shot ,,,,,yes it defaults to split screen .

hears a root mode shot ,,,,I gave it a color scheme ,you can search "Krusader hear on the forum to find how . I forget



VINNY

[TWPonKubuntu]

Yes, that's what I need, thanks.

[vinnywright]

for now this is a workaround for people that MUST have a GUI for root work .

BUT this is going to be fixed soon , kate is already working on root files just fine and soon Dolphin will do whatever you need as well , as soon as the policy kit work is done it will work like Kate asking for a password to do whatever root thing you tried to do .

VINNY

[Bings]

I totally agree. I'm not a child who needs their hand held to cross the digital street... This also smacks of tactics used by the crew in Redmond: "We know what is best for you, you will do it our way..."

Really? Microsoft have consistently put user convenience ahead of security and good practice in computing. You shouldn't expect devs to keep stuff in their software that is knowingly harmful just because of your workflow, that's a little unreasonable.

[TWPonKubuntu]

Yes, that was discussed in another thread. Why they chose to first break the tools, and then later plan on fixing them... "It is a puzzlement"...

I don't absolutely require a GUI for my work, but it certainly makes it easier than using command line.

[vinnywright]

I don't absolutely require a GUI for my work, but it certainly makes it easier than using command line.

+1 on that

VINNY

[TWPonKubuntu]

Bings,

"...knowingly harmful..."? Yes, one can mung up the system using root level privileges... That is my responsibility.

I've been known to be very unreasonable, particularly when it involves my computer system. I'll not rehash this discussion, it's on another, older, thread, but the Linux devs do (IMO) have it backwards in this case. There does not appear to be a good argument for removing root access only to restore it later.

I stand by my view of how the Redmond business views it's customers...

[kubicle]

"...knowingly harmful..."? Yes, one can mung up the system using root level privileges... That is my responsibility.
I've been known to be very unreasonable, particularly when it involves my computer system. I'll not rehash this discussion, it's on another, older, thread, but the Linux devs do (IMO) have it backwards in this case. There does not appear to be a good argument for removing root access only to restore it later.

I believe this was discussed before on the thread you mentioned, but "root access" has not really been removed (only the option to start kate and dolphin as root), nor was this done to protect user's from themselves (in that case, it wouldn't make much sense to put the functionality back in with a different implementation, you are quite correct).

The problem that is being fixed by this is that there is a known vulnerability in the X server (X server is inherently fairly insecure, it was written in an earlier era) that allows for taking over the machine if any GUI window is started as root [https://blog.martin-graesslin.com/bl...iles-as-root/] (that old post is a bit outdated in it's reference to sudoedit as policykit integration has since been added to ktexteditor, removing the need to use sudoedit...in case anyone is wondering):

A year ago I implemented a simple proof of concept attack against Dolphin. The attack is waiting for dolphin getting started as root. As soon as it starts, it uses the XTest extension to fake input, enable the embedded konsole window and type into it.

It's been taking a while to get policykit integration to dolphin (dolphin's action are a bit more complicated than the simple file write on ktexteditor), but I myself don't really blame the devs for putting security before convenience. While the changes in kate and dolphin only mitigate the security threat [you can still start other GUI apps as root, like krusader], and while the vulnerability is currently not actively abused [to my knowledge], I'd bet the backlash to be bigger if user's computers were overtaken because the devs chose not to do something about it.

I probably would have made this configurable (for the time being, until the policykit integration was done) for those willing to accept the risk, but it isn't my call (obviously)...and most people would probably enable it back routinely, without really understanding the risks involved.

The new method will eventually fix the security issues, as there are no root GUI windows opened in the process (as there is no need to do so). The newer method will have other benefits as well, like being more intuitive (for most) and will also continue working after the looming wayland transition.