Running as Root

[JoHubb]

I appear to be running as root administrator, but I don't want this and I am not sure how it happened.
(see red square left panel).



Please advise how to get back to being a normal user. I wish to retain my ssh drive share.

[Rod J]

What makes you think you're running as root?

The left panel is just showing locations ("Places") on your system ... the root folder is just one of them. The left panel on my system looks very similar and I'm definitely not running as root. If you click on "Root" you will be able to see the root-owned folders/files but you won't have write permissions there as a normal user (just "read-only" permissions).

[kc1di]

unless you have some how modified the login procedure your running as normal user. There is no root login available easily in Kubuntu or any ubuntu system.
you must use the terminal and sudo or other method to gain root privileges. Some programs the must have root access such as moun package manager request your password before allowing you to run them.

[JoHubb]

What makes you think you're running as root?

The left panel is just showing locations ("Places") on your system ... the root folder is just one of them. The left panel on my system looks very similar and I'm definitely not running as root. If you click on "Root" you will be able to see the root-owned folders/files but you won't have write permissions there as a normal user (just "read-only" permissions).

Thanks for putting me right.

I was running an update in Discover but it kept crashing. A popup gave me a bash command for Konsole. When I ran this, it said 'permission denied. Are you root' or similar. Then I found I could get into root folders. I thought that only a root user had any sort of access to root-owned folders. Then I noticed the red square...

The particular problem with updates has been sorted with GreyGeek's help.

[JoHubb]

unless you have some how modified the login procedure your running as normal user. There is no root login available easily in Kubuntu or any ubuntu system.
you must use the terminal and sudo or other method to gain root privileges. Some programs the must have root access such as moun package manager request your password before allowing you to run them.

Sometimes it is necessary for a normal user to use a sudo command. I make many mistakes on the terminal as my bash skills are rudimentary!

Thanks for clearing it up for me.

[kc1di]

when you do an sudo command it will give you upper level access until you either close the terminal or program or until the time out is reached I believe that in Kubuntu it's set to never run out as long as you have the session running. You can set the time out if you want by following the steps at this web page. https://lifehacker.com/make-sudo-ses...nux-1221545774

[chimak111]

(see red square left panel).

I too have the root folder colored red. If you right-click on that folder, choose "Edit" from the context menu and then on "Choose an icon", you can change the color to something else from the choices available.

[JoHubb]

kcldi, chimak111

Many thanks. Problem solved.