I recently installed OpenSuSE 11, and I'm experiencing some strange problems when trying to run programs as root. Usually I would open xterm or konsole, type "su root", enter password, then type "kwrite" or "konqueror". For some reason since installing OpenSuSE 11, after becoming root at the terminal, anything I type just hangs. Currently the only way I can run a file manager as root is to choose "file manager - super user" from the menu.

Anyone have any suggestions why? Any help much appreciated.

Try using kdesu instead of su.
If you need root functionality on a gui application, I recommend logging in as root. But only if you *must* have root privileges. I don't recommend using root on a regular basis.
Btw, I assume that programs like ls and mv run with su. if they don't, then your problem could be very different.

same here, kdesu works but su in a konole will not run gui'ed apps.

personally I think this change, if intentioanal, sucks

an alternative is using the following command line
"ssh -X -l root localhost whatever_cmd_you_wish"

Thanks for the replies.

All normal console commands seem to work fine under root, such as ls, chmod, mkdir etc. As google01103 pointed out, it's only gui apps that seem to fail. Further to this, I have noticed that if I run a command like "sudo kwrite" it asks me for root's password and then displays "kwrite: cannot connect to X server".

Kdesu works, as does the SSH command, so at least I can now use "kdesu kwrite /etc/fstab" which was what I was originally trying to accomplish.

I thought this was a kde4 bug at first, but I notice it also happens under gnome. I'm with google01103 on this also; I hope it is a bug and not intentional.

Anyway, at least I know the workaround now, thanks.