I would like to use System:User Settings, and System:Time and Date panels to modify system settings. But both of them request root password. Root password isn't set, but I see no way to use sudo here.

I'd really prefer to use the GUIs for these settings as I don't use them often and I'm not patient enough to figure out how to use the cli for them.

What am I missing?

If you are not patient enough to use the cli then you are going to have a problem. However, at the risk of trying your patience, get the command line for the program you want from the menu (probably something like right click the menu item and then select properties, depending on your distro and the menu system being used). Copy that command. Then open a terminal window, enter sudo and the command. You will be asked for your (not root's) password. Enter it and assuming you have sudo privileges the gui will start.

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Yeah, I did figure that out from some of the openbox documentation, but it seems a little convoluted. I guess I'm just a little puzzled about why these system GUIs are present in the first place if 1) they cannot be used 'as is' and 2) there isn't any easily found documentation covering it (at least by my measures of easily found).

Cheers and thanks for the answer.

I'm going to take a guess here and guess you are coming to Linux from Windows. I certainly don't intend to insult, but if that is correct then I would be doing you a severe disservice if I said nothing. One of the reasons people coming from Windows often initially have trouble is because Linux (and Unix) are far more secure than Windows. This is partially because networking and the problems therein were one of the basic premises and requirements of the system, not later add-ons like windows. Efforts were made from day one to protect the system from the normal user. Only a short list of trusted users should be able to affect the system as a whole. Therefore, programs which can affect the system as a whole are protected from the normal user. Not long ago there was 'gksu' which could be used in a menu and would allow a normal user to run a system program if he knew the root password. That has been or is being removed from most distros now, which is causing some problems but not insurmountable ones. If, in fact, you are coming to Linux from Windows please understand you are coming to a more powerful operating system and one more concerned with security. With the power comes responsibility and some complexity. It is something we all get used to. If you are going to use linux I strongly encourage you to become comfortable with the cli because that is where the real power is and will always be.

If I am wrong and you are not coming from windows, then perhaps you can ignore all the above. But then perhaps it will help you understand why things are the way they are anyway. And I would still strongly encourage you to learn to be comfortable with the cli. You certainly won't use it all the time, or perhaps much of the time, but there will be times it will come in very handy. And by the way, a word of warning about operating as root. You can totally screw up your computer as root very, very easily. There are two groups of people in Linux, those who have and those who will. If you belong to the first group you have your entry into the second group to look forward to.

Oh, and as to easily found, almost every program on linux has a manual page easily found by the command Some of them can be a little esoteric and take some getting used to, but many questions can be answered by a perusal of the man page.

The "root password" these require should just be your user password.

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