There must be a way to perform privileged tasks in the Gnome desktop (or actually Nautilus, I guess)...similar to using SUDO in a terminal window.

For example I want to change the rights to a file, but Nautilus tells me I can't because I'm not the owner.

Thanks

Greetings

Could you not open a terminal window under gnome and sudo chmod your file? Maybe under Accessories Menu?

If not, perhaps alt-ctrl-f7 would give u a terminal?

Otherwise, you will have to start any file manager you are using as root or your username will have to have root priviliges. There are a few options to accomplish this, but I suggest the easy way with the terminal window.

I hope this helps you.

You can open a terminal and sudo nautilus to open Nautilus with root privileges.

You can also sudo su and retain root privileges until you or done doing root stuff and type exit.

The first time I was looking for root privileges in a file manager, I just happened to be using LXDE's file manager, called PCManFM. At the top of the screen I click on Tools > Open Current File as Root. It asks for the root password and then opens a new window with a warning: "Warning! You are in Superuser Mode!" When I'm through making whatever changes, I simply close the "Superuser" window. No terminal at all. I discovered it by "accident" while exploring LXDE. Now it's my favorite file manager.

Keeping it simple,
Robin

Thanks all! I wanted to find a way to avoid using the terminal. I know how to do that but don't know the linux commands well enough yet to do what I want.

Dixiedancer's answer was what I was looking for.

If I do SUDO SU in the terminal, does that give me SU privilege in my instances of Nautilus, or would I have to do the SUDO NAUTILUS to accomplish that.

Once again, thanks all!

You don't have to be afraid of the terminal! See the "LinuxCommand" tutorial in my sig, it's quite beginner friendly.

It's matter of a configuration: in "Gnome's Mint" there is a "Run as administrator" right-click menu item to open/run something as root

Alt+F2
gksu nautilus


NAME
gksu - GTK+ frontend for su and sudo

SYNOPSIS
gksu

gksu [-u <user>] [options] <command>

gksudo [-u <user>] [options] <command>

DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents briefly gksu and gksudo

gksu is a frontend to su and gksudo is a frontend to sudo. Their pri‐
mary purpose is to run graphical commands that need root without the
need to run an X terminal emulator and using su directly.

Notice that all the magic is done by the underlying library, libgksu.
Also notice that the library will decide if it should use su or sudo as
backend using the /apps/gksu/sudo-mode gconf key, if you call the gksu
command. You can force the backend by using the gksudo command, or by
using the --sudo-mode and --su-mode options.

If no command is given, the gksu program will display a small window
that allows you to type in a command to be run, and to select what user
the program should be run as. The other options are disregarded, right
now, in this mode.

Greetings again.

After reading exactly what you want to accomplish, I offer you this.

Open a terminal window on you desktop

type, if nautilus is your program name

sudo nautilus &

It should ask for the password and then open up natilus on your desktop with root priviliges. You can do that for any program you wish as long as you have the name. When you exit the program, it is gone, no worries.

I hope this simplifies it for you.