VLC media player rejected to run as root

raju.mopidevi · 02-09-2009, 06:37 PM

hi this is raju,
in my SUSE 11.0 system, i had one root user and a normal user.
i can play any media file in normal user account. when i logined as root account , and if i tried to play any media by using VLC it is giving as error like this :

Quote:

VLC is not supposed to be run as root. Sorry.
If you need to use real-time priorities and/or privileged TCP ports
you can use vlc-wrapper (make sure it is Set-UID root first and
cannot be run by non-trusted users first).

please suggest any solution to me.
Thank You.

mrclisdue · 02-09-2009, 07:17 PM

There is an amazingly similar recent thread posted here:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ccount-703319/

and the advice would be the same.

Basically, it is dangerous to run as root for anything other than pure administrative/maintenance purposes. If you must insist on operating as root, please do not connect to the internet as such irresponsible behaviour puts the sane users of the world at risk.

That being said, if you must insist on operating vlc as root, you must compile vlc with the correct parameters, as indicated in the thread referred to previously.

hth,

almatic · 02-10-2009, 05:08 AM

additionally vlc is known for their numerous and dangerous security holes. You could execute code with malformed video containers etc., which is probably the reason, why they prevented it to be run as root.
It's really a bad idea.

repo · 02-10-2009, 05:14 AM

Please, only use the root account for administrative tasks.

You can't make a OS foolproof

Devyn · 07-24-2010, 04:18 PM

Just to echo repo's words, if you can avoid it, don't run things from roon that don't need to run from root.

Having said that however, you could potentially do it by running it from a non previlidged account while logged in with your root account. Found some instructions here on how to do that recently as I had the same question. In essence, you would still have some security in this manner:

http://www.microdevsys.com/WordPress...col-specified/

Good Luck!
Devyn

mindlessmissy · 12-01-2010, 07:49 PM

This solution worked for me ...

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...piling-748189/

John VV · 12-01-2010, 08:22 PM

mindlessmissy
why???
VLC should never be ran as root
i take it you also run firefox as root
and have turned off the firewall and turned off SElinux or AppArmor
and have NOT installed firefox's no-script not installed add block plus

and LIKE to run a rootkited system

TobiSGD · 12-01-2010, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John VV

mindlessmissy
why VLC should never be ran as root
i take it you also run firefox as root
and have turned off the firewall and turned off SElinux or AppArmor
and have NOT installed firefox's no-script not installed add block plus

and LIKE to run a rootkited system

Hey, here name is mindlessmissy