Hi everybody!
I am an Ubuntu geek, so I use root privileges (sudo) a lot. It got kind of annoying having to open the terminal and type to in "sudo nautilus" and entering my password each time I wanted to alter a system file. Is there any way to always give me root privileges in the file manager (nautilus)?

That would be incredibly dangerous and ill-advised.

Also you should always use "gksu nautilus" instead of "sudo nautilus" since nautilus is a GUI application. And you don't need to open a terminal to launch it, just press Alt+F2.

More details here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

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You could make a shortcut to "gksu nautilus", that will make everything a matter of click + enter password.

edit: now that I remember Gnome 2.x already ships with such launcher, it's called "Nautilus (as root)"

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when there is alot to do on the system LOGIN AS root
BUT and this is a big but
remember you can destroy the whole system and delete ALL your data on all the mounted file systems with just one mistyped command

there are way too many linux users freaked out over the idea of running as root

back in the days of DOS the one and only account was the same as root and you could delete every thing with just one command
so it is possible to run as root ALL THE TIME with out any problems at all

Or (if you are already logged as a normal user) you can get a root shell via "sudo -s", and a root LOGIN shell via "sudo -i". In systems that use "su" to become root, the equivalent are just "su" for a root shell and "su -" for root login shell.

The "login" type shells simulate the environment you'd get had you really logged in via getty, ie your $SHELL initialization scripts are run, and the working directory changes to root's $HOME (typically /root).

how do you login as root? can you do this from the login menu or the command line?

Never use your system for every day work when logged in as root. We don'r want to have another compromised system that is used to fill our e-mail accounts with spam or attacks servers with DDOS or brute-force.
If you have to use an application as root then elevate your rights for that program only, using sudo or similar approaches, but never run the whole environment with root rights for trivial tasks like surfing the net.

darkstar login:"root<enter>"
Password:"root's_password<enter>"

just like any other user

Note that in ubuntu (which the OP uses) the root account isn't enabled by default -as it is in slack-... BUT it's easily enabled by setting a root passwd.

However, unless you absolutely need an entire "administrative session", root logins are a really bad idea, as already explained. It's also almost universally unnecessary, as you can login as a normal user and just use sudo for specific administrative tasks, or su/sudo for a root shell (even simulating a root login).

Running X or any other trivial task as root should be avoided at all costs.

you use slackware did you disallow root logins on ssh
better yet disallow ssh logins completely
ssh can be brute forced an attacker doesn't even need root access any user account
can be zombied for the attacks your talking about just put the attack script in /tmp
and the command to run it in any users .profile or just cat the attack script to ~/.profile

I had a dynamic DNS account and would find the logs filled with attempts to log in using just about every common male name there is except root


My point is you are at no higher security risk running as root than as any other user
the problem with running as root is the damage YOU CAN DO as root

Yes.

No, I use key based authentication, pretty difficult to break that with brute force.

As stated above, I use key based authentication and a non-standard port for that, I never had a login that wasn't me.

You are right, but those attacks are pretty easy to find, I would think.

I totally disagree. The most dangerous break in is the one thart is unrecognized. It is much easier to hide the break in and the alterations made by the attacker when the attacker has root privileges.

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what you could do is type in "sudo passwd root" and create a root password for use in TTY