Without su'ing to root, how can I launch a program as root, when I'm logged on as a normal user?

I added a program to my KBar, but the program needs to be run with root priveledges.

The program is LinNeighborhood. I can't mount an NT share if I launch the program as a normal user.

change the permissions of the file or ownership.

man chmod ( change permissions )
man chown ( ownership )

-trickykid

I don't understand what that has to do with it. The program file already has chmod 777 and is owned by root.

chown the proggy for the user
as root
chown userid:usergroup

or look into sudo...

Don't suid LinNeightborhood. suid smbmount and smbumount

Ack. Either I don't understand what you guys or talking about, or you guys don't understand what I'm getting at.

Here it is. I log on to KDE as my normal user account. There is a program called LinNeighborhood. I need to run this program as root. I don't want to open the Konsole, su to root, and run the program. That's too tedious. Instead, I have a shortcut to the program placed in my KBar. But when I click on the shortcut, it runs the program under my normal user. How do I make it so that when I click on the shortcut in my KBar, it runs the program as the root user? Thanks.

i don't think what you asking is going to work.. you either need to make it so the regular user has ownership or permissions to use it or setup sudo.. unless you create your own script or something so when you open the program using a regular user account, it will auto login using su or root.. which in my own opinion isn't very safe for security reasons.

Ok, how do I make it so the regular user can use this program?

When I try to mount using the program, I get an error message:

As much as I probably shouldn't show you this.

chmod 4777 /path/to/smbmount

and no the 4 isn't a typo, it's called setuid or the sticky bit making the program run as root. Be warned tho, if you're on a multiuser system I would advise against doing this.

Why would you advise against doing this, if I'm on a multiuser system?

edit: by the way, that worked, thanks.

0. you must be root.
1. Open Konqueror,
2. go the the folder where you executable file "linNeighborhood" is present
3. Right-click on the executable file
4. choose properties
5. in the permission 'Tab'
6. enable 'setuid'

now you can run the program without entering root password.

Does the "set user id" or "suid" bit make it so the file is always executed by whoever is the owner of that file (even if another user is logged in)?

read up on any vulnerability that has been exploited and 90% of them are because a program was setuid and crashed, giving a root shell(because of the elevated priviledges) or because of some exploit that let it run code. I'd be especially wary of a system that you are not the only user on, if it's multi user but still a personal machine then don't worry so much.

The samba team is also pretty good about programming style, so it's not exactly something I'd lose sleep over, but chmod 4777 always makes me cringe when I need to use it.

Setuid afaik makes the program run as root always, therefore you must be root to set it. To make a program run as a certain user's priviledge you'd need a wrapper I believe, but you can read up on that(I only know suid).

If I was to make a script can I automaticly send the password to the su command?
like say it was something like (guessing)
./su
../usr/bin/bla
exit

I know it wouldn't be safe to send the password via a script but its a single user computer..