I try extremely hard never to use the root account...but I'm wondering if I install programs like Kleansweep, chkrootkit, rkhunter and ClamAV would it be better to run those programs within the root account or should I change to su before I run them (within my user account).

Do I install them as su? With gui programs such as Kleansweep how will it scan my entire disk from the user acct.?

I want my entire system to be checked not just the user acct. Should I use the root acct just for the above mentioned tasks? Obviously confused...please advise

OpenSuSE 11.0

“root” is the administrator user, and should be used for administrative tasks, yes.

Yves.