[SOLVED] Is there a way to run Dolphin as Root?

davcefai · 12-08-2017, 01:50 PM

The KDE team seems to have had a brainstorm and have disabled Dolphin from being run as root. It also seems that they intend to extend this to editors.

In other words they have removed a vital freedom from users.

I would like to stay with Plasma but this restriction is a crippling one. Does anybody know a way to circumvent this restriction?

I am running Plasma on Debian unstable.

yancek · 12-08-2017, 05:24 PM

Which distribution are you using? You should be able to open a terminal and do: kdesu dolphin
OR: export $(dbus-launch) (hit the enter key) type: dolphin to open it
Which distribution are you using? Don't know that it will work on all so you just need to test as both work for me with kde5.

ferrari · 12-08-2017, 09:52 PM

Quote:

The KDE team seems to have had a brainstorm and have disabled Dolphin from being run as root. It also seems that they intend to extend this to editors.

In other words they have removed a vital freedom from users.

The controversial thinking behind it is discussed here...
https://blog.martin-graesslin.com/bl...files-as-root/

FWIW, I'm still using openSUSE Leap (KDE 5.32.0) where it is still possible to invoke

Code:

xdg-su -c dolphin

ferrari · 12-08-2017, 10:09 PM

For those using a new version of Plasma 5/ Dolphin there has been a move away from running Dolpinh as root, but allowance has been made to configure Dolphin to allow various actions on root-owned files instead....

https://forums.mauilinux.org/showthread.php?tid=24251

Quote:

Rather than seeking to launch Dolphin as root, which i presume you wish to do so as to perform root actions on files & directories owned by root not you, why not actually use Dolphin's native Root Actions capability? Mint 17.x KDE has this, & i loved it, but stupidly they omitted it from Mint 18 KDE [as did also Kubuntu 16.04, KFedora 24, & even KDE Neon itself, but it's present by default & working beautifully in Maui]. This is one of the major reasons [though there's many others too] that last year i abandoned Mint KDE & came over to Maui.

You can configure Root Actions via Dolphin's Configure Dolphin menu selection:

Dolphin Settings > Configure Dolphin... > Services

Drakeo · 12-08-2017, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davcefai

The KDE team seems to have had a brainstorm and have disabled Dolphin from being run as root. It also seems that they intend to extend this to editors.

In other words they have removed a vital freedom from users.

I would like to stay with Plasma but this restriction is a crippling one. Does anybody know a way to circumvent this restriction?

I am running Plasma on Debian unstable.

Yes your right it is in the code when user ID 0 starts it it will stop. You can patch it or set the user ID to 999999999 like I did rebuild it you get a out of range warning but it is fixed.
Alien Bob developer for Slackware has been patching it. Slackware uses root. Top user should be able to use the computer.

davcefai · 12-09-2017, 12:50 PM

I have just upgraded Firefox from 57.0 to 57.0.2.

I could not do it using Dolphin, like I have been doing since dinosaurs walked the earth.
I always do:
1. Delete firefox.bak
2. Rename Firefox to Firefox.bak
3. Open the new archive.
4. Extract to /usr/local.

Since /usr/local is owned by root I had to jump through hoops and then use krusader. One can commend Martin Floser's enthusiasm but his autocratic behaviour is unacceptable. I am surprised that this change was allowed to go through. Where has our Freedom gone? Or should we drop the "F" from "FOSS"?

davcefai · 12-09-2017, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drakeo

Yes your right it is in the code when user ID 0 starts it it will stop. You can patch it or set the user ID to 999999999 like I did rebuild it you get a out of range warning but it is fixed.
Alien Bob developer for Slackware has been patching it. Slackware uses root. Top user should be able to use the computer.

Can you point me towards some more detailed instructions please? I get what you are saying but don't know how to set about doing it.

frankbell · 12-09-2017, 08:10 PM

I can run [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Commander"]Midnight Commander (mc)[/URL. It's a dual-pane ncurses file manager similar to the old Norton Commander from the DOS days.

I can run mc as root in Debian Sid. If I try to run Dophin, I get an "it is forbidden" warning. The "export dbus" error message does not appear. When I try to "export dbus," I get a"forbidden to user ID less than 1000" message.

I agree that this is an unnecessary and annoying decision that addresses an issue that I doubt actually exists.

ferrari · 12-09-2017, 08:56 PM

Quote:

I agree that this is an unnecessary and annoying decision that addresses an issue that I doubt actually exists.

@frankbell: Are you able to configure Doplhin (services) to permit root actions as described in post #4?

frankbell · 12-09-2017, 10:30 PM

Quote:

@frankbell: Are you able to configure Doplhin (services) to permit root actions as described in post #4?

I have not tried that yet. Anything I do as root I generally do from the command line, not because I'm expert, because making mistakes is how I learn.

I used to run Konqueror from time to time as root so as to configure directory permissions for Samba shares. which was about the only reason I ever ran a file manager as root, because it was easy.

I may play around with the suggestion in post #4, but I probably won't get to it for a few days; tomorrow is already booked, for we are going to a Christmas concert, hoping it will lift our spirits! If I do try that suggestion, I shall certainly report back.

Also, I am not a Dolphin fan. As you can conclude from the above, I prefer to use Konqueror as a file manager and never have figured out why KDE came up with Dolphin when Konqueror worked so very nicely, thank you very much.

Also, he added facetiously, why is it called "Dolphin"? This is KDE we're talking about here. Shouldn't it be called "Karp"?

ferrari · 12-09-2017, 11:52 PM

Quote:

I have not tried that yet. Anything I do as root I generally do from the command line, not because I'm expert, because making mistakes is how I learn.

Yes, I generally prefer the CLI too, but I think most experienced users would be in this category. (The need to run Dolphin as root goes away if root actions can be enabled though.)

Quote:

I may play around with the suggestion in post #4, but I probably won't get to it for a few days; tomorrow is already booked, for we are going to a Christmas concert, hoping it will lift our spirits! If I do try that suggestion, I shall certainly report back.

Seasons greetings! I look forward to reading about your findings here.

Quote:

Also, he added facetiously, why is it called "Dolphin"? This is KDE we're talking about here. Shouldn't it be called "Karp"?

LOL!

Drakeo · 12-10-2017, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davcefai

Can you point me towards some more detailed instructions please? I get what you are saying but don't know how to set about doing it.

here

https://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/so...t_noroot.patch

Code:

#ifndef Q_OS_WIN
    // Check whether we are running as root
    if (getuid() == 0) {
        std::cout << "Executing Dolphin as root is not possible." << std::endl;
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }
#endif

frankbell · 12-12-2017, 08:15 PM

I tried the suggestions in post #4 on Debian Sid with the Plasma desktop.

The "Root Actions" was not present in my version of Dolphin in Plasma on Debian Sid. It may be available via a plugin, but I haven't been able to explore that fully.

Drakeo · 12-12-2017, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankbell

I tried the suggestions in post #4 on Debian Sid with the Plasma desktop.

The "Root Actions" was not present in my version of Dolphin in Plasma on Debian Sid. It may be available via a plugin, but I haven't been able to explore that fully.

frank it would be imposible like you said. do to the fact they use sudo and have no reason to let a user become "0".
I looked at the deb source and it is right from kde. why would they patch it. they have no reason to be root
Mewwwy qwissmass fwank

frankbell · 12-12-2017, 08:53 PM

This is not security.

This is security theatre.