I want to start my firewall, Firestarter, on Gnome start up. So I inserted the command into the 'Sessions' box. (Preferences -> Sessions -> Startup Programs) Firestarter won't run without the root password, so I have to use: gksudo /usr/sbin/firestarter (as opposed to /usr/sbin/firestarter) So every time I start my computer I am prompted for the root password. Is there a simple script or command I can issue so Firestarter starts without prompting for the root password? Any help would be great. I am using Ubuntu 5.04 and Gnome 2.10.0

Quote from Firestarter manual:

Firestarter running in the system tray normally when you start Firestarter by clicking an icon or manually from a terminal, the system will prompt you for your root user's password. However, this is a bit of a hassle, especially if you want to run Firestarter all the time when logged in. In that case Firestarter can be loaded in the background when you log in with your regular user, without asking a password and minimized to the system tray
Giving the user permission to launch Firestarter without the root password
In order for a regular user to be able to launch Firestarter, the user must be given additional privileges. Edit your /etc/sudoers file in your favorite text editor and add the following line at the end:

username ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/firestarter

Note: Debian users should replace /usr/bin/firestarter with /usr/sbin/firestarter in the above line.
Simply replace username with whatever your login is. The specified user is now able to launch Firestarter without being prompted for a password using the command sudo firestarter.

A note on the security aspects: This method makes a trade off in local security for convenience. If your user account becomes compromised the attacker will be able to control the firewall. However this method is preferable to having a shared root user password in a multiuser setting. It is also preferable if the alternative is not to run Firestarter at all.

You can add a startup script in /etc/init.d

hello! i got a problem with my xandros box.. i wanted to use firestarter but it seems that it only runs in gnome.. is there any way that firestarter would run on kde too? can i install a gnome envi on my xandros?

use "guarddog" for KDE or iptables

Actually, unlike Windows firewalls, the part of Firestarter that you see is just a GUI for choosing your firewall settings. Once you've made your settings, Firestarter automatically applies them each time you start your system. You don't have to run the GUI each time you log on, unless you want to change your settings, or view recent events (intrusion attempts, etc.).

To to verify this, check your system log after you log on. At a command prompt type:

dmesg | less

You should see a message like "Starting the Firestarter Firewall..."

Here's another thread about this, on the Debian forum:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=4895&

Cheers, Ander