I have been using KDE4 for some time now as a test and have noticed what at first seems to be a major omission. There is no way to run dolphin or konqueror as root. Old style KDE3 in SLackware 12 had the "root konqueror" option, (or whatever it was named in the KDE menus), but KDE4 doesn't have this. I tried adding a new menu itme in KDE4 to run dolphin as root but it had odd errors about "could not start process" and "could not to talk to klauncher" - it would not display any files from my directory. Konqueror had similar odd problems - something about klauncher and Dbus server. This is a pain as there are sometimes files I wish to move/delete which I need to be root to do and it would be nice to have a gui to do this.

Anyone got any quick ways (from KDE) of achieving this or setting up a KDE menu item to run a file manager (dolphin/konqueror) as root ? I don't always want to have to run "su -c mc" in a terminal to do admin stuff in the filesystem and I don't want to run KDE as root.

Have you tried kdesu? how about sudo from a terminal?

Well I have installed a menu item for dolphin to run as root and this runs kdesu - I have also tried "su -c /usr/bin/dolphin" from a terminal and both give the errors mentioned.

I've run kdesu dolphin several times from the terminal with no problems. I haven't tried creating a menu item,though.

Just setup Konqueror to run as root as a menu item.
On the comand line I simply put, kdesu konqueror
Works fine.

I've done this in various ways, but I now prefer to do all admin stuff (anything requiring root privileges) in a terminal. To me, the terminal environment evokes a level of respect and caution that does not exist with drag and drop, trashcans, etc.

If I have to move a bunch of files around, I might go to a terminal, switch to root and set some permissions, then go back to the GUI to actually move things.

Well it won't work for me ! It's running but giving an error at the bottom of the window which says :
with a close button shown. No files are displayed in any directories.
Aha - this works ! I was trying to run "su -c konqueror" from a terminal and it was giving the odd errors. Trying "kdesu konqueror" from a terminal works as well where the "su -c" way doesn't. Weird behavior - some environment issue somewhere perhaps.
Anyway I now have a menu item to run konqueror as root (would have preferred dolphin as i've kinda got used to it but whatever) so thanks to you all for the replies.
I too have been dong this but lately it's been bugging me when I have been editing in and around my web directories (/var/www/htdocs in Slackware) and want to quickly move stuff around. I know your point though.

Yeah, I usually do anything I have to do as root from the terminal, but I've tried kdesu with various things to see if it works. And it does...so far.

I, too, prefer to have a menu item to start dolphin with root privileges, but also got the "Cannot talk to klauncher" error. I then found a post somewhere (I wish I had noted where, but I didn't) that recommended changing the `Command' line to "kdesu dbus-launch dolphin". That did the job for me, but please note that it is not always necessary. I am using -current with Alien-Bob's KDE-4.4 packages on this laptop & plain "kdesu dolphin" is working fine here.
Regards,
Bill

Brilliant - I now have a menu item that is set to run "dbus-launch /usr/bin/dolphin" as root which launches kdesu and dolphin works ! Thanks a bunch Bill.

Why does kdesu dolphin work for me, but not for other people?

There is an alternate way to offer root access via Dolphin using KDE service menus. It provides additional right-click options.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...7/#post3662507

@Chuck56: Wow - that's so useful. I have been looking for a way to add exactly this functionality for ages and your tip does precisely what I want. So cool - thanks loads.

well I guess they never made a super user mode desktop file for dolphin( I only use konq-file mode) but for konq I have to always change NoDisplay=true to NoDisplay=false in Home.desktop and konquerorsu.desktop file
to get them back in the menu.

In earlier versions of Dolphin there was an option in the right panel to open or view as root, but it has been dropped for whatever reasons.