addressing two workarounds with one post

By basd on Apr 25, 2009 | In kde4, linux

I wanted to modify the login screen in my Arch Linux install. This led to discovering that kdesu is working erratically in this version of KDE4.2.2

...

For a change, I am not the only one breaking things -- the kdesu problem has been reported with frustration for awhile. But, I also found a Debian bug report from 4/23/09 -- so this is a current problem.

Whatever. Arch and/or Chakra (I'm not certain which) does not allow a root login to KDE4 (OpSu does). I think this is also true in Kubuntu and possibly Debian.

There are many reasons to run things root. I usually solve this by creating an "run as different user" icon for dolphin and konqueror. Since these are intermittently broken (dolphin and/or konqueror) when I run su, one or the other will usually work. From the browser, I find the application .desktop link and run the program I want.

A related problem is that some of the "personal settings" (KDE4 "systemsettings") need to be run from root or else the options are greyed out and can't be selected. But, there is a noticeable lack of an "administrator mode" button. So -- I found lots of forum posts seeking info as to how to change root settings. (This isn't a problem in OpSu, since one can log in as root -- but a bit annoying to go through that process rather than just run an "administrator mode" momentarily.

So, I thought I had this wired, by creating a "run as other user" icon for "personal settings" -- and this worked exactly once.

Thereafter, I ran into the kdesu problem. Also, nothing would run from a super-user konsole, either. error messages include things like "can't access dbus","no protocol specified" "can't contact X server", etc.

Dang.

Multiple levels of frustration, as nothing would work. But, I came across a post where the user said he couldn't run programs in an su konsole -- but he COULD run them sudo from a regular user konsole.

This, of course, is going to depend upon whether you have sudo properly installed. The Arch beginner's manual includes instructions for setting the user -- something like "All=(All)All. Doesn't make any sense to me, but I did it anyway.

So, fortunately, my regular user account can run things sudo. Eg, "sudo Konqueror" (which will then give access to anything else that has a script or desktop icon); or "sudo systemsettings" if you want to, for instance, change the login screen to the default rather than the themed one.

BTW, the password sudo wants is the user password, not the root password. That is, again, assuming you have properly set up sudo to give your user account "all" sudo permissions.

Thank you for visiting and have a pleasant tomorrow.