Mageia forum

Today I wanted to do some administrative tasks as root. Since I adopted Mandrake 10 as my Linux distribution i used kdesu. Nowadays "kdesu dolphin". Today this does not work anymore. Neither does "kdesu kwrite". Using Konsole I got:

[erikjan@ejvw-main ~]$ su
Wachtwoord:
[root@ejvw-main erikjan]# dolphin
Executing Dolphin as root is not possible.
[root@ejvw-main erikjan]#

Looking for this on the internet I found that this is something new in the recent KDE versions.

I always thought that root had full permissions to do what is necessary, or even to destroy the system! Now I seem to have got some KDE developer as a nanny to tell me I do not have the authority to do things the way I prefer. This is a shame. I am grown up and used to make my own decisions, foolish or wise.

I also use XFCE with Thunar. With Thunar I cannot execute shell scripts by double clicking on them.

Why all this? We are not children!

At least the developers could have given us a choice. This would have been according to the tradition of Linux.

Is there some way for the Mageia developers to edit out this restriction on Dolphin, or is there some work around? Or should I look for some other desktop that does not treat users/administrators as irresponsible children?

Greetings,

Erik.

i suspect this has more to do with protecting us from vulnerable configurations that protecting us from making our own risk assessments.

those of us who choose to operate as root, are usually competent at doing everything faster on a CLI.

not making a judgment in that statment.

regards peter

There is no direct workaround and as that was a concious decision by upstream, this will probably also not be patched out, as this is essentially a good thing.
If you do want to run it as root, source code is freely available to do what you wish with it, so you clearly have a choice. You're barking up the wrong tree here.

For some context information and maybe some alternatives, see viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12078

Dear Peter,

thank you for your reply; but I must disagree with you. I am a bad typist, so working with CLI is not easy for me and I am not competent enough, so I do not work faster on a CLI. I have not worked with a CLI since DOS before Windows 95!! And why should I learn CLI commands with all their possible options when i can just copy, move or delete, drag and drop, edit and save as root as I have done for more than ten years now?

Root should be free to do as he seems fit without being treated like a naughty boy. Has this not been the standard Linux philosophy all these years? I quite agree that it is a very good thing that users are protected, but root should be master, not some developer.

Greetings,

Erik.

Thank you, Doktor, for your comment and references. I read them all and shall try Krusader to see whether I like it or not. In the mean time I shall also postpone my former judgment and try to live with the new Dolphin.

Greetings and thanks.

Erik

Hi.
For excecuting scripts winh Thunar look here: http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/hidden-settings
Greetings,
Ants

Erik wrote:Root should be free to do as he seems fit without being treated like a naughty boy. Has this not been the standard Linux philosophy all these years? I quite agree that it is a very good thing that users are protected, but root should be master, not some developer.

For one, you do not seem to have read some of the referenced links on the security implications of running graphical applications as root. It is understandable that software developers try to establish a sane default configuration, and this is a good thing.

For the other part, see my hint about what being root and free software / source code means. It does not mean that any developer has to grant you any wish you may have, or configure the defaults as you like them, or hand over means to shoot yourself in the foot.
But the source code is available, so you can apply any modifications that you like. This is exactly what free software / source code means.

Dear Doktor,

I am sorry to say: You are quite right!

If there are security problems with graphical programs, why is it only now that the developers take action?

And if graphical programs are a risk, why can Krusader be executed as root?

I am finding my way now with Krusader when I need to edit some system files or to read a file that is read only for root only.

Greetings and thank you for your help and arguments when you see the need.

Erik

Erik wrote:If there are security problems with graphical programs, why is it only now that the developers take action?

And if graphical programs are a risk, why can Krusader be executed as root?

Well you would have to ask the developers, I can't answer that. But better now then never.

re
If there are security problems with graphical programs, why is it only now that the developers take action?

remember windows 3.1

thats how we started out.

1 billion virus infestations later all spread by running a GUI as root or equivalent and the developers are learning their lesson.

IMHO

regards peter

A KDE developer thought users should have the choice of how to use their machine, or set fire to it if they want.
Imagine that.

He posted a simple fix for both of the root actions that don't work anymore (Kwrite & Dolphin).
It's a simple patch. The code says if the user is root, then popup the error.
This simply patches it so if the user is root then dolphin is executed.

Do this to fix Kwrite. Root Actions> Open as text should come up as root again.

Code: Select all

sudo sed -i -e 's/getuid/getpid/g' /usr/bin/kwrite

For Dolphin, do this. Now dolphin should work too.

Code: Select all

sudo sed -i -e 's/getuid/getpid/g' /usr/lib64/libkdeinit5_dolphin.so

Note. Any upgrade of either one will require you to fix it again. Also, KDE could change it where this doesn't work.
I remember him saying if the library or program was running, or loaded, it may not take affect without logging out and back in.
I've never had that problem. It worked on Mageia 6 and is working on Mageia 7. I can't find the original post but the patch will not break your system. Running as root might be a problem but you know that. You can now mark this as solved. Have a nice day.

Just enter this in terminal and enter root password at prompt

Dolphin Root

$ pkexec env DISPLAY=$DISPLAY XAUTHORITY=$XAUTHORITY KDE_SESSION_VERSION=5 KDE_FULL_SESSION=true dolphin

Thank you, Waterfox and Yankee495,

I saved your posts in my directory called "Tweaks".

The problem is, that KDE still treats its customers as little children that need protection against themselves. This is an insult. And it is useless. In order to work around this childish measure that we cannot start dolphin or Kwirite als root, we must use Krusader! Thus we are still able to make root changes in our system, only less easily! I have given up hope that KDE will change heart and start tot treat us as grown-ups again. Plasma is only on one of my computers, the main one, because I use Mandrake/Mandriva/Mageia since 2004 and have always been very happy with this distribution, grateful to all those who have made it possible for me to work safely and comfortably with it. But on my other computers I install Linux Mint nowadays, because I do not want to be treated as a little child!

Greetings and again: thank you!

Erik Jan

I agree, this Dolphin root situation is stupid, glad this helps you and your quite welcome, any time, cheers

Not a solution, but some notes.

I use to dualboot many distros with KDE ─ and still there are many different behaviors, after 2 years ─ but I needed to uniformize my procedures in daily usage.

So I started to install and to use Midnight Commander (mc) as Root, in all distros.

mc lets me to choose between nano, vi or its internal editor mcedit (which I prefer).

Note that I do that in Konsole ─ a GUI app...

Also, I keep using Luckybackup as Root ─ and it is a GUI app, too.

Looking again at all this I found that KWrite and Dolphin can be started as root by using beesu!! No need for magic formulas that we do not understand .

Trying out "sudo sed -i -e 's/getuid/getpid/g' /usr/bin/kwrite" I found that I am not in the sudoers list! I never was, but now I am planning to find out how to achieve this!

Greetings

Erik

Here's a link to Mageia Wiki on sudo https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Configuring_ ... tall_it.29