When I run graphical applications as root (on KDE4), they inherit my window decorations setting, and use the default widget style. I know that, obviously, I can configure root’s widget style to match mine, but I do like the visual distinction. I just don’t like it using my window decorations, because I have that nicely configured to match my widget style (and therefore clash with anything else). Is there any way to tell KWin to decorate root windows differently, or even run a separate window manager for root windows?
More importantly
Why are you running these apps as root?
You beat me to it.
You should not be logged in as root. Ever. Please learn to use su or sudo. If you are logged in as root, your system is vulnerable.
I’m not logged in as root. I’m talking about running things like YaST and GParted within my user login.
Then they should not look any different, unless you have some mixed up versions of some programs.
Let’s see your repositories. From the command line, run the following and paste the results.
zypper lr -d
Sorry CAF.
Here’s the output:
# | Alias | Name | Enabled | Refresh | Priority | Type | URI | Service
---+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+---------+---------+----------+--------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------
1 | 11.2 | 11.2 | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.2/ |
2 | 11.2_2 | VLC | Yes | Yes | 95 | rpm-md | http://download.videolan.org/pub/vlc/SuSE/11.2 |
3 | 11.2_3 | NVIDIA | Yes | Yes | 95 | rpm-md | http://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/11.2/ |
4 | Education | Education | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Education/openSUSE_11.2/ |
5 | KDE4_STABLE_1 | KDE4 STABLE | Yes | Yes | 95 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/KDE4:/STABLE:/Desktop/openSUSE_11.2/ |
6 | KDE:Community | KDE:Community | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Community/openSUSE_11.2/ |
7 | KDE:KDE4:Community | KDE:KDE4:Community | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/KDE4:/Community/openSUSE_11.2/ |
8 | OpenOffice.org_STABLE | OpenOffice.org STABLE | Yes | Yes | 95 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/OpenOffice.org:/STABLE/openSUSE_11.2/ |
9 | Packman Repository | Packman Repository | Yes | Yes | 95 | rpm-md | http://packman.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/11.2 |
10 | home:illuusio | home:illuusio | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/illuusio/openSUSE_11.2/ |
11 | home:msvec | home:msvec | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/msvec/openSUSE_11.2/ |
12 | openSUSE 11.2-0 | openSUSE 11.2-0 | No | No | 99 | yast2 | cd:/// |
13 | openSUSE-11.0-FTP-NonOSS_11.0 | openSUSE-11.0-FTP-NonOSS 11.0 | Yes | Yes | 99 | yast2 | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.0/repo/non-oss/ |
14 | openSUSE_11.2 | Java | Yes | Yes | 95 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Java:/packages/openSUSE_11.2/ |
15 | openSUSE_11.2-0 | openSUSE 11.2-0 | Yes | Yes | 99 | yast2 | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/ |
16 | openSUSE_11.2_1 | Science | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/science/openSUSE_11.2/ |
I don’t really think it’s relevant though, because I know what it’s doing and it makes sense. The windows themselves are rendered as root (which uses the settings in /root, which get propagated with defaults if they don’t exist), and the windeco is done by KWin, run as my user, using my user settings.
Optimally I’d either like root windows to match my style, or, better, give root windows a distinctive style (I’m thinking Motif) so they do stand out.
I could be wrong, but I see two different versions of KDE Community and they have the same priority. Try disabling #6 and let’s see what that does.
No, #7 is the KDE4 community repo, and #6 is the KDE3 community repo (not everything has been ported to Qt4).
AFAIK nope. (Not yet?). You already know how to run systemsettings for root. I use a red color scheme for root, so Yast etc are visibly running with root permissions.
A good test option is
Create a new user account and don’t change any settings and see if you get the same results.