I have GParted installed, running openSUSE 11.3 with GNOME. When running GParted, it always grayed out most file system actions, supporting only hfs fully. This made no sense, as I had all the required packages installed for other file system support.
However, I recently figured out how to get it to work. Using the installed menu button doesn’t work, running “gnomesu /usr/sbin/gparted” doesn’t work; to get it to work, I have to open up a terminal, type “su -” to log in as root, and then run gparted.
Any idea why this would be the case? The menu button and gnomesu both prompt for a password, so it should be running as root, but launching it through the root terminal is the only way to actually get it to work. Is one root different from another? :\
> Any idea why this would be the case? The menu button and gnomesu both
> prompt for a password, so it should be running as root, but launching it
> through the root terminal is the only way to actually get it to work. Is
> one root different from another? :\
Dash (-).
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
kog13 wrote:
> Is one root different from another? :\
here is a 47 post long thread that answers that question…but, do NOT
stop until you have read them all…because some (especially at the
beginning) offered incorrect information…
Carlos answered you correctly, in a nut shell… yes, not all root
shells are born the same…
read man su, and the above cite and you will soon know more than some
‘experts’ who hang out around here (some with a lots of experience in
one of those other distros that won’t let you log in as root, and
instead require you to sudo–with no understanding of what is really
going on)…
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
I just did a quick test, and logging in as root using simply “su” (without the dash) also works, but using “su -m” (which preserves the environment) makes it fail. So in order for it to run correctly, gparted needs not only root privileges, but the root environment. Is there a way to have xdg-su (which the menu item uses) or gnomesu use root’s environment as well as its privileges?
There are numerous threads about this here on the forums. We found that kdesu does the su - behaviour (of course, else it would be a real security hole). I wonder if gnomesu does not do also (can’t believe they are not security consious there).