this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2024
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Is there a way to add "Run as Sudo" to context menu like with Windows? (lemy.lol)
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by flork@lemy.lol to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I found a (lengthy) guide to doing this but it is for gksu which is gone. I have to imagine there's an easy way. I am running Ubuntu. There is no specific use case, it is just a feature I miss from windows.

EDIT: I always expect a degree of hostility and talking-down from the desktop Linux community, but the number of people in this thread telling me I am using my own computer that I bought with my own money in a way they don't prefer while ignoring my question is just absurd and frankly should be deeply embarrassing for all of us. I have strongly defended the desktop Linux community for decades, but this experience has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Thank you to the few of you who tried to assist without judgement or assumptions.

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[–] DmMacniel@feddit.de 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It depends on the file browser you are using.

[–] flork@lemy.lol -1 points 7 months ago (6 children)

The default, nautilus.

"Run as Adminstrator" in the context menu is a default feature in Windows. It seems odd I'm the first person to want this in Linux.

[–] uzay@infosec.pub 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It is rare that you would want to run an entire GUI program as root, and if it is needed, the program should prompt you for it. Do you have a specific use case where you need to do that regularly?

[–] flork@lemy.lol 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Not regularly, but the most common use I've encountered is text files used in various configurations.

[–] uzay@infosec.pub 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Not necessarily a satisfactory solution for you, but the usual way to handle that is just using a text editor in the shell with sudo, like nano or vim. It's pretty fast and easy once you get used to it. I don't know if there are any good graphical ways of doing it.

[–] flork@lemy.lol 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I know. That's what I've been doing for years. I could also just sudo gedit file directory filename but it's SO much easier to right-click "open as admin" which is why I asked.

[–] uzay@infosec.pub 2 points 7 months ago

I would suggest right-click in the folder in your file explorer -> open in terminal -> sudo nano autocomplete file name (tab tab). At least to me that doesn't seem that much more involved and is safer. Otherwise, as others have noted, there are apparently ways of doing what you want, but it is discouraged for good reasons.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

That is the 1% I mentioned, and the easiest way is installing this https://github.com/nautilus-extensions/nautilus-admin which I think is in the apt repos, so probably sudo apt install nautilus-admin works.

But I STRONGLY encourage you NOT to install this, you've already made a mess of permissions on your computer that by your own account caused you many headaches by running graphical programs with sudo without any need.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 4 points 7 months ago

That's not how that should work. You also shouldn't need that in Windows either.

Programs that need Admin rights will ask for it. There are a fee limited cases but most of the time it creates more problems than it solves.

From your comments I've read it sounds like there is more to this story. Can you share what you are trying to do? On gnome gnome disks can run fine under the user. It will elevate when it needs to and it is designed with least privilege.

For file shares root is pretty much meaningless in most contexts. If you don't have access you don't have access as authentication is handled server side. If you setup a automatic mount check your mount options as you can set it to be owned by the local user. Also if you mounted the share in a graphical file utility such as nautilus it will be mounted for the local user so you will not need root.

Root should be used very sparingly. It is not the same as Admin on Windows. It is almost equivalent to the SYSTEM user on Windows.

[–] clmbmb@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You have no idea what that would do in Linux. First read some documentation, then decide if you really need it. I guess you can see by the number of people trying to put you on the right path that what you want is not a good idea.

[–] flork@lemy.lol 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm not a child with a machine gun, I just don't want to go to the terminal every time.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Then let us address the underlying issue. You should not need root for the majority of tasks and never for desktop usage.

It sounds like something got messed up when you ran a different program as root.