Hi Shriramana,
Will someone please explain WHY logging in graphically to root is stupid, and logging in textually to root is NOT stupid?
... sorry if this sounds tough, tho it is surely not intended to, but I have to absolutely agree with Daniel Eckl. There is no single f**king reason on earth why one should log into KDE or any other GUI as root. It's not only that you can accidentally delete files and such things as others already pointed out but the actual very important reason is another: If you start X11 with root privileges, it has the freedom to do whatever it wants! X11 runs a number of (networked) services like remote displays and such things. These networked services are per definition subject to external attacks from hackers, script kiddies or whatever. A service that under normal conditions runs on user level will never be able to compromise the complete system because it simply does not have access rights. If you start X11 as root, which is what you're doing when logging in as root into a GUI then these services will run with root privileges too, leaving the complete system open to anyone hacking one single darn service! This might seem unimportant to you, but believe me, logging into KDE as root is just as darn stupid as can possibly be! So it's a big NO-NO! And this is also the reason why SuSE/Novell will or maybe even has already (I didn't try, why should I?) shut this functionality off. Nothing personal here, but it's people like you, who do not know or understand why logging into KDE as root has serious security implications who definitely need it disabled! People who don't need it disabled won't login as root anyway. You will never find me logged in as root other than in a terminal window. I can do anything there, including graphical stuff. This is not meant to be an insult but rather an explanation. Hope you got it.
Yeah okay. I loadup Konqueror while logged into my user account. I browse to /etc and right-click fstab and say: "Open using Kate". Presto! Kate opens it but says it's readonly. Konqueror was opened in root mode. Not Kate. And I don't have a KDE Menu Item that says "Open Kate in SU Mode" like I have "Open Konqueror in SU mode" or "Open Konsole in SU Mode".
... you've already been named the commands: "kdesu konkeror", "kdesu yast2", "kdesu kedit",... You can also open a shell window, do "sux -" once and then start "konkeror", "yast2" or whatever program that needs root privileges and GUI functionality from there. To start more than one GUI program simultaneously either add an ampersand at the end, ie. "yast2 &" or, if it's already running, put it in the background by activating the shell window, hitting ctrl-z and then entering the command "bg". -- cul8er Paul paul.foerster@gmail.com