[techtalk] Gnome question

[Telsa Gwynne]

On Sun, Oct 15, 2000 at 07:46:44AM -0400 or thereabouts, Barbara McMillin wrote:
> Oftentimes I find myself in Gnome as guest and I want to change to root. 
> How is this done on Gnome desktop? Barbara

I don't know any way to change everything from one user to another
user in X (which is what GNOME uses), all in one easy go. So here's
a collection of partial solutions. The right one for you will depend
on what you want to do. 

    o logout, log back in as root, and then start up Gnome.

    This is simple, but not recommended. You will get a warning
box about "You are running gmc as root!" and so on. It is very easy
to make mistakes like this and think "Oops" afterwards. I don't
recommend doing this if you can avoid it, and as soon as you've
finished your root stuff, switch back to a normal user. 

    o open a terminal (xterm or gnome-terminal). Type 'su -' in it
    and give the root password. The rest of your gnome desktop is 
    still guest's. But in that one terminal, you are root, and can
    do root things. 

Unfortunately, you will have to do them at the command line, because 
there is currently no way to get a second little panel which has the 
programs which only root can use. (There may be in future: I have 
pestered and pestered about this.) So provided that you know the 
commands, you type them at the prompt, and the app will start up. 
I suggest that you put a space and then the & sign at the end of the 
commands you type whilst you're doing this: this will give you back 
your prompt and you can start lots of applications at the same time
from that one terminal.

Common things you might want to run as root:
	Gnome System Monitor:		gtop	(so type "gtop &")
	GnoRPM:				gnorpm  ("gnorpm &")
	Helix update: (you should be able to run this as guest and
    just give it the root password when it asks). helix-update


If you want to run ppp and can't except as root, post again with
more details. If you want to use CDs and can't except as root, 
again, post with more details. Things like what distribution you 
are running and what version of it will be important for those.

To stop that terminal shell being root any more, either type "exit"
or hit ^D. You'll get your guest prompt back in it then.

Telsa