[NTLUG:Discuss] Administrative Priviledges

[Chris Cox]

goodtimetribe wrote:
>> Typically this is a program that needs to run with elevated privileges
>> but does not have them.  I'm not as sure about Kubuntu, but on standard
>> Ubuntu you can run the program with a "gksu" before it and you will get
>> prompted for you password to give the program administrative privileges.
> 
> In KDE, you would use kdesu or kdesudo if you have it installed. It seems
> right now that both have a problem with ssh authentication in Hardy Heron
> 8.04.1, as I'm following a bug report on Launchpad. For the meantime, the
> bug makes me a gksu user as well. I installed it in Kubuntu via aptitude

kdesu can use either su or sudo depending on how it's configured.  Just
an fyi... can't speak for the bug issue in question... Can't remember
the option off the top of my head that you have to set to change
the behavior of kdesu... just google for it.

On suse... I setup sudo to allow wheel group privs and then
set kdesu to use sudo... then I the user can start (e.g. yast)
priv'd tools using their own password instead of root when prompted.
On newer version of openSUSE 10.3+, it's not needed... so mainly
something I do on the older ones and the SLES's.