10

Opening file as root is possible with sudo. But, how to right click a file and make it run as root ?

I am using nautilus.

Jacob Vlijm
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Ramvignesh
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2 Answers2

10

You need the admin extension

$ apt-cache search nautilus | grep admin
nautilus-admin - Extension for Nautilus to do administrative operations

Install it with sudo apt-get install nautilus-admin

Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
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  • Does this works for Raspberry PI ? I had installed but there's no something like `run as root` in context menu. – huang Dec 21 '20 at 01:20
1

I tested the solution from here, and it works fine (running 14.04/nautilus).

enter image description here

To not post a link-only answer:

  1. install gksu

    sudo apt-get install gksu

  2. Navigate to ~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts

  3. Create and open an empty file, name it open-as-administrator, paste the script below:

    #!/bin/bash
#
# this code will determine exactly the path and the type of object,
# then it will decide use gedit or nautilus to open it by ROOT permission
#
# Determine the path
if [ -e -n $1 ]; then
obj="$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS"
else
base="`echo $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI | cut -d'/' -f3- | sed 's/%20/ /g'`"
obj="$base/${1##*/}"
fi
# Determine the type and run as ROOT
if [ -f "$obj" ]; then
gksu gedit "$obj"
elif [ -d "$obj" ]; then
gksu nautilus "$obj"
fi

exit 0

  4. Make the script executable

  5. Either log out and back in, or run: 

    nautilus -q

AGAIN: the script is not mine! found it on http://ubuntuhandbook.org

Jacob Vlijm
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  • Use `sudo apt-get install nautilus-admin` method instead of making your own system scripts. Then you will get updates when/id needed. – Soren A Jun 15 '17 at 10:58
  • @SorenA what do you suggest, never post your own alternative if another solution exists? Furthermore, the *concept* of this answer could be usefull to someone to perform other actions on the file, not available in existing nautilus actions. – Jacob Vlijm Jun 15 '17 at 11:09
  • What I mean is never to propose a "manual" unsupported solution, when you know that a working supported one exists. As for the concept part you could have a point, but I fear that it will confuse more ppl than it will help. – Soren A Jun 15 '17 at 11:21
  • @SorenA there could be a million reasons to use a "home-made" alternative. Flexibility is one; functionality can easily be changed or fine tuned. Even only for that reason, the answer is useful. Confuse? then don't play around with it if you don't understand. – Jacob Vlijm Jun 15 '17 at 11:23