Bug 194267

Summary:	kdesu(do) configuration needs to be easier
Product:	[Applications] kdesu	Reporter:	Borden <borden_c>
Component:	general	Assignee:	kdesu bugs tracker <kdesu-bugs-null>
Status:	REPORTED ---
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	aneurin.price, haakondr, kde2, post
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Debian testing
OS:	Linux
See Also:	https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=377528
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Borden 2009-05-27 06:52:18 UTC

Version:            (using KDE 4.2.3)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Debian testing/unstable Packages

I understand that kdesu is somewhat on the neglected list what with PolicyKit poised to replace it, but it would still be nice to have an easier way to configure it.

Basically, I run a Debian system that has the root account locked out and set to a random password like K/Ubuntu.  Programs which need root access use su instead of sudo meaning that they prompt for root's password and fail because I don't know it.

After an hour or two of searching on Google, and with quite a bit of luck in your search terms, it is possible to discover that one needs to create a ~/.kde/share/config/kdesurc file to tell KDE to use sudo instead of su.  It would be nice, though, to either have this option available in systemsettings or documentation either in docs.kde.org or KDE's help system to tell users how to create this file so they can shave an hour off their configuration headaches.

Comment 1 Oswald Buddenhagen 2010-11-06 22:25:23 UTC

hmm, well, yeah - see bug 20914 comment 34

Comment 2 Borden 2011-07-07 11:27:42 UTC

Issue still present in 4.6.  I know PolicyKit handles these things for most of KDE now, but GTK programs (like Synaptic) still use sudo.  Until all software talks to each other using the same standards, KDE still needs to support sudo and this should be documented.

Comment 3 Jonathan Marten 2012-03-29 11:34:40 UTC

*** Bug 182742 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4 Diggory Hardy 2014-01-08 15:34:58 UTC

This issue is still relevant, e.g. partitionmanager uses kdesu to gain root access.

For those needing to use sudo, there's a nice description of how to do so here: http://www.freetechie.com/blog/default-kdesu-to-use-sudo-and-not-su/

My opinion: kdesu should either automatically use sudo when sudo allows the current operation (using su as a fallback), or when the GUI prompts for the root password it should give the option of using either su or sudo.

Comment 5 HD 2017-03-15 16:53:13 UTC

I'm experiencing this as well. A simple GUI box making the need for this clear would be nice, since without some googling it's impossible to for instance run the KDE partitionmanager on debian stretch, without a root account. 

If anyone else lands on this bug looking for a solution, there's a guide to configure kdesu on https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/sudo#kdesu.