Bug 427912

Summary:	kdesu doesn't work on wayland
Product:	[Applications] kdesu	Reporter:	Franz Trischberger <franz.trischberger>
Component:	general	Assignee:	kdesu bugs tracker <kdesu-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED UPSTREAM
Severity:	normal	CC:	nate
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Other
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Franz Trischberger 2020-10-18 09:11:30 UTC

SUMMARY
kdesu under wayland (no matter if run from within plasma wayland session or gnome wayland) doesn't do anything.
Under X (tested in plasma and gnome) kdesu does what I want to use it for - run an application as a different user.


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. login to a wayland session as user1
2. run e.g. konsole as user2 with the command
kdesu -n -u user2 konsole

OBSERVED RESULT
kdesu simply returns without opening a konsole window

EXPECTED RESULT
A konsole window with user2 as process owner is spawned.
Like it works when run from within an X session.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: 5.20.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.75.0
Qt Version: 5.15.1
Distribution: archlinux, latest packages.

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2020-10-26 17:47:40 UTC

Yes, I'm afraid Wayland's security model doesn't permit running apps as root, with elevated permissions, or as a different user like this. The app itself needs to gain whatever functionality you're using kdesu to approximate.