How do I start Nautilus as root?

Question

I got problem with nautilus in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

when i run command "gksu nautilus /" password ask box appear and I type my super-user password , than password box is disappear and nautilus is not open. .

when i try to open nautilus via normal user in command box . "nautilus" the folder is open up.

when i try in terminal ...

$sudo nautilus

I got following error

$ sudo nautilus /

** (nautilus:8523): WARNING **: Command line `dbus-launch --autolaunch=2c8ce9b7da2257c2609b749700000007 --binary-syntax --close-stderr' exited with non-zero exit status 1: Autolaunch error: X11 initialization failed.\n Could not parse arguments: Cannot open display:

how can i fix this error..

Answer 1

Try:

gksudo nautilus

Then type your own password just like when using sudo.

Gksudo man page: http://linux.die.net/man/1/gksudo

Answer 2

When opening Nautlius with root privliges, it is best to use the command

gksudo

unless your root account is unlocked, and in that case, Ubuntu discourages this.

The reason for the "gk" is because sudo, by itself, doesn't perform the necessary actions automatically to properly run graphical applications as another user.

However for instence, if you were on a KDE sysstem such as Kubuntu, you would want to issue the command

kdesudo

p.s. Do not leave your Nautilus root window open when you are not using it,then forgetting about it, as using a window you do not know is root is a bad idea.

For more information view the Ubuntu man page for gksudo here.

Answer 3

You could also try installing nemo (linux mint file browser), which has an "open as root" option.

Answer 4

"sudo nautilus" works for me.

An alternative is to enter superuser mode with "sudo su" in the terminal (will ask for your password), then run the commands from there:

sudo su
nautilus

Another alternative is to use something else for file exploration than nautilus, something that does not require graphical environment. GNU Midnight Commander - mc comes to mind. You can install it like this:

sudo apt-get install mc

Your error messages suggest that the root "Cannot open display". The reason might be that the DISPLAY environment is not properly set up. You can check it from the terminal like this:

printenv | grep DISPLAY

You should see something like DISPLAY=:0.0 in response. If not, take care of the display environment for the root first.

Answer 5

Open terminal and type the following:

sessionfile=$(find "${HOME}/.dbus/session-bus/" -type f)
export $(grep "DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=" "${sessionfile}" | sed '/^#/d')

Try running your command again (sudo nautilus).