How do I start Nautilus as root?

Question

I've got a problem with Nautilus in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

When I run the command gksu nautilus /, the password ask box appears and I type my super-user password, then the password box disappears and Nautilus is not opened.

When I try to open Nautilus as a normal user in with the command nautilus, the folder is opened.

When I try in terminal

$ sudo nautilus

I got the 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 Nautilus with root privileges, 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 instance, if you were on a KDE system 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

How to run Gedit AND Nautilus as administrator with pkexec instead of gksu or gksudo

Source: WebUpd8

gksu hasn't been updated since 2009 and is not recommended any more. In fact, Ubuntu no longer ships with gksu by default (though it may be installed for many of you, because some apps still depend on it) and it may even be completely removed at some point.

Nautilus admin adds PolicyKit files for both Nautilus and Gedit and it allows opening a file or folder from Nautilus as root, via PolicyKit:

To install Nautilus Admin in Ubuntu, open a terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T and use the following command:

sudo apt-get install nautilus-admin

And to restart Nautilus use either of the following commands:

nautilus -q or killall nautilus

After this when you right click on a folder you will see:

If you right click on a text file editable by Gedit you will see:

Then you will be prompted for password:

Related question: "Open in terminal" not working on nautilus as root

Finally, installing nautilus-admin also allows opening nautilus as root from the command line. Use the following command instead of gksu or gksudo:

pkexec nautilus 

to open nautilus as root.

Hope this helps

Answer 4

If you find yourself opening nautilus as root often, I would recommend adding the option to the right-click menu in Unity: (it uses the same command as the top answer, gksu nautilus).

You will need to edit a *.desktop file in order to add the menu option, and you have two choices:

• /usr/share/applications/nautilus.desktop (requires root access to edit) - The menu option will be added for all users. Note that you may need to re-edit this file, adding the option if an update to Nautilus occurrs that overwrites your changes.
• ~/.local/share/applications/nautilus.desktop (If you can't find it there, make a duplicate of the one found in /usr/share/applications/, and save it to this new location) - The menu option will only be available for the specified user, and is considered "better practice". Note that if you already have it docked to your Unity bar, you will need to choose Unlock from Launcher on your existing Nautilus icon (by default shows up as named Files), then re-add your "custom" version. These changes should stay even if Nautilus gets an update.

Edit the text file nautilus.desktop, adding the following block of code (you can use the existing two blocks as a template):

[Desktop Action RootWindow]
Name=Open a Root Window
Exec=gksu nautilus
OnlyShowIn=Unity;

Next, add the new action to the list (should be at around line 18 of the text file):

Actions=Window;RootWindow;

Now right-clicking the text editor window in Unity brings up this handy new option:

Answer 5

"sudo nautilus" works for me. Here are some alternatives:

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 and run it like this:

sudo apt-get install mc
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 6

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).

Answer 7

If you are running Ubuntu Live or Persistent install, sudo nautilus is ok, everything on the drive, except home, is already owned by root and is read only.

If you create, copy or modify a file or folder, inside the home folder on the persistent drive as root using sudo nautilus the permissions will be restored to owner on reboot. If you create, copy or modify a file on a different drive using sudo nautilus the permissions will revert to owner once the usb drive is shut down.

Answer 8

Edit your /etc/profile with:

sudo nano /etc/profile

Then add this to the end of the file:

xhost +local:all

Ctrl+X to quit.
Y to confirm.
Enter to confirm path.
Done.

Run anything as root.