up vote 2 down vote favorite

I don't want to open the terminal and type sudo nautilus every time I want to visually browse for files. Is there a way of fixing it to the launcher?

share|improve this question
2  
Please explain why you need to do that? To me here is -no- reason for it. If you have a Windows background and believe you need to be able to use your Ubuntu system like Windows... stop. Using sudo to use Nautilus is bad behaviour and -will- at some point break your system where you alter a file's permissions and make it root only where it should be a user file. If you need examples: ave a search for .Xauthority on askubuntu – Rinzwind Apr 10 '13 at 11:33
1  
Use gksudo nautilus instead and you'll be OK. – w4etwetewtwet Apr 10 '13 at 11:43
    
I don't see the problem with pressing ALT + F2 and typing gksu nautilus but if you really want to add either it to the menu, or icon on desktop, see here. You will still need to enter your password though. – Warren Hill Apr 10 '13 at 11:51
    
Another important point is that you should use gksu instead of sudo for graphical applications. See here for why – Warren Hill Apr 10 '13 at 11:58
up vote 0 down vote

You can make a new menu entry with tools like alacarte (or manually write the .desktop file and place it in your ~/.local/share/applications folder) that runs "gksudo nautilus". gksudo should present you with a graphical password entry box. After you added this to your menu, you can just drag and drop it on the launcher.

share|improve this answer
    
What would I put in the .desktop file? – babbaggeii Apr 10 '13 at 11:33
    
I recommend using alacarte (much easier as you don't have to care about the details), but if you really want to know about the format of desktop files you can read portland.freedesktop.org/xdg-utils-1.0/xdg-desktop-menu.html – soulsource Apr 10 '13 at 11:58
up vote 0 down vote

Just copy /usr/share/applications/nautilus.desktop to ~/.local/share/applications. Then edit all the "command" entries in it to begin with gksudo, also change all "name" entries to root nautilus, or something similar. Log out and log back in again and root nautilus should appear in the dash. You can then drag root nautilus to the launcher from the dash.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.