How To Create Shortcuts On Desktop And Run Them As Root In Ubuntu 11.10

Creating shortcuts of your favorite program on your ubuntu desktop allows you to easily access and run the program. In our previous article about creating desktop shortcut in Ubuntu 11.04 and 11.10 we showed you how to install different packages and create the shortcut.

In this guide we will tell you how to make the shortcut as the root which will not only allow you to run the program but also change its contents. It’s not just a shortcut but you also get direct access to the program itself.

So read on to find out more.

How To Use Desktop Shortcuts As Root

1. After you have installed the required packages press Ctrl + Alt + T to open terminal window and enter the following commands gnome-desktop-item-edit –create-new ~/Desktop and press enter
2. Create launcher dialog box will be launches and enter the name as Open As in the name edit box.
3. In the command edit box enter the following command /usr/bin/gksu
4. You can enter a comment if you want but it’s not requires. As soon as you click ok you will be returned to the terminal window where type exit and press enter to close the terminal window.
5. Now the shortcut which you named as Open As will be on your desktop so double click it to launch it
6. The run program dialog box will pop up from where you can select to run Nautilus as root. So enter the name nautilus in the run box and makes sure that Root is selected from the drop down box and click ok.
7. Now you need to create a root directory for nautilus so to do that double click the shortcut and in the run box type gnome-terminal and click ok.
8. After the terminal window opens with # sign enter the following command to enter the root  directory cd /root/.config
9. In the .config directory you need to create a nautilus directory by typing the following command and pressing enter mkdir nautilus
10. Close the terminal window by typing exit and pressing enter.
11. Now when you invoke the Open AS shortcut and enter nautilus it opens with root permissions.
12. You can do this process for other program also.

So there you have an easy way with which you can easily create shortcut which grants you root permission for your favorite programs.

Do let us know if there are any other easy ways with which you could access a desktop with root permissions.