I was playing around with Ubuntu & installing a few stuff from the terminal. One problem that quickly became a pain in the rear is that, I had to `sudo` everytime and give a password whenever a command that required admin privileges had to be run. Since, I was installing a few stuff, almost all commands required admin rights. So, without much ado, here’s how to open a terminal with permanent root privileges.

  1. Press Alt+F2. The “Run Application” dialog will pop up.
  2. Type “gnome-terminal” in the dialog and press “Enter”. This will open a new terminal window without admin rights.
  3. Now, in the new terminal window, type “sudo gnome-terminal”. You will be asked for your password. Give your password and press “Enter”. A separate terminal window with root privileges will open now. This is immediately visible because the usual “$” prompt changes to a “#” prompt.

There you go, 🙂 three cool steps to have your terminal with admin rights. If you press “Ctrl+Shift+N” from this new terminal, it will open another terminal window, which also has root privileges.

 

8 Responses to “How To: Open a root terminal in Ubuntu”

  1. traxen Says:

    You can also do this:

    1. Alt+F2
    2. Type “sudo su”. Check the box: ‘run in terminal’
    3. A new terminal opens and type your password in it.

    Done

  2. Aswin Anand Says:

    @traxen:
    Yeah 🙂 that’s cool

  3. Sathya Says:

    Another way is Alt + F2 and “gksudo gnome-terminal” 😉

  4. Aswin Anand Says:

    @sathya:
    Ah! yes. Didn’t think of that.

  5. James Says:

    I am running Ubuntu 9.04 and this operation does not work.
    I get a failed message:
    “Failed to contact the GConf daemon; exiting.”

  6. Chris Laurel Says:

    You can download an application called root terminal from the add remove applications icon. app uses gksu and installs in the system tools section of the applications menu. Good Times!

  7. useful ubuntu resources « Roshan Book Says:

    […] http://www.aswinanand.com/2008/06/how-to-open-a-root-terminal-in-ubuntu/ […]

  8. prashant Says:

    thx .. 🙂