"Open as Administrator" behaving badly under Karmic?

**tgeer43** · January 5th, 2010

Originally Posted by mbeach

trying to understand a similar issue over at:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1372619

thinking that they may have seen the same sort of thing happening.

Which setting controls root allowing desktop management - what is the path to the setting in gconf-editor? Is it something other than Apps -> Nautilus -> Preferences -> show desktop?

That is indeed the correct key. The difference is that by running gconf-editor as root (gksudo gconf-editor), root's profile is edited instead of the current user's.

Many thanks to 3rdalbum who pointed this out in post #8 of this thread. I ran gconf-editor as root and unchecked Apps -> Nautilus -> Preferences -> show desktop then reinstalled nautilus-gksu and now the 'Open as adminstrator' right-click context menu item works like it did for me by default in earlier versions of Ubuntu. The current user's desktop is left undisturbed throughout the root nautilus session.

The thread that you referenced does look like it's very closely related since they both have to do with the desktop and root nautilus sessions. But whereas mine involved obvious switching of the desktop to that of root's, his desktop does not change. Although he can see his 'missing' files in a root nautilus session, the missing desktop icons are still not present. Nevertheless, his solution turned out to be the same except that he had to edit Apps -> Nautilus -> Preferences -> show desktop as the current user rather than as root like I had to do. Same key - different user.

You know, I really don't mind little issues like this as I never fail to learn something new about this amazing OS.

tgeer

**jamesisin** · January 6th, 2010

Nice resolution. Unexpected. I like it.

I'd be interested to see your desktop arrangement if you are willing to attach a screen shot (or send one to me).

**tgeer43** · January 6th, 2010

Originally Posted by jamesisin

Nice resolution. Unexpected. I like it.

I'd be interested to see your desktop arrangement if you are willing to attach a screen shot (or send one to me).

I don't know how 'nice' the final resolution was but I agree that it was unexpected and I definitely like it too since it put an end to something that had been bugging me since I installed Karmic about two months ago. I really started to try to resolve it only about two weeks ago and I can only take partial credit for it. I did uncover the --no-desktop thing but it was 3rdalbum that came up with the real solution in post #8 above.

As for a screenshot - sure, here's one attached that I had to scale down to meet the forum's file size limitations. Native resolution is actually 1440x900. There's really not much to look at since I don't allow nautilus to manage the desktop, hence no desktop icons. In fact, my top and bottom panels are normally set to 'autohide' so I had to temporarily reveal them for the screenshot or else there wouldn't be anything to look at except one of my desktop backgrounds.

Screenshot.jpg Click on thumbnail for larger view.

Anyway, here's how it works and the reason that I don't see a need for running a separate application launcher like gnome-do:

TOP PANEL:
The left section contains the 'Run Application' applet as well as launchers for 13 of my most used applications and scripts. They are (from left to right): Terminal, Root Terminal, Firefox, Xmms, Skype, Deluge, Gimp, Toggle Webcam As Desktop Background, Frequency Scaling, Gedit, Toggle Conky, System Monitor, and PlayOnLinux.

The middle section contains drop-down menus corresponding to the following sections in the Start Menu: Preferences, Administration, Accessories, Games, Graphics, Internet, Office, Other, Sound & Video, and System Tools.

The right section is just a few odds & ends: Find Files, Terminate Misbehaving Application, Indicator Applet, and Shutdown.

BOTTOM PANEL:
Left section: Start Menu, Shortcut to Home Folder, and Workspace Switcher.

The entire middle section is the Window List (you can see my Ubuntu Forums Firefox session there).

Right section: Weather Applet, Blueman, Networking, Battery Indicator, Volume Control, BlueProximity, System Clock, and Trash Applet.

That's it! - very simple but highly functional and efficient. I used to (particularly in my Windows days) like to have a bunch of nifty looking icons on the desktop but in my old age I really prefer the uncluttered, minimalistic look. I find it to be more productive and easier on the eyes. By the way, that desktop background is a picture of my current girlfriend (what a bitch!)

So as you can now see, there's very little that I can't do directly from the panels without the need for using the Start Menu, much less a dedicated launcher application. Everything's there when I need it and hidden when I don't.

If you (or anyone else) would like any info on my Frequency Scaling, Toggle Conky, or Toggle Webcam As Desktop Background scripts, just say so. They're all very simple yet effective. I've also put together a nifty little system maintenance script (cleanup.sh) which, with only a couple of keystrokes cleans a whole bunch of stuff from my system. I have it set to run periodically via a cron task and I also run it manually before making a system backup. Oh, yeah - that reminds me. I also wrote a script that consists of a single (albeit very long) line of code that with a single mouse click makes a compressed tar archive of my entire installation and stores it on a separate drive for quick and easy restoration of the system in the event of major catastrophe. It has saved my bacon on more than one occasion and takes less than 10 minutes to back up the entire system (minus music, pictures, and videos which are archived separately). No need for a stand alone backup program when Ubuntu comes with everything needed to do the job effectively.

But I'm getting very off-topic here as well as exceedingly long winded so goodbye for now!

tgeer