Temporarily running Gnome as root user in F10

by Rehan Khan — last modified Jan 21, 2009 11:00 AM

— filed under: Post-Install Solutions

By default logging in as root from the graphical login screen is disabled to increase security in Fedora 10. Sometimes it is useful to login as root and have a full Gui available. e.g. Newly installed hardware requiring driver fixups. This how-to demonstrates how to temporarily login as root with a full Gnome desktop. At the next reboot everything will be back to normal and the machine running as it was originally.

Applicable to Fedora Versions

Fedora 10 and up.
Generally applicable to most linux distros that support the startx command

Requirements

Some basic linux command line experience
you must know the root password
A need to do more than a few commands as the root user usually just after install or when troubleshooting a problem. Generally if root access is required use a terminal with the su command (preferred).

The procedure is relatively simple however there are a few caveats.

Avoid using the internet through a browser. wget commands should be fine.
Make sure your firewall is enabled and running.
Don't use Gnome logged in as root for daily usage.
be careful, root can do bad things if mis-handled

Doing the Work

Logout of Gnome if logged in
When you have been returned to the Greeter screen (login screen) press and hold Ctrl and Alt and then press F2 to take you to a non-graphical login prompt.
login as root (user name = root, password = <set at install time>)
Switch off the Gnome greeter by issueing the following command:
```
telinit 3
```
The screen will switch to a console login screen. Repeat the key sequence in step 2 to take you back.
Press return a couple of times to get the command prompt back when your system has gone to runlevel 3
Start X windows and Gnome by issueing the following command:
```
startx
```
When you have finished what you needed to do make sure you either restart the machine or logout and reboot (not essential but safer

More Information

There are other ways to do step 4 (making linux go to runlevel 3):

Using the inittab. This permanently makes the machine boot to a particular runlevel
Using a kernel commandline option to force runlevel x at boot time.

All of these methods are discussed in this how-to about runlevels.

Disclaimer

We test this stuff on our own machines, really we do. But you may run into problems, if you do, come to #fedora on irc.freenode.net

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