I found a (lengthy) guide to doing this but it is for gksu which is gone. I have to imagine there’s an easy way. I am running Ubuntu. There is no specific use case, it is just a feature I miss from windows.

EDIT: I always expect a degree of hostility and talking-down from the desktop Linux community, but the number of people in this thread telling me I am using my own computer that I bought with my own money in a way they don’t prefer while ignoring my question is just absurd and frankly should be deeply embarrassing for all of us. I have strongly defended the desktop Linux community for decades, but this experience has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Thank you to the few of you who tried to assist without judgement or assumptions.

  • @boredsquirrel
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    3
    edit-2
    23 days ago

    This is very easy in KDE but Desktop entries work the same on all Desktops.

    See this post where I mentioned how to do this with running Konsole with root.

    In general, use polkit instead of sudo, every desktop has a GUI dialog that pops up.

    pkexec APPNAME
    

    And add this as a desktop action, following the guide.

    [Desktop Entry]
    Type=Application
    Exec=konsole
    Icon=utilities-terminal
    Categories=System;TerminalEmulator;
    Actions=root
    Name=Konsole
    GenericName=Terminal
    Comment="$GenericName"
    
    [Desktop Action root]
    Name=root
    Icon=folder-root-symbolic
    Exec=pkexec konsole
    

    In the specific case of Konsole you could use a profile instead.

    Be aware that nearly no program should be ran as root. Also not Konsole. The program is ran as the user, and can enter a root shell, but never run random apps as root. Not even many terminal apps are made to be ran as root, for example use sudoedit instead of sudo nano for editing files.

    To view and change system files in KDE, type admin:/ into the location bar.

    Running apps as root doesnt work with Wayland, and for a good reason.

    • JediwanOP
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      fedilink
      022 days ago

      Thanks for this, but I have a question:

      Running apps as root doesnt work with Wayland, and for a good reason.

      Are you sure about this? I run GUI apps as root all the time and have Wayland.

      • @boredsquirrel
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        222 days ago

        Not sure if all apps, maybe some work, maybe they use XWayland. Dont do this.