gksu

Graphical frontend for su with GTK password dialog

TLDR

Run a command as a specific user

$ gksu -u [userid] [command]

Run the command while preserving the current environment

$ gksu -u [userid] -k [command]

Force gksu to use su to run the command

$ gksu -u [userid] -w [command]

Force gksu to use sudo to run the command

$ gksu -u [userid] -S [command]

Output debug info for the given command

$ gksu -u [userid] -d [command]

Ask gksu to print the password to stdout

$ gksu -p [command]

gksu is a graphical frontend for `su` that prompts for a password using a GTK dialog. It allows running graphical applications with elevated privileges from the command line or menu entries without needing a terminal.The tool can operate in either su mode (authenticate as target user, typically root) or sudo mode (use current user's sudo privileges), with automatic detection based on system configuration.

DEPRECATED: gksu is no longer maintained and has security issues. Use pkexec from PolicyKit for graphical privilege escalation instead.

PARAMETERS

-u, --user USER

Run command as specified user (default: root)

-k, --preserve-env

Preserve current environment variables, does not set `$HOME` or `$PATH`

-l, --login

Make this a login shell (may cause problems with Xauthority)

-w, --su-mode

Force use of su for authentication

-S, --sudo-mode

Force use of sudo for authentication

-d, --debug

Output debug information

-g, --disable-grab

Disable locking of the keyboard, mouse, and focus while asking for the password

-P, --prompt

Ask the user before grabbing the keyboard and mouse

-m, --message MSG

Custom message in password dialog

-D, --description DESC|FILE

Description for the command being run, used in the default message

-p, --print-pass

Print the password to stdout, like ssh-askpass

INSTALL

yay -S gksu

CAVEATS

Deprecated and unmaintained. Running graphical applications as root can cause permission problems with user files (.Xauthority, config files). Modern desktop environments discourage running GUI apps as root entirely.

HISTORY

gksu was created in the early 2000s for GNOME to provide a graphical password prompt for privileged operations. It was deprecated around 2012 in favor of PolicyKit (pkexec), which provides finer-grained authorization controls.

RESOURCES

Debian manual page (archived)