Root terminal doesn't start

Bug #326158 reported by castrumargenti@gmail.com
46
This bug affects 4 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Ubuntu
New
Undecided
Unassigned
Nominated for Jaunty by ChangoBat

Bug Description

I'm using ubuntu 9.04. When I start the root terminal it asks me the password and check id it's correct but after it doesn't start the root terminal. The terminal (not root), instead, work fine.

To solve the problem I went to "system"....."preferences"...."main menu"....."system tools"....."root terminal"....."properties" and entered the following command line: gnome-terminal -e "sudo -i". I closed and saved and can now access root terminal and it works just fine!

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Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Could you please provide more details as to the exact step that you take to start the root terminal? Is this a menu item or do you do something else? Thanks in advance.

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syldeb35 (sylvain-debray) wrote :

I also have the same bug:
to reproduce:
- system -> pref -> main menu -> activate the root terminal under App / system tools (don't know exactly my menu is french!)
- try to launch it: nothing
the command is "gksu /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator"

try in a normal terminal:
$ sudo /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator
[sudo] password for xxx:
Failed to contact the GConf daemon; exiting.
$
perhaps a better way is /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator -e 'sudo -s'

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castrumargenti@gmail.com (castrumargenti) wrote :

The problem is exactly the same described by debsyl35: I lunched the root terminal from the menu item. Even today, with the latest updates the problem persist.

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castrumargenti@gmail.com (castrumargenti) wrote :

I tried to launch this command :

/usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator -e 'sudo -s'

from a normal terminal and it replays me an error:

There was an error creating the child process for this terminal

I hope this will be useful

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bert07 (marien.bert) wrote :

Using Jaunty beta for i386 desktop.
The root terminal doesn't start and crashes; sometimes the crash comes immediately.

When logged in as root, the root terminal works fine.

Can it have something to do with "gksu"?

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Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote :

Could you please try executing the following command in a terminal and included any output if it errors out? Thanks in advance.

gksu /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator

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bert07 (marien.bert) wrote :

Output:
Failed to contact the GConf daemon; exiting.

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bert07 (marien.bert) wrote :

Question:
Are there somewhere in the user account some hidden configuration files?

I ask this because I also had some troubles with "tilda", and after I removed the ".tilda" folder, logged out, logged in again, made new configurations, the trouble seemed to have disappeared.

Perhaps it might also work here?

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bert07 (marien.bert) wrote :

See the "tilda bug" #349617

affects: ubuntu → gconf (Ubuntu)
Changed in gconf (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → New
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Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

that's not a gconf issue

affects: gconf (Ubuntu) → gksu (Ubuntu)
affects: gksu (Ubuntu) → ubuntu
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castrumargenti@gmail.com (castrumargenti) wrote :

I've installed ubuntu 9.04 64 bit on an other PC, and I've done the latest updates 16 April 2009 but the root terminal still doesn't start and give me back this error: Failed to contact the GConf daemon; exiting
Some days ago I've also tested the 32 bit version on a Virtual Box machine and when I tried to start the root terminal, it represented me the same problem !

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Stephen Cradock (s-cradock) wrote :

Confirming the symptoms - Jaunty up to date (April 17). Root terminal command from menu fails to start terminal. Trying the command from a terminal gives the "Failed to contact the GConf daemon. exiting." message. Have confirmed that the xterminal-emulator script passes no @args to gnome-terminal if run without gksu, and opens a normal terminal correctly. If run with gksu there are also no @args, but the GConf daemon error message appears after the call to "exec gnome-terminal".

This suggests that the error is actually in gnome-terminal, rather than in x-terminal-emulator.

Checking the GConf settings for gnome-terminal doesn't immediately suggest what might be wrong, and if the error is a failure to contact GConf daemon the settings shouldn't matter.

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David Clayton (dcstar) wrote :

I would speculate that someone has decided that root terminals are a security hazard and have changed the 9.04 policies to prevent them being launched.

I now use gksu konsole to get root terminal access.

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Pibo (paibotm) wrote :

I've just updated to ubuntu 9.04 (1st-day stable release) from previous 8.10, and I get exactly the same problem (and same error message about Gconf daemon). May I suggest this bug might be related to #328575 (gconf2) ? Perhaps someone more expert than me could give a look to it.

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Jim10 (g-van-zweeden) wrote :

As far as I 'm concerned it's not a big issue, a (temporary?) solution is simple. Add a starten to the taskbar (or your menu) with:

gnome-terminal -e "sudo -i"

and the terminal starts immediately asking for your password. As long as you keep that terminal open you will have root-permissions in it.

Gr,
Jim

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castrumargenti@gmail.com (castrumargenti) wrote :

Yes, It works with:

gnome-terminal -e "sudo -i"

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bob (bob-harris-tulchan) wrote :

The fact that a predefined menu option Applications->System Tools->Root Terminal does not work in 9.0.4 but did work before the distribution upgrade is a bug.

Consider the number of people who will have to make the simple change and consider how long it would have taken to test and fix the menu option before distribution.

We all have better things to do with our lives.

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Jim10 (g-van-zweeden) wrote :

bob wrote: "

The fact that a predefined menu option Applications->System Tools->Root Terminal does not work in 9.0.4 but did work before the distribution upgrade is a bug.

You should be right but as far as I know there no such option predifined in the standard installation ;) .

Greetz,
Jim

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Pibo (paibotm) wrote :

I do agree with Bob (in fact, I wouldn't have written here if I didn't :) ). We don't have the option visible in our menu by default, but we do own a fakeroot terminal, so why shouldn't we be able to use it (even if it just means having a different colour profile)?
Using 'sudo -i' is a functional workaround, but it's not a solution. And, the bug may have collateral issues that haven't been identified yet, so we shouldn't disregard it only for being a dumb problem: the fact the queue of subscribers has doubled since yesterday should mean something :D
Anyway, I'm marking this as a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gconf2/+bug/328575 (I'm not doing it the other way since it seems it's them who are collecting dups) Sorry I can't help by more means.
Greets,
Pibo

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Gabriel Ortiz Lour (gabrielortiz) wrote :

Another thing is that with the workaround 'sudo -i' when you hit Ctrl+Shift+T to open another tab on gnome-terminal it will open with your normal user and not even ask for the sudo password, and being used to use the terminal as root this is very anoying. Bottom line is that having a menu item for root terminal it should work (as it did), and as soon I get more info for where to look to solve this bug I'll try solving again.

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Danish (danested) wrote :

Guys dont have to use gksu or anything you can change the root password by sudo passwd
then just use su on a normal terminal for a superuser terminal.

(P.S) also there is a way see and make a folder/ files in folders that are owned by root by default using GUI for example you cant just create a folder in / with your File browser..
 you can use sudo nautilus and a window opens up this is the root browser window, just keep the terminal open.

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Russel Winder (russel) wrote :

This misses the use case reported elsewhere (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gconf2/+bug/328575) of having super user terminals a different colour to normal terminals. This incredibly useful feature used to work fine all the way up until and including Intrepid. Jaunty broke this without any form of notification.

No-onw appears yet to have explained why the change was necessary, nor what the new way is of achieving the use case that users clearly want to use and have been used to having.

This morning is a be grumpy morning.

LostInSpace (jpmerlin)
description: updated
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