cant start gksu firefox

[Tom H]

>>> Can you explain why gksu is a bad idea and why gksudo is better?

>> gksu - executes as superuser using $HOME = /root
>> gksudo - executes your current environment e.g. $HOME=/home/$user but
>> with superuser priviliges.

> However, on Ubuntu:

> ~$ diff -as $(which gksu) $(which gksudo)
> Files /usr/bin/gksu and /usr/bin/gksudo are identical

> In fact:

> ~$ ls -l $(which gksudo)
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 2010-02-27 02:03 /usr/bin/gksudo -> gksu

> And if I've understood things correctly. on ubuntu gksu is originally
> wired to instead work like gksudo by default.

Using gksu or gksudo is the same thing.

You can use "-w" to use su-mode (IIRC, you need to have the root
password set) and you can use "-S" for sudo-mode (the default on
Ubuntu, see [1] below).

You can also use "-k" to preserve the environment.

[1] In gconf-editor, by default,
/apps/gksu/sudo-mode
is set. If you untick it,
gksu <app>
will require the root password.