Help in desktop shortcut + root access

[Nils Kassube]

Ramprasad wrote:
> I installed a custom application as a local user.
> The desktop shortcut is created only for the root user.
> The local user must be able to access the desktop shortcut which is in
> root or been written to the local user desktop itself.
> Do we have some helper script to do this or is there a way in ubuntu
> that can allow desktop applications to be launched with root
> credentials ?
> How can this be done ? Please reply in verbose.

The application should be installed SUID root. Then it can be run by any 
user. However, that has to be supported by the application IIRC. And you 
have to trust all users on the machine because it might be a big security 
hole. To make a file suid root you could use these commands:

sudo chown root:root filename
sudo chmod 4777 filename

Then create a desktop shortcut for the user and try if it works.

If the application doesn't support SUID, you would need a program that 
supports SUID and then starts the needed application. I don't know if 
there is something like this available. I have written a program for this 
purpose several years ago for someone else. If you can't find a better 
solution, I could try to get the source code (if it still exists) from 
that person.

Just out of curiosity: Why does the application need root privilege? I 
think it is a very bad design if there is no special reason to do it this 
way.


Nils