2009/10/30 Robert Moskowitz rgm@htt-consult.com:
At times I find I need to login as root.
You really don't.
For example, as a regular user su to root, then start gedit from that terminal session. Look at all the errors generated. And at least in FC10, I could still change preferences, but in FC11, they all come up grey. There are other things in gnome that don't launch right from an SUed terminal session. So when I want to 'fix' things, I find it better to just log in as root.
I think you need to understand the difference between "su" and "su -".
But really you need to get to grips with "sudo" as a better replacement for "su".
Steps I always take on a new Fedora box to make my life easier.
1/ "su -" to become root. 2/ "visudo" to edit the sudoers file. 3/ Uncomment the first line referencing the "wheel" group. 4/ Save the file. 5/ Edit "/etc/groups" to add myself to the wheel group. 6/ Exit from "su -".
From that stage on, I never need "su" again. I can do anything I want
(without the errors that you're seeing) using "sudo some_command".
hth,
Dave...