Gedit should be opened with root or sudo for files belonging to root.

[stuaxo]

Use case:

• User has invalid desktop file owned by root.

Currently the user will click to edit the file, it will open in gedit and they cannot save it.

What should happen: There should be a prompt to get root permissions and then gedit opened by root.

I'm not sure if there is a HIG / GNOME compliant way of doing the GUI for this, but if there is it should be followed.

[stuaxo]

Came back to report this, though maybe this should be something that Gedit itself can do TBH.

[stuaxo]

If it's a local file then it can be opened with admin admin:// prefixed to it, and prompting will happen automatically.

[bluesabre]

@stuaxo I pushed a commit that should handle this scenario. Can you test it out?

[stuaxo]

I get password popup, but after I enter my password nothing happens.

In the log I can see this message:

(gedit:1131169): Gtk-WARNING **: 14:17:45.621: cannot open display: 
Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused

(gedit:1132969): Gtk-WARNING **: 14:18:17.964: cannot open display: 

[TomaszGasior]

@bluesabre You should never open GUI apps as root, even through pkexec. This is insecure and unsupported in Wayland. Instead, use admin:// protocol for editors like gedit (and forks, and maybe mousepad etc.). This works only with GIO/GVFS-based editors but root privileges are handled automatically and GUI is ran as current desktop user.

[bluesabre]

@stuaxo @TomaszGasior Thanks for the feedback. I just pushed up another change that should do the best-case scenario for supported editors. Tested with Gedit (admin:// supported), Pluma (admin:// supported), Mousepad (pkexec), and elementary Code (pkexec).