It’s been a long time last time I wrote about how to enable “Open as root” or “Open as Administrator” in Nautilus’ context menu.

A Nautilus extension called Nautilus Admin has been created for a period of time. It’s a simply Python script that adds some administrative actions to the right-click menu:

• Open as Administrator: opens a folder in a new Nautilus window running with administrator (root) privileges.
• Edit as Administrator: opens a file in a Gedit window running with administrator (root) privileges.

To install the Nautilus extension:

The extension is available for all current Ubuntu releases: Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and Ubuntu 18.04.

1. Simply open “Terminal” either via Ctrl+Alt+T or from app launcher. Then run command:

sudo apt-get install nautilus-admin

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter.

2. Then restart Nautilus via command:

nautilus -q

That’s it. Open nautilus file browser again and enjoy with new context menu options!

This simple tutorial will show you how to add ‘Open As Root’ or ‘Open As Administrator’ option to context menu so that you can easily edit / open file folders as super user privilege within Nautilus file browser.

To get started:

1. Open Ubuntu Software Center. Search for and make sure the package gksu is installed. gksu allows graphical programs to ask a user’s password to run program as root / administrator.

2. Open Nautilus file browser, press Ctrl+H to view hidden files & folders. Navigate to USER Home -> .local -> share -> nautilus -> scripts.

Create an empty document under this directory named ‘open-as-administrator’ or ‘open-as-root’

3. Edit and paste following lines into the file

#!/bin/bash
#
# this code will determine exactly the path and the type of object,
# then it will decide use gedit or nautilus to open it by ROOT permission
#
# Determine the path
if [ -e -n $1 ]; then
obj="$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS"
else
base="`echo $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI | cut -d'/' -f3- | sed 's/%20/ /g'`"
obj="$base/${1##*/}"
fi
# Determine the type and run as ROOT
if [ -f "$obj" ]; then
gksu gedit "$obj"
elif [ -d "$obj" ]; then
gksu nautilus "$obj"
fi

exit 0

4. Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open the terminal. When it opens, run the command below to make executable:

cd .local/share/nautilus/scripts/ && chmod 0755 open-as-administrator

5. Finally restart Nautilus via command nautilus -q, or just log out and back in.

This quick tip is going to show beginners how to add ‘open as administrator’ or ‘open as root’ into Nautilus context menu in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy.

With this feature enabled, you can quickly open files and folders in Nautilus with root (super user) privilege. This also works on Linux Mint 16 Petra if you’re using Nautilus 3.8.x.

To get started:

1. Open Ubuntu Software Center, search for and install gksu. It allows graphical programs to ask a user’s password to run program as root / administrator.

2. Open Nautilus file browser, press Ctrl+H to view hidden files & folders. Navigate to USER Home -> .local -> share -> nautilus -> scripts.

Create an empty document under this directory named ‘open-as-administrator’

3. Open this file with Gedit, copy and paste following codes into the file and save.

#!/bin/bash
#
# this code will determine exactly the path and the type of object,
# then it will decide use gedit or nautilus to open it by ROOT permission
#
# Determine the path
if [ -e -n $1 ]; then
obj="$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS"
else
base="`echo $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI | cut -d'/' -f3- | sed 's/%20/ /g'`"
obj="$base/${1##*/}"
fi
# Determine the type and run as ROOT
if [ -f "$obj" ]; then
gksu gedit "$obj"
elif [ -d "$obj" ]; then
gksu nautilus "$obj"
fi

exit 0

4. Right-click on this file, go to Properties -> Permissions tab. Check the box which says ‘Allow executing file as program’.

Log out and back in, or restart Nautilus by nautilus -q command. Done.