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Posted: **Mon Aug 13, 2012 8:46 am**

gksu gedit /path also opens second empty tab

If you run the following command:

gksu gedit /etc/fstab

It will open up a root instance of gedit to fstab but also creates a second tab titled "Untitled Document 1". I find this incredibly annoying and have resorted to using leafpad to avoid it. There are some bug reports detailing this:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/838404
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=658100
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/796076

It isn't going to be fixed because the official Gnome position ( which veteran Gnome users may find surprising ) is:

Christian Persch [developer] 2011-09-03 08:35:38 UTC
You shouldn't start GNOME programmes with elevated privileges, it's not
supported.

I may have found a solution in a blog posting I can't find at the moment. For those that are interested:

[1] Create a file:

Code: Select all

gksu gedit /usr/local/bin/ggedit

Note: That's a "ggedit" not a "gedit"

[2] Add this content:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
gedit "$1" < /dev/null

[3] Save the file and make it executable:

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sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/ggedit

Now as a test run the following command:

Code: Select all

gksu ggedit /etc/fstab

If should open up without the second tab.

Note: There is probably a way to do this by editing /usr/share/applications/gedit.desktop ( don't try to browse to this in Nautilus - you need a real file manager like XFE to see *.desktop files ). I didn't do it there because I figured that any update to the system would override it and besides I'd rather not mess with system files if I can avoid it.

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HowTo: gksu gedit /path also opens second empty tab

HowTo: gksu gedit /path also opens second empty tab