As fred said;
Always use "gksu" or "kdesu" to launch a Gnome or KDE GUI program as root.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=44222
There's also one alternative to usual konsole that i use frequently, an apps called yakuake. You just need to press 1 button (f12 in default) and it will slide out from top of your screen. Not to forget it looks cool also..




