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How do you create a program launcher with Alacarte (Main Menu) that has administrative privileges? I ask because I seem to have deleted the launcher for Synaptic Package Manager and whenever I start it with the command, 'Synaptic' I have to run it without administrative privileges.

As in, what do I type into, 'Command' to run Synaptic Package Manager with administrative privileges in the following screenshot: enter image description here

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up vote 5 down vote accepted


gksudo -u root <program_name>


gksudo -k -u root <program_name>

to run <program_name> as the root user.

See the manpage for the gksudo command Manpage icon for more information.

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Thanks mate, this works perfectly. –  Brenton Horne Jan 5 '13 at 8:24
'gksudo program name' works by itself too. –  Brenton Horne Jan 5 '13 at 9:24
Indeed, there's no need to specify -u root, without the -u option gksu and gksudo default to running the command as root. –  Eliah Kagan Jan 5 '13 at 9:30
As stated, gksudo synaptic is sufficient. However, the default command is synaptic-pkexec; you can try that to see if you prefer it (the difference occurs when you enter your password). –  Paddy Landau Jan 5 '13 at 9:36
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