This has been bugging me for some time.

After going to the terminal from the KDE4 desktop and back again, any app which uses su-to-root or kdesu (eg.synaptic) will no longer present the root login dialogue and eventually crash.

These are the steps to reproduce the problem on my debian system:

!. drop into the terminal using CTRL-ALT-F1
2. login as root
3. do init 3
4. do some work
5. do init 5 to return to the desktop
6. start app required root (eg.synaptic)
7. no dialogue->crash

Also on shutdown of the computer a prompt appears to close an open tty session.

Anyone any idea how to fix this root dialogue problem?
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hi

since no-one has replied yet maybe I suggest the following

5....su to localuser

then startx

then balance of tests

good luck

(2)

5 instead of su to local user run as root

/etc/init.d/kdm start

then use it to login to local user and repeat tests

if you don't use kdm try gdm3 or slim etc
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Thanks aus9 for your help.

My apologies. I feel such a pillock and must have been experiencing an extended senior moment.

Every reasonably experienced linux user should know that closing a root session is done with the 'exit' command. i.e merely using 'init 5' to return to the desktop would achieve the desired result but leave the root session open. To return to the desktop and close the root session requires 'init 5 && exit'.

Somehow the connection between 'init 5' and 'exit' command seems to have become completely disconnected in my mind until one day whilst staring at the console that I suddenly realised the 'exit ' command was missing.
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