I occasionally need to know the names of programs. I asked here about “Run as Administrator” being added to the context menu (like in Windows), and the response was basically “can’t be easily done”. an example is if I wish to edit a config file it cannot be done without accessing the terminal. Knowing the name “gedit” is the real name of “text editor” is useful information in this use-case.
I am not afraid of the terminal, but I would never prefer it over a GUI. is there a way to find a program name/install location from right-clicking-details (or something)? So then I could open a terminal and “sudo programname”?
(As an aside, I prefer Linux overall, but every distro I’ve tried has a strong sense that if you’re using the GUI you don’t need or deserve admin controls. Program names in the menus are almost always different from their names in the terminal, and many what I would consider normal system settings, like the ability to act as an administrator, find where a program is installed are terminal only.)
This is Ubuntu with all the default stuff
EDIT: I always expect a degree of hostility and talking-down from the desktop Linux community, but the number of people in this thread telling me I am using my own computer that I bought with my own money in a way they don’t prefer while ignoring my question is just absurd and frankly should be deeply embarrassing for all of us. I have strongly defended the desktop Linux community for decades, but this experience has left a sour taste in my mouth.
Thank you to the few of you who tried to assist without judgement or assumptions.
You can create a new desktop file, where you add pkexec in the
Exec
line.Desktop files are in
/usr/share/applications
. Find your app there. Copy it’s desktop file file to the user’s application directory, it’s~/.local/share/applications
expanded:/home/username/.local/share/applications/
. Rename this new desktop file, and in the line starting withExec
addpkexec
at the beginning of the command string.pkexec
is the graphical equivalent ofsudo
(kindof). Also change theName
in the file, so you can find it in your menu. (The difference you mention comes from here. On the gui thisName
parameter is visible, while on the terminal you call the command fromExec
).When you save the new desktop file, it should show up in your Application menu. If you start this new app, pkexec should bring up a graphical password prompt.
If you use gnome you can edit desktop files with alacarte, it may work with other DEs: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/alacarte
More info, these things are unrelated to your distro, it should work the same way everywhere:
snaps have an extra directory for .desktop files, because … you know … snaps 🙄
So do flatpaks.