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Matee_k
Asked: 2024-01-18 03:25:19 +0800 CST

Desktop shortcut for sudo command

  • 772

I want to create a desktop shortcut to turn off conservation mode on my laptop. For that I need to run this command: echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/bus/platform/drivers/ideapad_acpi/VPC2004:00/conservation_mode I made a desktop entry, but I don't know how to run it as superuser. This way it doesn't do anything. The closest thing I found was pkexec but that doesn't work.

ideapad

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Use an alias. In your /home/user directory there is a file called .bashrc.

    Put this at the end of the file, leaving a blank line at the end.

    alias name_of_alias='your_command_from_the_question_here'

    Save the file then, from terminal, run source .bashrc.

    Now you can use name_of_alias as a command freely. Type it at command line, all by itself. To use it in the desktop link you need to use: bash -c "name_of_alias".

    You do need pkexec to do it, if it doesn't want to pop up using bash -c, add it to the front of the command or try it with just the alias.

    e.g. pkexec name_of_alias or pkexec bash -c name_of_alias

    One of them will surely work.

    Alternative to pkexec/alias:
    This not secure, and is not for production use! It will keep the password visibly obfuscated and can be for personal use.

    #!/bin/bash

if [ "$#" -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 your_commands_here"
    exit 1
fi

command="$1"

password=$(yad --title="SU Password" --skip-taskbar --window-icon="input-keyboard" --on-top --geometry="300x150" --borders=15 --image="input-keyboard" --text-align=center --text="Enter Password:" --entry --separator="" --item-separator="" --hide-text)

exit_code=$?

if [[ $exit_code -ne 0 ]]; then
  exit 1
fi

# Decode the base64-encoded password
decoded_password=$(echo "$password" | base64 -d)

# Execute the command with sudo and the decoded password
fld1=$(echo "$decoded_password" | sudo -S -p "" -k "$command")

exit 0

    Save to: yad_sudo.sh
    Change mode to executable: chmod +x yad_sudo.sh
    Usage: ./yad_sudo.sh your_commands_here

    Use this for the shortcut:

    bash -c /path/to/script/yad_sudo.sh echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/bus/platform/drivers/ideapad_acpi/VPC2004:00/conservation_mode
    • -1

  2. Either configure your desktop icon to run the command in a terminal, so that sudo has somewhere to ask you for your password, or add an entry to the sudoers file to say that you can run the required command as root without a password.

    A good way to debug this sort of thing is to add redirection of output (both stdout and stderr) into a file so that you can check it after you've tried the command. E.g.:

    exec >/tmp/mylogfile 2>&1; set -x; ...

    (You might need to put that whole script inside a bash -c option.)

    • -1