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Amey Jah
Asked: 2011-10-22 09:34:21 +0800 CST

How to run application under different user

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I am using 11.04. I have two users. (User1 and User2).

Could you please tell if it is possible to run Firefox or any other browser with another User's profile.

Let say, I am using User2 to access my office network via browser. So while working on User1, I want to access office network and dont want to switch from User1. So will it be possible to change few permissions so as to make firefox open only using User2's profile.

So scene would be something like this. 1) User1 clicks on firefox launcher 2) OS asks for User2's password 3) User1 enters User2's password 4) Firefox is launched with User2's profile. (It loads all configurations from ~/home/user2/.firefox)

firefox

3 Answers

  1. You could try gksu -u rather than gksudo. 'gksudo' implies the need for an 'administative' password.
    'gksu' is 'switch user' and will ask for User2's password.
    You'll probably run into permissions issues since the displayed desktop belongs to User1.

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  2. Disclaimer - I am just answering the question of how to make the configuration change you are wanting, not advocating that you do this, I would highly advise you stay with the defaults and use the user password (an not the target password as outlined below).

    It seems the question has morphed to how to configure sudo / gksu / gksudo to use the second users password.

    This part of the question is done by configuring sudo.

    sudo visudo

    Look for the "Defaults" section (there are several Default lines already)

    Add in a line

    Defaults runaspw

    This will configure sudo to ask for the user password. The problem with this is that you will have to first set a root password as sudo will ask you for the root password to run commands.

    See http://www.gratisoft.us/sudo/sudoers.man.html for details

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  3. I don't really understand your problem. Hope some of these tips can help you.

    1 - Firefox supports multiple profiles:

    firefox -ProfileManager
    • open ~/.local/share/applications/ (create applications folder if necessary)
    • open gEdit and type this in:
    [Desktop Entry]
Name=Firefox Web Browser
Comment=Firefox Web Browser
Exec=firefox -ProfileManager %u
Icon=firefox
Type=Application

    • save it as: 'firefox2.desktop' under '~/.local/share/applications/'

    • drag the 'firefox2.desktop' file to the Launcher

    2 - Firefox has since version 4 a Tab-groub feature - CTRL+SHIFT+E

    3 - You could create a '.desktop' file under '~/.local/share/applications/' and add a link to an profile → 'Exec=firefox -P [PROFILE_NAME]'

    4 - Create a new user account and switch between both profiles

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