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Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

So the purpose of this is rather silly... I just want to pull the preinstalled system wallpapers from /usr/share/backgrounds so I can pull them into GIMP and better recolor it to my purple UI coloring.

Where I'm finding issues... is accessing it via GUI applications. sudo nautilus, which I swear used to open to root, now opens to a folder where all I can see is a "snap" folder with no access to root.

While I would like a GUI way of doing this (let me make my own mistakes in my tinkerer's environment, for goodness sake), I'm open to terminal ways... just... again, I prefer a GUI method.

So far, I'd tried the aforementioned sudo nautilus to that result, also tried to use install dolphin and sudo dolphin but get Executing Dolphin with sudo is not possible due to unfixable security vulnerabilities.

I just want a GUI-accessible way to view these root folders.

RabblerouserGT
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    You haven't provided any OS/release details; but user GUI applications should generally not be run as root (ie. with sudo) fyi: you're probably viewing the /root/ user directory and not what you expected – guiverc Jun 11 '22 at 04:44
  • Running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, edited into the post now. Forgive my question but why shouldn't GUI apps not be run as root? Is it just a security thing? As a power user, I think I should have the ability to see such areas, but also know when areas are dangerous to edit (i.e. Windows showing a warning when navigating into certain system folders).

    It's the tinkerer in me.

     – RabblerouserGT Jun 11 '22 at 04:53
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    Does this answer your question? How do I start Nautilus as root? – muru Jun 11 '22 at 04:55
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    There's no reason to use sudo for this - nautilus admin:///usr/share/backgrounds will let you access these files with superuser privileges while not actually running nautilus as root. – muru Jun 11 '22 at 04:56
  • @muru Trying nautilus admin:///usr/share/backgrounds gives me an "Oops! something went wrong. Don't have permission to access the requested location." error. Also the gksu stuff seems to be outdated in jammy? idk – RabblerouserGT Jun 11 '22 at 05:03
  • That's strabge. What about just nautilus admin:///? – muru Jun 11 '22 at 05:07
  • @muru Same thing. Nautilus opens but spits a permissions error. – RabblerouserGT Jun 11 '22 at 05:09
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – RabblerouserGT Jun 11 '22 at 05:12
  • @GuntramBlohm No nautilus is not a snap package unless you're using Ubuntu Core (which is a snap only product of Ubuntu). It's a deb package that is seeing a directory titled snap and you'll find the same in Debian with the same version of nautilus assuming you have the same directory names too. – guiverc Jun 11 '22 at 06:56

1 Answers1

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While I'm not sure if this is proper etiquette to answer my own question like this, I tried, to no avail, things like nautilus admin:/// and hit a permission error.

My solution was to install Nemo, a Nautilus fork used in Linux Mint, which enables you to explore things using the "File System" tab on the left.

One minor issue: Just warning in case anyone goes this route, you'll have two "Files" apps in your app picker. ️ One is Nautilus, the other is Nemo.

RabblerouserGT
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    For most users, nautilus admin:/// will work properly and is easier than installing a whole new file manager. – user535733 Jun 11 '22 at 16:45