Using unity as console command launcher

Question

I wonder, is there any way to do this in Ubuntu's Unity:

• press Super button
• type gksu wireshark
• enjoy Wireshark as root

In other words: is there a way to execute shell command from unity line?

Answer 1

There is a much easier way to start applications the way you start them from the shell, if you don't care to open gnome-terminal, just type Alt+F2 and then type

gksu wireshark

or whatever command you want to run.

_{Warning: It is not recommended to run wireshark as root, if you really want to, have a look at this.}

Answer 2

There's no lens that will act as the terminal, simply because if one wants to issue terminal commands, just typing Ctrl+Alt+t will open gnome-terminal.

If all you need is to launch Wireshark as root, just edit its .desktop file to change the way you start it, first open a terminal and type:

sudo gedit wireshark.desktop

And change the line beginning with Exec to add gksudo:

Exec=gksudo wireshark %f

That way, Wireshark will always run as root is started from the unity launcher or after a query after pressing the Super key.