https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/sho … i?id=44291

TC

The problem was that libreoffice writer apparently added some extra "invisible" bytes to the beginning of a supposedly text file, and the solution was to remove those bytes.

$SUDO_ASKPASS

to

/usr/bin/ssh-askpass

just install

ssh-askpass-gnome

to provide the askpass.

then i came across a commentary saying never to use plain "sudo" for gui applications but use "gksudo gedit" instead.

that was many years ago and i don't remember the exact scenario/situation but in those days when something went borked i just did a fresh install and carried on(simpler times...ha!)

For some of us yes.
For 99.999999 of the normie population that I make things for who have no idea what emacs, tty, or kate or even nano mean:

Ehrr, I don't like titlebar color, file manager>>filesystem root>>usr/share/themes/(default-theme)/(appropriate folder)/(appropriate file)

Right-click>>edit as root>>opens in text-editor as root>>edit file>>save>>close>>root privileges gone. Logout>>login>>changes applied.

Profit. It's all about the GUI for new users or users that don't care to learn how to use the CLI.

other option is to make use of sudoedit

I actually made a right-click extension "Edit file as Root" years ago that opens files in Pluma for me to edit, super handy. Much better than just working in the root account for long periods of time I reckon.

steve_v:
*opens a bunch of root-owned files in kate tabs, as unprivileged user*
*screws around for as long as needed, as unprivileged user*
*hits "save"*
*gets polkit authentication prompt*
*profits*

Much better than just having a GUI editor running as root for long periods of time I recon.

Aside, everything any of us might do in a GUI editor can also be done in emacs at a TTY.

Opposite to steve_v's opinion I am using geany as a gui multi-tab text editor to edit my confs and scripts as root for convenience.

Yep.
I've been doing it for years, I actually made a right-click extension "Edit file as Root" years ago that opens files in Pluma for me to edit, super handy. Much better than just working in the root account for long periods of time I reckon.

... the initial attempt was made as root and it came up in Libre Office Writer when moused ...

Take this as learning. Never ever attempt to modify any Linux conf or script file with anything else but a pure text editor. These kinda files are pure ASCII text, no control characters allowed but CR LF and maybe TAB. LO and like as Windows editors add characters that are not welcome in the Linux world.

Opposite to steve_v's opinion I am using geany as a gui multi-tab text editor to edit my confs and scripts as root for convenience. I am setting up a root terminal and a policy kit policy to enable to do that. When I call up geany from this root terminal I am getting all the files I ever fooled with on my system (unless I did not remove them from the list of files). This setup also allows easy copy/paste into the files.

whatever happened to gksudo and kdsudo for elevated privileges in gui applications(i.e. mousepad, synaptic, etc.)?

gksu and so on have been replaced by pkexec and polkit policies some time ago. Somewhere in the release notes should be a note telling that gksu is depracated and removed from the distribution (inherited from Debian).

While I generally disagree with wayland's intentionally missing features, in this case nothing of value is really lost.
GUI applications that need to do something with elevated permissions should handle this themselves (with e.g. a polkit auth prompt when writing a file), and I have never seen any good argument for running entire GUI programs as root. KDE applications (e.g. dolphin, kate) already do this, and I expect other DEs do as well or soon will.
If synaptic doesn't, then that's a bug that should be filed against synaptic.

As for mousepad... I'm still completely baffled as to why anyone would want to run a GUI text editor as root. Use a modern GUI editor that handles saving files with elevated permissions... Or just use GNU nano, because there's zero need for a GUI editor when working with config files to begin with.

Running libreoffice as root just to edit a text file is especially insane IMO, and I see no reason any desktop environment should support it or provide tools to enable it. kdesu and gksu were hacks, situations where they are useful (as opposed to pathological) are few and far between, and there's no reason for them to continue to exist.

"Run as administrator" for GUI applications (along with GUI logins as root) is a terrible idea inherited from Winblows and perpetuated by ex-Winblows users. It needs to die, and sooner rather than later.

the initial attempt was made as root and it came up in Libre Office Writer when moused.
Subsequent efforts made as su'd user in Mousepad

The only thing more confusing here than the use of libreoffice for editing a simple text file... Is the use of libreoffice as root.
Just.. Why? Use a real text editor, from an elevated terminal. Nano, vi(m), emacs, mcedit, all work just fine without any weird encoding issues or the hazard of runing enormous GUI bloat as root. Nano has been the default $EDITOR for years, and with good reason.

on the offhand you can also use something like the https://github.com/eylles/devuan-script … mirrors.sh script from devuan-scripts, which does some automation to set the sources.list correctly for the current suites.