Best way to kill a root process from a GUI?  [Solved]

For questions regarding system and application security
Message
Author
User avatar
dreamer
Posts: 926
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:34 am

Best way to kill a root process from a GUI?

#1 Post by dreamer »

So I recently learned how to kill a root process from the terminal. This was because I couldn’t do it from a GUI. I tried xfce4-taskmanager, qps and lxtask. Neither of these task managers would launch with pkexec.

I tried to launch them from the terminal and got various error messages. They were related to either gtk or Qt. I also thought that maybe PolicyKit permission was missing. I remember using xfce4-taskmanager with “pkexec” or “su-to-root -X -c” in MX-21. This doesn’t work in MX-23.

It’s unfortunate that these task managers can’t elevate permission when needed just like the MX apps. I think Ksysguard was able to do it, but it is no longer in the repos. Stacer also seems to have trouble killing root processes (and it will be gone from Trixie it seems). I tried these apps mostly with systemd.

If someone knows how to kill root processes from a GUI in MX-23 I would be interested to know how to do it.

User avatar
Eadwine Rose
Administrator
Posts: 14840
Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2006 2:10 am

Re: Best way to kill a root process from a GUI?

#2 Post by Eadwine Rose »

ctrl alt esc to make the skull, then clicking on the thing?

Dunno, haven't used that recently, so not a clue if it works on root things or not.
MX-23.6_x64 July 31 2023 * 6.1.0-37amd64 ext4 Xfce 4.20.0 * 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 2700
Asus TUF B450-Plus Gaming UEFI * Asus GTX 1050 Ti Nvidia 535.247.01 * 2x16Gb DDR4 2666 Kingston HyperX Predator
Samsung 870EVO * Samsung S24D330 & P2250 * HP Envy 5030

User avatar
dreamer
Posts: 926
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:34 am

Re: Best way to kill a root process from a GUI?

#3 Post by dreamer »

Most processes don't manifest themselves as windows. Also there needs to be elevated permission to kill a root process.

User avatar
beardedragon
Posts: 170
Joined: Wed Mar 27, 2019 11:26 pm

Re: Best way to kill a root process from a GUI?

#4 Post by beardedragon »

dreamer wrote: Thu Apr 03, 2025 2:40 am So I recently learned how to kill a root process from the terminal. This was because I couldn’t do it from a GUI. I tried xfce4-taskmanager, qps and lxtask. Neither of these task managers would launch with pkexec.

I tried to launch them from the terminal and got various error messages. They were related to either gtk or Qt. I also thought that maybe PolicyKit permission was missing. I remember using xfce4-taskmanager with “pkexec” or “su-to-root -X -c” in MX-21. This doesn’t work in MX-23.

It’s unfortunate that these task managers can’t elevate permission when needed just like the MX apps. I think Ksysguard was able to do it, but it is no longer in the repos. Stacer also seems to have trouble killing root processes (and it will be gone from Trixie it seems). I tried these apps mostly with systemd.

If someone knows how to kill root processes from a GUI in MX-23 I would be interested to know how to do it.
Right click Task Manager / Edit Application / Run in Terminal
Rule #1 Backup Everything
Rule #2 Read Rule #1

User avatar
dreamer
Posts: 926
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:34 am

Re: Best way to kill a root process from a GUI?  [Solved]

#5 Post by dreamer »

Ok, I found/remembered MX Service Manager... It seems to work great for exactly this purpose!
I feel sorry for Linux users without the MX tools. I also own a paid tool that can do this, but that one also temporarily disappeared from my mind. I was too focused on finding a “task manager” which is basically another word for a service or process manager.

Post Reply

Return to “Security”