sudo access for desktop actions in Gnome/KDE?

I feel kinda silly asking this question. I'm using CentOS 5.4 and KDE. I downloaded an archive and I want to drag/drop the contents into a folder that I need root access to write to.

I can obviously go into terminal and sudo blah blah. But how do I get sudo access for desktop procedures? Like for simple dragging and dropping of files? KDE just tells me that I don't have permission to do that, but doesn't give me the option of entering the root password or sudo.

Create a shortcut to your favourite file manager (Konqueror, Dolphin or whatever) on your desktop. Right click on it, and click "Properties". On the "Application" tab, click "Special settings", and check the "Run as different user" check box (the exact phrases may be different, because I'm not using English KDE). At least it is how it is done in KDE 4, but on KDE 3 it is very similar. Or you can simply write "kdesu" before the command name.

Open the file manager with this shortcut, and do the copying from here. Be warned, though, that any application you run from this file manager will be run as root.

gksu, kdesu or gksudo, kdesudo

See more: Ubuntu Forums – HOWTO: Easily open any file as root via drag & drop

Create a launcher with the following command:

gksudo "gnome-open %u"

You'll have to use kdesu <appname>

Example: Launch Konsole, and type kdesu dolphin or kdesu konqueror

Follow these directions, but replace nautilus with dolphin or whatnot.