There is a nice feature within Xcfe where you can create a program launcher on the desktop.

You right-click on the desktop and select ‘Create Launcher’ from the displayed menu.

In the name field, start typing the name of the application. A drop-down box will fill with possible options.

In my case, I was adding a launcher for EtherApe:

You may want to drag the right hand side out to clearly display the options in the drop-down display.

I selected the EtherApe as root option and this created the launcher with the options:

If you look closely, you will see that the program EtherApe is run by executing su-to-root. This small script prompts the user for the user’s password; similar to the sudo command, but within the desktop GUI.

But, with the default install of Linux Mint Xfce, this script is not installed, hence the launcher does not work.

The script is part of the menu package, which must be installed for it to work.

sudo aptitude install menu

Now, when you select the launcher on the desktop, you will be prompted for your password and then the program will launch (run) as root.