How to run VLC player as root user

18 May 2020

sed -i 's/geteuid/getppid/' /usr/bin/vlc

Explanation: The initialization script check if the UID is equals to zero. Zero is reserved for the root user. Using sed to replace geteuid for getppid fools the initialization script because it is always > 0.

While running the VLC as root is not recommended, it works. Be aware of the risks and obviously do not do it for production environments.