What happens if you use gksudo instead of gksu? (Officially, there is no difference between gksu and gksudo, but in fact there is a subtle difference.)
Also, if you use sudo, you should use -H, as: sudo -H nautilus -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to nautilus in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1019995 Title: gksu nautilus will not display icons correctly or at all Status in “nautilus” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: nautulus 3.5.3 will not display icons when using gksu nautilus in terminal http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2014450 ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10 Package: nautilus 1:3.5.3-0ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-2.2-generic 3.5.0-rc4 Uname: Linux 3.5.0-2-generic i686 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia ApportVersion: 2.2.5-0ubuntu1 Architecture: i386 Date: Mon Jul 2 04:50:02 2012 InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Beta i386 (20110901) ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: nautilus UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1019995/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp