The is due to kdesudo now loading the root profile instead of the user's one. The old way to work was more efficient in your case, but cause lots of other issues, since config files in the user's profile where set to root UID/GID.
There is no known solution yet... gksu does the same way than kdesudo... ** Changed in: kdesudo (Ubuntu) Status: New => Won't Fix -- [Hardy] The gtk-qt-engine doesn't work while staring applications as another user https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/205201 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs