HOWTO? run k3b as root

[Bruce Labitt]

Sorry to bother everyone with this simple stuff.  Having a devil of a 
time getting my system backed up so I can upgrade things.  Sometime in 
the past month or so (probably longer as I rarely try it) I've lost the 
ability to run KDE as root.  I want to run k3b as root so I can backup 
all my settings and files.  I am trying to upgrade from SuSE 9.0 which 
really isn't supported that well anymore to 9.3.  From my previous posts 
some of you may realize that my DVD burning speed is really crippled 
running as user.  Nothing I've tried seems to work - including some of 
the insightful suggestions of the gnhlug.  I can't significantly upgrade 
k3b either, since there have been no upgrades that have been compiled 
for 9.0.  So I've got to bite the bullet so to speak. 

When I try to login from the graphical window manager selector which 
lets you select from kde, gnome etc. I will not let me login as root.  
It says this is not allowed. 

If I am in my user account and I su in a terminal I cannot start an 
instance of k3b with root properties.  It says that

# ./k3b
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key
kded: cannot connect to X server :0
DCOP aborting call from 'anonymous-3853' to 'kded'
kded: ERROR: Communication problem with kded, it probably crashed.
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key
kdeinit: Can't connect to the X Server.
kdeinit: Might not terminate at end of session.
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key
k3b: cannot connect to X server :0
ERROR: KUniqueApplication: Registering failed!
ERROR: Communication problem with k3b, it probably crashed.

Clearly I do not know know what I am doing...  Does anyone have a couple 
suggestions on how to get k3b to run as root?

TIA,
Bruce