Trick to avoid su mistakes

[Ronald Kuetemeier <ronald kuetemeier com>]

To make sure you know when you are root, create a gnome-terminal profile
for root.  Maybe red as the background, or whatever you like.
Then add the following to your .bashrc, if you use bash. Or always type
it in :-) ...
Should be on ONE line.

alias su='if [ $TERM == "xterm" ]; then gnome-terminal
--window-with-profile=root -e su;else su;fi'

This creates a new gnome-terminal with the profile root and executes su
in that terminal.  You could also create a new tab in the existing
terminal, see docs ...

Hope this helps,
Ronald