Ubuntu root privs installation issue

Question

I am a fairly new Ubuntu user (and Linux user, for that matter) and I just downloaded a program whose installer was a .sh file. Not thinking, I copied the installer to an /opt subdirectory, thinking that I was going to install the application there:

sudo cp ~/Downloads/fooInstaller.sh /opt/someDir

I can't remember, but I either had to use sudo because /opt required it, or I just used it without thinking, but in any case, I prefixed with sudo.

Once in /opt/someDir, I executed the installer again, using sudo:

sudo sh fooInstaller.sh

The terminal went crazy, and a few seconds later, a graphical install wizard popped up that guided me through the rest of the process. At the end of the wizard I was prompted to launch the program, and I did, and everything was great. Until...

I closed the program, and attempted to add it to my Ubuntu "panel" (the icon panel at the top of the screen). The program was installed to /usr/local/foo/theProgram, and so I specified that URL as the command in the custom app launcher.

When I open the program through the panel/launcher (at the top of the screen), the program doesn't load or operate correctly. I get a lot of error messages complaining about being denied permissions.

I'm assuming that this is a "superuser/installation/privs" issue, and not a problem with the application (hence this post at superuser.com instead of the application's forums), because when I launch the program from the terminal with sudo, it opens and executes perfectly fine, just like it did the first time around after the install wizard finished.

I realize I'm probably going to have to uninstall the program completely, and re-install it differently.

Finally, my question: After uninstalling, can I avoid all these issue by just running the installer (sh fooInstaller.sh) right out of my Downloads directory, sans the sudo prefix? If not, how do I get the program to install without root privs so that I can add it to my panel/launcher and get it executing correctly?

Sorry for the long post but I didn't want to omit any details because, as I'm sure you can tell, I'm not really sure I know what I'm doing.

Thanks for any help here!

Answer 1

Some apps must be installed without elevated permissions so I would try again as you suggest 'sans the sudo prefix'. You will probably find that the installer will then prompt for the root login credentials so it can set things up properly.

Knowing what app you are trying to install may help to give a more precise answer.