web start program needs root privilege in linux

[admon_c]

I wrote a Java program which uses JNI to call functions in a native library (.so in linux).
The native library needs root privilege to access /dev/sdb1.
The program runs fine if we run it with root privilege (sudo ... in ubuntu).
Otherwise, it fails with no privilege error when opening /dev/sdb1.

The problem is that the java program is designed to be a Java web start program.
A non-root user clicks a jnlp link in a web page or double clicks a downloaded jnlp file to start the program. Thus the program fails since no root privilege in linux (ubuntu).
How to solve this problem ?

(? like pop up a dialog and ask the user to enter a password and run the program with root privilege)

[keang]

(? like pop up a dialog and ask the user to enter a password and run the program with root privilege)

I think you have answered your own question.

Once you have the root password you should be able to change to root by using java.lang.ProcessBuilder to create a Process to run the su command.

You will probably have to sign your jar and provide your own security policy to allow the application access to run the process.