running gdb as root under emacs (24)

[stefan.puiu@gmail.com]

Hi, 

I'm working on a project that needs to run as root and was wondering if there is a way to run gdb as root from emacs. Simply trying 'M-x gdb' and then 'sudo gdb ...' does not seem to work. While googling, I found that you can use tramp to run certain commands as root (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gnu.emacs.help/fXxnXc3v-pM), so based on that I tried 'M-:' and then something like this: 

(with-temp-buffer
  (cd "/sudo::/")
  (shell-command "gdb -q"))

This doesn't seem to work interactively, however - I get a buffer that simply has "(gdb) quit" as the output and then there are some weird characters in the minibuffer. 

What would be a workable approach to achieve this? I'm using emacs24 on Ubuntu 16.04 (though I don't mind upgrading if that's what it takes). 

Thanks,
Stefan.