root priveleges for the desktop and GUI apps in Fedora

[Tom <tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

When I run an app that requires root it prompts me for the root 
password.  After I enter it a 'key' icon appears on the right side of 
the panel.  This appears to indicate that I have root priveleges for my 
GUI session.  This is a great idea which could save me from entering my 
root password repeatedly.

But it doesn't seem to work completely.  The key dissapears after a 
while, and I still encounter some cases where it doesn't recognize that 
I have root privileges.

Is there documentation for this feature somewhere?  Is this a RH feature?

Thanks,
Tom.