Google Chrome will complain loudly if run as root, telling you to add --no-sandbox manually and then showing you a warning that this is a really bad idea. Imagine if you could have Gnome solve the problem for you?
Well, you can. First of all, understand that running a web browser as root IS a bad idea, because there will always be security vulnerabilities. However, since Linux is a modern operating system, it's quite possible to be logged in as root and still run the web browser as a less privileged process:
First, create a separate user account that will be used for web browsing. For example: "anonymous".
Make sure you give this user a really REALLY strong password. You will never need to actually use it.
Now copy the file "/usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop" to "/root/.local/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop"
Edit all the lines starting with "Exec=" by inserting "gksu -wu anonymous". For example:
Exec=gksu -wu anonymous /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable %U
Now log out and log back in to restart the Gnome shell, and you should be able to start Chrome without any hassle. Use the command "ps auxfw | grep chrome" to verify that the processes run as "anonymous" and not as "root". Remember that any manual changes to the browser settings etc. must be made under "/home/anonymous".
