Mandriva driving mad

It doesn't allow you to login as root. It doesn't offer an option to browse through the drive as super user. So how can one access files under the root partition or in those drives mounted by the root?
Doing an su in the command prompt does not reflect in the file manager.

Update:
A quick query at Linuxquestions and I have a solution thanks to a guru. The solution:
Create a link on the desktop to the Konqueror application, which is the default file manager. The Konqueror executable is in the /usr/bin directory. Only the working folder needs to be filled in the properties. Then under the Advanced options enable "Run as another user" and enter the root username. The next time any locked file needs to be accessed, launch the file manager with this link, and insert the password and voila.
In the same link properties mentioned above, under the command box entering "kdesu konqueror" will also suffice.

The moot point is : if it is so easy to offer a superuser file manager, why not incorporate it in the distro in the first place?

Update 2
A follow up post at linuxquestions offered a more user friendly option. INstall openasroot-kmenu. This will give the Open as Root option that makes using PC Linux so much easier. Since this application is in the Application manager's package list, this is another reason follow the earlier tip to look through the application list as a first step to working with a distro. If the program doesn't turn up in the first search,, this is because the relevant repository is not enabled. Enable the Contrib repository and retry. In Opensuse, this is a 19 KB package, and installed without problems.