Shell Programming and Scripting

I'm creating a python script to load a configuration to gnome-terminal immediately after a Live Boot. I must run it in super-user mode, because I shut down some services first. After this, I want to configure gnome-terminal. The problem is that if I run it as super-user, it successfully shuts down the services, but it doesn't configure gnome-terminal for some reason. But not runnning the script as super-user, it configures gnome-terminal correctly, but doesn't shut down the services. I'm trying to achieve both in one script, but I'm scratching my head on how to do it. Here is my sip:

Code:

# live start-up script

import os

# stop upstart job and services
os.system("sudo service avahi-daemon stop &")
os.system("sudo service cups stop &")
os.system("sudo service bluetooth stop &")

# start firewall
os.system("sudo ufw enable &")
os.system("sudo gufw &")

# load gnome-terminal entries
os.system("gconftool --load /media/scripts/gconf/gnome-terminal/custom.xml")

# launch terminal
os.system("gnome-terminal")