/etc/ permissions

ZIYAD A. M. AL-BATLY zamb at saudi.net.sa
Wed Aug 24 11:54:10 UTC 2005


On Wed, 2005-08-24 at 09:28 +0800, Charles Yao wrote:
> im trying to add i855crt to /etc/ and i855crt to /usr/local/sbin/ but
> ubuntu will not let me saying i do not have eough permissions. how can
> i change the permissions on my file system? it keeps saying that i am
> not the owner and therefore cannot change permissions.
> 
What are you trying to do exactly?  Doing something wrong in "/etc" or
"/usr" might render your system useless or even worse, vulnerable to
security risks!

In general in Linux/BSD/Unix, only "root" (also known as "super user")
can change system files (like those in "/etc" and "/usr").  If you still
want to change those files despite the security risks involved, you
could use "sudo" and supply your password.

Example: say you want to copy a file named "my_file" from the current
directory to "/etc", you would run:
        sudo cp my_file /etc
and when asked for a password, enter your own password (the one you use
to login to Ubuntu).

If you need any more inquiries or information, just ask here again, and
we'll be glad to help.
Ziyad.





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