First time ubunu user, copying a folder to a root directory

[Mike Bird]

On Wed May 21 2008 16:05:07 Catalin David wrote:
> > when I try to copy or say drag and drop a folder to  a root directory,
> > It does not allow me to do it. I activated my root account and I can
> > activate it by writing su in the terminal but when I open gdm.conf and
> > change Allowroot=false to Allowroot=true, it does not allow me to save
> > it having in mind that I entered su in the terminal so I should have a
> > root permision.

su only applies to the terminal session in which you used it.
If by "open gdm.conf" you're referring to using a GUI editor,
or clicking on a menu item, or clicking on the file in a file
browser to edit it, then that is done as the normal user, not
root.

If you're familiar with vi or emacs or some other text editor
you could edit gdm.conf from the command line within su.

However logging in as root in gdm is very dangerous.  You're
as exposed as if you were running a web browser in an old
copy of Windows.  Better by far to login as yourself.  You
may want to put an icon in your taskbar that you can use to
open a root shell when you need one.

--Mike Bird