Quick and easy answer please
 

I need to be able to write to rc.firewall to set my iptables up at boot.

I am familiar with vi and this is what I shall use to edit it, but how do I change the permissions on the file?

It's read-only at the mo.

Do I log in as root and use chmod u+x or something like that?

Cheers

Jimbo

no!

you should NEVER change the attribs on a file like that.. most caes you can if you really think you need to, or no one will notice, but it's very bad theory / practise.

you should only edit the system files as root, that's the point of users and superusers.

if you don't know how to be root, just use 'su' when logged in, the file should be editable by root already.

if you login as root, the permissions don't matter too much. if you want to be able to edit it as a user other than root, then you need to use chmod.

chmod 666 rc.firewall
...or
chmod 777 rc.firewall (i can't remember whether or not the script needs to be executable)

*sigh*... yeah... kewp's right. you really shouldn't mess with the perms on that particular file. it's a security thing. it's not important if you just use linux on your home computer, but any self-respecting admin would commit hari-kari before letting a boot script be global-anything.

ok.

kewl.