When I use Linux I usually use my normal user account. If I need to do anything that requires root privelages, then I su to root. When I browse the web, (Mozilla Firebird or Mozilla) I can't download files. The broswer, sez they are coming down, but they won't be saved to disk unless I su, then launch my browser from a shell. Does anyone know how I can get files to save from my normal account without having to lauch it from a shell? I imagine there should be some way to alter my privelages, but where?
Thanks in advance

Where are you trying to save the files to? Save them to your users home dir, and you shouldnt need to "su" unless something has gone horribly wrong with the ownership of your files.

I'm trying to save files to a sub-dir off of my Home dir, /home/downloads/target_dir

??

Can this not be done in Linux?

hmmm.... that's weird... but I guess there's security reasons for it. I seem to only be able to download files to /home/UserName. Is there no way to downlload files to another dir without being root? Kinda inconvienent... If that's the only way.... I've adapted this much, keep on adapting.

Regular users aren't allowed to write to the /home directory, but can write in their /home/user directory. This is for security reasons. To change this, you change the folder's permissions or ownership. Use the 'ls -l' command to see the permissions. For example 'ls -l /home/downloads' . As root, you can change the permissions and ownership to allow others to use the folder. Changing ownership is done by the 'chown' command. Here's an example of changing the ownership from 'root' to 'someuser':
chown someuser:users /home/downloads
Now 'someuser' owns the folder. 'someuser' can also change the permissions of this folder, and basically do anything he wants with it.
'chmod' changes permissions. The /home/downloads folder probably is owned by 'root', and belongs to the 'root' group. It's permissions might be 'rw-r--r--'. The first 'rw-' is the permissions for 'root'. 'root' is allowed to Read and Write to this folder. The '-' is eXecute would be. It is blank because you can't execute folders. The second 'r--' is the permissions for whoever is in the 'root' group. Whoever is in this group is only allowed to Read this folder. The last, 'r--' is for everybody else. They are also only allowed to Read this folder. 'chmod' can change this:
chmod 666 /home/downloads
Now the permissions are 'rw-rw-rw'. Everybody is allowed to Write to the folder. The '666' is obtained by adding certain numbers, ex:
4+2+0 4+2+0 4+2+0=666
r+w+- r+w+- r+w+-=rw-rw-rw-

4+2+1 4+2+1 4+2+1=777
r+w+x r+w+x r+w+x=rwxrwxrwx

aaa: Thank you so much for the very descriptive, and correct response. I knew there had to be a way to do it.

just don't chmod everything to 777

you can set the sticky bit (chmod +t ...), to prevent users from removing files created by other users.

for example:
mkdir /downloads
chmod +w /downloads
chmod +t /downloads

or to allow certain people to write files in those folders:
groupadd downloaders
* add users to the new line in /etc/group
chgrp downloads /downloads
chmod g+w /downloads
chmod o-w /downloads
* the user needs to login again before he's actually a member of the new 'downloaders' group.

last but not least; to convert the file permissions:
find /downloads -type f -exec chmod 664 {} \;
find /downloads -type d -exec chmod 775 {} \;
chown -R root:downloaders /downloads