I was just wondering how I can get rid of certain permissions, or if thats even possible. If someone can just let me know how I can do that I would appreciate it...thanks.

In general you can change permissions with chmod - man chmod for more - or/in addition, su to root user to get root user priviledges.

Ok, I tried chmod and it came up with that manual. I just need to be able to get permission into a directory such as /usr/share so I can start installing stuff. Can you tell me exactly what I need to do in order to have permission into a directory such as that.

Usually it is

root

that installs stuff.

A little more info from you would help.

How, what, and under what circumstances do you arrive at being held back due to permissions?

Are you the system administrator ie do you know the password for the root account?

If so, have you tried the substitute user command which at command prompt is

su

enter root account password
---
you are now a priveleged user who can install stuff.

security reasons, generally not a good idea to alter permission at least not permanently there could be exceptions.

this is why a bit more info from you would help.

--
Alan.

Sorry I didn't provide enough info before. I know I can log in as root and have all the privledges that I need, but I would rather just be logged in as a user and have access to what I want. For example what I am trying to install is firefox and I am wanting to install it in the directory /usr/share/mozilla. I created the mozilla folder but I did that as root because it wouldn't let me do so otherwise. And now I try to install firefox(not as root) into that folder and it won't allow me to do so. I also have a hard drive mounted on the desktop and there are a couple of folders that I can't access due to permissions, and as root I can't find the hard drive. Is it okay to mount the hard drive on the desktop? So maybe I should just log in as root to install stuff? I don't know if thats the way most people do things or not. Hopefully I gave enough info for you to help me from here. Thanks.

installing software should always be done as root, so that there are no problems with programs installing things like libraries or putting links to the program binaries in /usr/bin etc..

if you are compiling your own, it's best to do ./configure and make as a normal user then su and enter the root password before doing your make install. once that's finished, you should CTRL+d to bring yourself back yo your normal user status.

On a side note, the mozilla/firefox browser and the tunderbird mail client need to be run as root for the first time only, so they can set themselves up properly. if you install it and try to run as a normal user it will immediately quit until root runs it first.

Ok, so your saying that I should actually log out and then log back in as root to install programs? I noticed that when I right click and go to properties in the /share folder that under ownership the user and group is set as root, but there is no way to change it so I guess thats how it's supposed to be? I'm still trying to figure stuff out with linux since I am pretty new with it all...

disclaimer: I'm beginner to intermediate. Hopefully anyone who is more further up there would offer correction if need arise from any of content herein.

>I also have a hard drive mounted on the desktop and there are a couple of folders that I can't access due to permissions, and as root I can't find the hard drive. Is it okay to mount the hard drive on the desktop?
>--
since in Linux you can mount a drive onto any folder that you want to, I myself think it (WRONG) ok to mount to Desktop folder. wrong because you need an empty folder with which to mount onto (I think)

you likely as root need to temporarily append (no, don't do this) onto your path so can find as root -- instead, just issue and/or point it to the absolute path. for example:

/home/your-user-name/Desktop

echo $PATH

do that at commandline. try as user then su and try as root -- take note of the differences in the path.

path can issue absolute. can but might not recommended, temporarily append onto path

google material:

relative path

absolute path

path environment variable
--

likely there is a better way. How about mount it to home instead of Desktop? or, /usr/local nope, I getting beyond my abilities here. But I do know that lots of sys admins evidently back up their /home elsewhere then do something then mount either another partitiion or another drive onto /home

To more appropriately explain, I'd need help from someone who's even more advanced than me

Hang in there. It's worth it. Plenty of reward for those who do.
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Ok, so your saying that I should actually log out and then log back in as root to install programs?
>--
That would do it. But I think is not recomended (not sure). Doesn't prompt you for the root password? sometimes can happen.

what, just run a file (to install)?

/home/user-name/Desktop/firefox-installer-filename

commandline, su to root, enter absolute path to the installer then strike enter key

well, one already told you to run firefox as root first. so, how you gonna do that? firefox uses the X Windows gui which I'm not sure but likely the X server needs be running whilst logged in as root -- so this be equivalent to your query of log out then log on as root. I sometimes log on to X win gui as root but I keep it short and keep it to a minimum and I am totally disconected from the internet when do so and i disconected from any network that can't fully trust and I be fully I mean fully awake -- lots of ands there

--
Alan.

Ah, that bit heaven!
Once I slipped and I had forgotten what rm means. I thought it meant "repair machinery"
/
And I thought that was where to start the "repair machinery" operation; after all, it is a starting place. And, I did rm repaired machinery whilst at that location as root nonetheless too. Subsequently, all that the computer would have for me after that was a "welcome to bit heaven" "doesn't the big, huge, /dev/null look REALLY nice today?
rm -rf dir
After su to root, above NON_INTERACTIVELY
sends a dir tree to /dev/null -USE CAUTION-
---

>firefox uses the X Windows gui which I'm not sure but likely the X server needs be running whilst logged in as root -- so this be equivalent to your query of log out then log on as root.

not necissarily equivalent to answer to your query.

As a user, your X Win gui is running. (Might) at command line su to root then enter the absolute path to the firefox installed binary after you had already installed it.

which might bring up firefox as root (instead of log out of X win then log back on X win as root)

But I don't know what be best or if one way has more potential for harm than the other way.

--
Alan.