permission denied for grub

tijon · 10-09-2007, 07:23 PM

I'm brand new to Linux and totally lost! Brand new to anything but Windows is more accurate. I have Debian and FreeDos installed on an old Gateway celeron. Everything is working fine, but the grub is set at 5 seconds and it is not enough time. I have tried to access grub with "/boot/grub/menu.lst" but it tells me permission denied. I'm logged in as root, how do I get permission? Another silly question, where can I get a tutorial on working in Linux?

saikee · 10-09-2007, 07:38 PM

I am pretty sure you have just logged in as ordinary user to the GUI and may have invoke root privilege at the Debian terminal.

Therefore you can only edit /boot/grub/menu.lst in the terminal and not in the desktop.

You don't have permission to click the same file in the desktop for editing. Having said that you can use the graphic editor in terminal mode by command

Code:

gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

It does the same thing.

AceofSpades19 · 10-09-2007, 07:46 PM

type
su
then
gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

saikee · 10-09-2007, 07:50 PM

AceofSpades19,

The OP has claimed he/she was in root! so "su" doesn't help. I base my prediction that Debian disallows root log in to the desktop as no Linux denies a root user to edit any system file.

jay73 · 10-09-2007, 08:04 PM

Don't forget you need to specify an editor to view the file, for example the gedit editor:
gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst.
If you use KDE, you would use something like kate, kedit, ...

AceofSpades19 · 10-09-2007, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saikee

AceofSpades19,

The OP has claimed he/she was in root! so "su" doesn't help. I base my prediction that Debian disallows root log in to the desktop as no Linux denies a root user to edit any system file.

woops didn't read that, I could log in as root to gnome in debian etch so I don't see how that could be problem