Im trying to get to grips with linux at the same time as several other things and managed to install LAMP quickly (synaptic is the best thing since sliced silicon) which i plan to use for testing the content management system Drupal but once all the programs are installed I go to the /var/www/ folder and try to move the drupal files in and I get my old nemesis "you do not have permission to do that".
Years of windows use has left its mark so I was wondering who to allow myself the root privileges or at least allow me to write to the folder (preferably in a terminal script of 10-20 lines or less) if not can I get a link to something explaining the significance of having a nonexistant user to do all.
Previously I have set a root password then used the "sudo root" coommand to do things like mount drives but when I give the correct password it gives me "unrecognised command" and continues to when I type "sudo root" then says I haven't permission when I try again.

So is there any way to confer root privilages (at least for writing dirs and mounting discs) or at least stopping the error again.

Thankyou for your time

I didn't get your requirement well.
a. Read the 'man' for 'sudo'.
It takes the command as an argument and tries to execute as root user.
So "sudo root" is trying to execute the command "root" as a root user, which is wrong.
You should try like "sudo ls" etc.

Probably to change the permission you can try:

sudo chmod +x filename

in a terminal you can use su (switch user) which without a user as an argument defaults to root)

from there you can either launch a GUI file manager, or use the terminal, and cp -r /directory/to/copy /target/directory

to change permissions of things (bad idea to give normal users r/w/x permissions to things such as apache directories, big security risk, use chmod

Exellent! got it to run "sudo nautilus" which makes everything a lot easier. Im now about 75% there to getting my linux partition to do everything windows does (though, better faster and more simply).
Big thumbs up to everyone!