Unable to change/edit html files in new Ubuntu 9.04 / Apache server
 

I suspect that this has come up numerous times, but I am new to Linux and I am setting up a new in-house server using Ubuntu 9.04 and Apache, etc.
I can see the welcoming "It Works!" message when I log in via Firefox. I can see "index.html" when I FTP the server with the site name and password at /var/www. I can also see the -rw-r-r-- attributes, but I can't edit the HTML file or replace it.
When I try to rename the "index.html" file, I get the following message:

"Request denied.
Verify that the file or folder exists and that you have the necessary permissions on the server to perform the requested operation."

I haven't been able to determine where to enter the password or what changes I need to make to be able to work with the /var/www directory via FTP.
Any help will be appreciated. If this has been dealt with in plain English elsewhere, a link would be helpful.

Thanks, Murphy / Nicola Valley Museum

Most likely, the file ownership and permissions only allow the root user to modify/edit that file.

In order to modify the file you need to login into the server via SSH (if it's at a remote location) or at the terminal and execute the command,

This will prompt you for your user login password. It should open the file index.html in a text editor vi with read and write access.

You need to check for the commands sudo and editor vi.

Thanks, sudo, vi, etc. works to edit the actual file, but I still don't know how to change permissions so that I can replace or add files in the var/www directory when I log in via FTP. I have been able to do that for years on various hosted websites, but I'm missing some knowledge in setting up my own server so that I can make changes via FTP. Murphy

You can use chmod to change the permissions. man chmod to learn the command. To change the ownership of the file, use chown. man chown to lean the command.

Thanks to both of you. The "ownership" turned out to be the problem.
I used "sudo chown -R nicola /var/www" to change the /www directory ownership and now my logon password applies to it and I can transfer files via FTP.

Now I can continue my steep learning curve to set up Digital Collection Builder for our small-town museum.

Thanks again
Murphy
Merritt, BC Canada