Im ruynning gentoo 2005.0 and i want to know how to be able to shutdown or reboot my computer from the logout screen. The options are there but when i choose them it just takes me to GDM and i have to shut down from there. I assume i need to set some permissions somewhere but im not sure what exactly. Thanks in advance

My guess is that Gentoo sets it up so that only root can shutdown the machine. It is a security feature. So try this...it is from member sbing in a Slackware FAQ (I edited it to reflect non-slackware-centric principals).

This command requires you to have the "sudo" command. I assume you have it installed:
visudo /etc/sudoers (really, any text editor should work)

Place the following in the file:
yourusername yourhostname = NOPASSWD: /sbin/reboot, /sbin/halt -h now, /sbin/halt

You can now shutdown via sudo without a password.

To enable shutdown/reboot from within gnome (ala the way DL GNOME sets it up):

mkdir /var/run/console
touch /var/run/console/yourusername
chmod +s /sbin/reboot
chmod +s /sbin/halt

hey i will try this as soon as i can but thanks for the reply i will let you know if it worked.