unable to open locked files

frayed2 · 04-26-2005, 04:09 PM

For example in using urmpi I go to the /etc/urmpi directory and find that the config file is locked and am told that I have insufficient priviledges to access the file.

Is there a way to travel to that directory in one of the terminal programs under root. If so I would really appreciate a step by step method to do so. I have googled and read faq's but am still unable to get in using mandake 10.1 official, I did not have the problem of locked files with knoppix.

Did I maybe choose some option incorrectly while installing mandrake?

Thanks in advance for any help.

freakyg · 04-26-2005, 04:22 PM

are you locked out as root or user..........

there are some files that only Root can access........it's a matter of security so users can't fubar the system.........

registering · 04-26-2005, 05:26 PM

If you ever want to switch to root, just type "su" and hit enter, it'll prompt you for the root password and VOILA, you're root. You can also swap to other users, like "su joebob".

To start a GUI interface as root, just use Start->Run->Options and check "run as a different user" then fill-out whatever user you want (like root).

frayed2 · 04-26-2005, 09:04 PM

I tried what you said with the options in the run command as root in a terminal window and access was still denied. I tried to go to /etc/lilo.conf which is a file I edited using knoppix. I used the sudo command to save the edit and everything worked fine.

Try as I may in mandrake official 10.1 I am never able to edit the file even trying as indicated in the above paragraph.

Maybe I did a bad install or something. Anyway if I could figure out how to install Knoppix on my slave drive I would unless I can learn how to gain access to locked files.

Any suggestions on either of my 2 questions.

Lakota · 04-26-2005, 11:22 PM

This should work, root should be able to open any file:

Code:

[don@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost don]# kate /etc/lilo.conf

This is what you should expect to see:
http://img258.echo.cx/my.php?image=kate8zs.jpg

normally I use vim instead of kate for editing, and is a good idea to learn to use, incase you foobar your gui. Vim works in command line, kate does not. Kate does work in gui for what you are trying to do, and is equivalent of the windows basic text editor (can't remember what they call it anymore).