Comments on: Linux Made Me Feel Stupid Again Today… http://www.usabilityblog.com/2006/07/linux-made-me-feel-stupid-again-today/ Blogging about usability, user experience and design Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:40:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Snarkster http://www.usabilityblog.com/2006/07/linux-made-me-feel-stupid-again-today/comment-page-1/#comment-21 Snarkster Wed, 09 May 2007 09:59:48 +0000 http://www.speechusability.com/wordpress/?p=38#comment-21 To get to superuser when logged in as your normla user. just open terminal and type su - this makes you really superuser. with out the - you arent using the superuser path. Its important. Once you are sitting at the root@~ prompt (or what ever pwd tells you) then start vi /etc/grub/grub.conf hit the insert button edit changes press esc type :wq hit enter and your done, file is edited and your good to go. look me up on freenode irc snarkster is my name.. see ya round To get to superuser when logged in as your normla user. just open terminal and type su – this makes you really superuser. with out the – you arent using the superuser path. Its important.

Once you are sitting at the root@~ prompt (or what ever pwd tells you) then start vi /etc/grub/grub.conf
hit the insert button
edit changes
press esc
type :wq
hit enter
and your done, file is edited and your good to go.

look me up on freenode irc snarkster is my name..

see ya round

]]> By: Kevin Farnham http://www.usabilityblog.com/2006/07/linux-made-me-feel-stupid-again-today/comment-page-1/#comment-20 Kevin Farnham Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:50:41 +0000 http://www.speechusability.com/wordpress/?p=38#comment-20 When you logged in as root in the command window, you made it so that command window was running a session using the root login. However, the rest of your system was logged in using your normal user name, which does not have "root" privileges. So, if you open a text editor using the menuing system, then that instance of the editor is running using your normal login, not root. Hence, the editor will not be able to store a file the GRUB "menu.lst" file (I think this is what you're trying to edit, right?). What you need to do is invoke the editor from within the command window where you are logged in as root. If your editor is gedit, you can do this by typing the following at the comand line: gedit & Before you actually change "menu.lst" I recommend making a back-up copy of the current version by going to the correct directory within your command window where you're logged in as root and entering something like: cp menu.lst menu.lst_ok You probably knew the command, but the point is it has to be done within the command window where you've changed your user to root. Ubuntu also provides an alternative approach for opening an editor with "root"/superuser privileges: open a command/terminal window execute: "sudo gedit" enter your password This runs a session of the gedit editor as user "root". When you logged in as root in the command window, you made it so that command window was running a session using the root login. However, the rest of your system was logged in using your normal user name, which does not have “root” privileges. So, if you open a text editor using the menuing system, then that instance of the editor is running using your normal login, not root. Hence, the editor will not be able to store a file the GRUB “menu.lst” file (I think this is what you’re trying to edit, right?).

What you need to do is invoke the editor from within the command window where you are logged in as root. If your editor is gedit, you can do this by typing the following at the comand line:

gedit &

Before you actually change “menu.lst” I recommend making a back-up copy of the current version by going to the correct directory within your command window where you’re logged in as root and entering something like:

cp menu.lst menu.lst_ok

You probably knew the command, but the point is it has to be done within the command window where you’ve changed your user to root.

Ubuntu also provides an alternative approach for opening an editor with “root”/superuser privileges:

open a command/terminal window
execute: “sudo gedit”
enter your password

This runs a session of the gedit editor as user “root”.

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