no sudo permissions to /etc/hostname

Question

When I try to edit my /etc/hostname file, using sudo nano /etc/hostname (or any other editor) I get the following:

Error writing /etc/hostname: Permission denied

I then tried:

sudo chmod u+w ./hostname

And got the error:

chmod: changing permissions of `./hostname': Operation not permitted

I get the same error trying to add write permissions to any use or group.

This is what ls shows:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 22 2012-06-18 12:25 /etc/hostname

Any idea why and what can I do about it?

I'm running Ubuntu 11.10.

Answer 1

Sounds like your /etc/hostname file is 'immutable', by way of having the immutable filesystem attribute. You can check with lsattr, and should see something like this:

[jk@pecola ~]$ lsattr /etc/hostname
-------------e- /etc/hostname

if there's an i in there, your file is immutable. You can change this with:

sudo chattr -i /etc/hostname

Then you should be able to edit it.

For more information about filesystem attributes, and the attributes that are available, see the manpage for chattr:

man chattr

This article is also useful.

Answer 2

This could be greatly frowned upon, but the following works for me:

$ sudoedit /etc/hostname

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.
#3) With great power comes great responsibility.