Linux permission issue

Question

I am using Ubuntu Linux and am new to Linux. When I try to try to edit some files it requires root privileges.

Following command gives a permission error:

echo "xyz" > abc.txt

But using sudo echo "xyz" > abc.txt works

I want to do the same thing from UI. So how can I do it?

Also some files like hosts and hostname cannot be edited. Any clues on this? I guess they are read only. How can i make them writable?

Answer 1

The files appear as read-only because you don't have enough permissions to modify them. If you want to use the GUI, you run your editor from command prompt like:

sudo gedit

Answer 2

I don't think this is necessarily a serverFault topic, more like superuser...but you should be able to change permissions via chmod.

I'm assuming you're the file owner, in which case

sudo chmod u=rwx

MIGHT (emphasis on the might) work to give you permission to mess with the file outside of sudo. the u+rwx specifies that the 'user'(owner) of the file gets the r, w, and x permissions (read write execute).

I'm by no means a linux expert, but that seems like it should work. If you require more help, superuser would be the better stack exchange site to ask on, as serverfault is more for server issues.