I'm sick, overworked and in the middle of a winter storm, just so you know.
But what you are looking for is to become
root, I'm not exactly sure what this administrator settings are except becoming a member of a group.
Everything falls into three user based permission groups:
- owner - The Owner permissions apply only the owner of the file or directory, they will not impact the actions of other users.
- group - The Group permissions apply only to the group that has been assigned to the file or directory, they will not effect the actions of other users.
- world - The World permissions apply to all other users on the system, this is as the 'outside' world or another user on a multi-user system would see the file/directory.
You can see to which group you belong with
Code:
groups
Quote:
moe@len:~$ groups
moe adm dialout fax cdrom floppy tape sudo audio dip video plugdev fuse lpadmin netdev scanner nopasswdlogin sambashare debian-tor
moe@len:~$
I am, and most likely you are a member of those same/similar groups (except the 'moe' group. But there are other groups.
Take a look at
group membership
Quote:
moe@len:~$ cat /etc/group
root:x:0:
daemon:x:1:
bin:x:2:
sys:x:3:
adm:x:4:syslog,moe
tty:x:5:
disk:x:6:
lp:x:7:
mail:x:8:
news:x:9:
uucp:x:10:
man:x:12:
proxy:x:13:
kmem:x:15:
dialout:x:20:gsmsms,moe
fax:x:21:moe
voice:x:22:
cdrom:x:24:moe
floppy:x:25:moe
tape:x:26:moe
sudo:x:27:moe
audio:x:29:pulse,moe
dip:x:30:moe
www-data:x:33:
backup:x:34:
operator:x:37:
list:x:38:
irc:x:39:
src:x:40:
gnats:x:41:
shadow:x:42:
utmp:x:43:
video:x:44:moe
sasl:x:45:
plugdev:x:46:moe
staff:x:50:
games:x:60:
libuuid:x:101:
crontab:x:102:
syslog:x:103:
fuse:x:104:moe
messagebus:x:105:
ssl-cert:x:106:
lpadmin:x:107:moe
netdev:x:108:moe
ntp:x:109:
mlocate:x:111:
ssh:x:112:
utempter:x:113:
bluetooth:x:114:
lightdm:x:115:
nopasswdlogin:x:116:moe
sambashare:x:117:moe
winbindd_priv:x:118:
debian-tor:x:119:moe
rtkit:x:120:
avahi:x:121:
iocard:x:122:
pulse:x:123:
pulse-access:x:124:
kvm:x:125:
gsmsms:x:126:
users:x:100:
scanner:x:110:moe
nogroup:x:65534:
moe:x:1000:moe
moe@len:~$
I don't know what some of these groups do. Some are residual(legacy) like your appendix. Some are essential, but esoteric. But I can tell you what it some of it means.
Permissions are organised into those three classes, user, group, and world. The use of groups allows additional abilities to be delegated in an organised fashion, such as access to disks, printers, and other peripherals. Administrator is one such group. It just might not be the 'right' group for the task.
Multiple users are categorized into groups. This file (
/etc/group) lists those groups to which users belong. This controls the access (and potential damage) to those files/directories/capabilities and enables the
root (superuser) to delegate some administrative tasks to normal users.
The file
/etc/groups stores group information and defines which groups which user belong. There is one entry per line, and each line has the following format (all fields are separated by a colon (:)
Code:
audio:x:29:pulse,moe
_____ _ _ _____
| | | |
| | | |
1 2 3 4
Where,
- group_name: It is the name of group. If you run ls -l command, you will see this name printed in the group field.
- Password: is there an encrypted password.
- Group ID (GID): Each user must be assigned a group ID. You can see this number in your /etc/passwd file. (cat /etc/passwd)
- Group List: It is a list of user names of users who are members of the group. The user names, must be separated by commas. Here in this audio group is the pulseaudio daemon and myself
So what does this mean?
If you are not the owner of the file/directory your options to read/write/execute are defined by the permissions of that file/directory...unless you are a member of a group that has different permissions.
If you are not a the owner, or a member of a group, there is no way you can modify(delete/add), or in some cases even read or execute a file or a command on a file/directory unless you are the owner or member of the group that has permission.
So what are you going to do?
Fake it.
There is a command called
sudo. Think of it as
Super
User
DO <whatever>. If you preface most any command (there are exceptions) you have the power of
root to alter/view/execute essentially anything on the system. This is really handy sometimes. But it also means you can also render the system inoperable, which is not as handy.
You've seen this working on other areas. For example, to remove the redirect (
sudo medit /usr/lib/firefox/mozilla.cfg). You wouldn't have the permission to modify the file
/usr/lib/firefox/mozilla.cfg without prefixing sudo to the command, and knowing the sudo password.
This applies to the working with any file, directory, or whatever that you either do not own or are a member of the group that has permission to do <whatever>.
Now, you could be brave and daring and do all this stuff through the command line and terminal. Or, you could use sudo to call up one of your favourite user interfaces to do the same thing. For example,
sudo pcmanfm to have a root power File Manager to do good, or play Godzilla on your Tokyo. It's your choice.
I'm not sure what you're trying to do on your network, but that should get you headed in the right direction.