Introduction and first request for help (especially with permissions)

[Bill Mudry]

Greetings all,
After time and time again of being jinxed every time I tried to get Linux 
installed stable, I was able to get Mandrake 10.0
to work properly, including a stable KDE desktop. For those of you who live 
perhaps near by and could share a coffee
some day, I live in Mississauga, close to a Tim Hortons in the Woodchester 
Mall (west end just south of Dundas between
Erin Mills Pkwy and Winston Churchill).

I have done numerous websites over recent years but only with HTML, 
pre-made javascripts, applets, CSS style sheets, etc.
but do not have any modern, Internet programming languages. My largest 
interest is to get Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP
running properly so that I can study them and become competitive again. 
Just so you know at what level you can converse
with me, I have been a PC power user for years (mostly Windows) but also 
took SCO courses over 12 years ago. I am rusty
as nails but it never totally leaves you.

Especially starting, it is some of the simplest things that can totally 
stop a person at first. For instance, now that the Linux
is running ok, I checked to see if the Apache2 is operational. I saw the 
welcome page come up from pointing in a browser
to localhost, so I know it is up and running.

Next, I am trying to set one at least one virtual server. Once I get one 
going, I know it should be easy to get others going to,
as I need. Ok .... now comes some of what should be simple that I need help 
on for now .....

When most Linux distros are installed, they ask you want at least one user 
aside from root and if you would want it to come
active on booting. I chose user bill in group bill. Indeed, it becomes 
active each boot as it should. I also found recently the
paths to key Apache parameters. For setting virtual servers, I found 
/etc/httpd/conf/vhosts. I downloaded and installed
Bluefish successfully, so I opened vhosts in it and wrote the changes I 
needed to start a new virtual host.

When I would try to save it, it keeps saying that it cannot save the backup 
and then that it cannot save the file I am working on.
Ok, I can understand that I was working as user "bill" so it would not 
necessary have the right permissions. However, I then
did a su root to get root privileges. I then opened another copy of 
Bluefish and made the changes again and tried to save --- as
root. It still refuses to save(!).

Next, I was reminded via a search on Google that users are administrated 
using DrakeUsers and got that going. I widened the
permissions and folders allowed for user bill. I tried to do the required 
changes again and STILL it will not save! What am I doing
wrong? There are a number of configuration files I will have to tweak and 
will need to have them all save before I can get lots of
key programs to work well.

Closely related to this .....
         When the Linux boots, the current user is bill, so any application 
that opens is going to inherit the permissions of the user
         that called it. Is that right? How do I, then, get "root" going? 
Here are they ways I know so far:

                 - the most common I have used is to change from user bill 
via su root. However, if a file is already being edited,
                   is there a way to save a file when it will not let me?

                 - I have started a root session via the side menus that 
ask what kind of terminal you want to start. It works, but
                   because I will be using root quite a bit at first 
setting up stuff, I wish a root session and terminal would
                   concurrently be active on each bootup. How can I do that?

That is enough for a first time :-). If I can get just one virtual web 
server going where I can practice, I can then go on to get the
PHP and MySQL going ensemble, too.

With thanks, I am looking forward to your help, (ps. I am open to phone 
calls, too, if anyone cares to, 905-822-6088 if you are local).

Bill Mudry


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