why am I not the owner?

[sparkythewondersquid]

I installed mandriva 2009 32-bit and I am locked out of some files says I am not the owner how can I change this?

[yancek]

What kind of files? Most system files are owned by "root" and you need to log in as root to make changes. Files in your /home/username directory should all be owned by you. Are there any specific files you are referring to? Login as root in terminal/konsole window by typing "su" or "su -" (without quotes) and entering password.

[sparkythewondersquid]

I downloaded the firefox 3.1b2 tar.bz2 and I cannot install it it has a "lock" icon when I try to move to trash it says I do not have permission to do this I've been having a problem with this install

[neverus]

Right click on the file and select Properties

Select the permissions tab and see who owns the file. If it is not owned by you then:

open up a command window
become root (su)
change the owner with chown <your-user-name> firefox*

Terry

[sparkythewondersquid]

that did the trick