Text editor won't let me edit conf files. How do I?

[Kevin Kofler]

David Ward wrote:
> I'm not good at the command line (Just past newbie).  I try to edit .conf
> files to set up samba but the text editor tells me I don't have
> permission.  All of the system admin functions ask me for authorization
> and then let me do whatever but not the text editor.  I have added the gdm
> group to  the directories the gnome docs told me to (/run/gdm).  I have
> added the gdm group to my user group profile.  How can I get a GUI text
> editor to let me edit .conf files?

Oh, and there's also a trick which makes you not require running the whole
GUI app as root, it does require a working sshd though: open
sftp://root@localhost/etc/foo.conf in your favorite network-aware text
editor (I know it works in KWrite and Kate, I guess gedit supports that
too, but I'm not sure).

        Kevin Kofler