Cannot access logs during SSH session due to permissions

Question

I'm using SSH to connect to my VPS server and I'd like to check my mail logs. I'm very new to Unix, but trying to nano the files gives me a permissions error. I don't want to log in as root, and my user is a part of the wheel, but using su isn't working either. What's the proper way to view these files without using root?

Answer 1

looks like wheel has ether no permission to use that command or your user is not in wheel.

In your /etc/sudoers file you can maybe find a line like

%wheel  ALL=(ALL) ALL

if not add this line to allow users that are in wheel to use sudo. (dont add this if another group can sudo like %admin in some distros. Add your user to admin in that case)

You have to do this as root.

Check if you are realy in wheel with

groups your_username

If not add yourself to wheel. Again as root.

usermod -aG wheel your_username

Answer 2

try

sudo nano fileName