I'm new to linux, and I'd like to know what is the general strategy to change config files that are obviously read-only. For example, to edit the kismet.conf file, i found these commands in the forum:

cd /etc/kismet
rm kismet.conf
cp -p /KNOPPIX/etc/kismet/kismet.conf .

(then the user could edit kismet.conf)

after the remove command it asks if i want to remove the symbolic link. huh?
and after the copy command it says there's no destination dir. so i tried:
cp -p /knoppix/etc/kismet/kismet.conf /knoppix/home/desktop (or whatever the desktop is) and it still hates me. are commands case sensitive? anyway that didn't work either har har.

so what's going on here, and what am i doing wrong? and is this the method for all config files? i'm sure you pros have a boot disk with settings too. i'm jealous.

THANKS.