gnome log viewer gives an error

["H. S." <greatexcalibur@yahoo.com>]

I am running Sarge on 2.4.24-1-686. Currently I am in gnome. From the 
menu whenever I start Gnoem Log Viewer it gives an error:
Applicaitons->SystemTools->View Logs  gives "/var/log/messages/ could 
not be opened. No log files to open."

I guess this could be because I am running the viewer as a normal user 
and the file above is owned by root:adm. I guess for the same reason I 
cannot specifically ask the viewer to show a particular file (from it's 
"File .." menu).

But isn't the log viewer program supposed to ask me for the root 
password to show the logs? In Fedora it does btw.

So how do I use the viewer?

All help is appricated.
thanks,
->HS


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