[pkg-nvidia-devel] Please help!

[Ronnie]

I have been trying everything I could to get to change my display 
resolution. I have an NVIDIA chip set and have tried /aptitude install 
nvidia-settings /and have had no luck with getting it to install. I have 
tried different variances of that command but still nothing. This is 
what I get when I try,

> ronnie at Ronnie:~$ aptitude install nvidia-settings
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree       
> Reading state information... Done
> Reading extended state information      
> Initializing package states... Done
> Reading task descriptions... Done  
> E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13 Permission 
> denied)
> E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are 
> you root?
I am very new to Debian and Linux so I am not sure what else to try. I 
am currently stuck with looking at a 800X600 screen and it's killing me. 
I usually have the screen set at 1240X940 (or something close to that). 
I would be very happy if you could help me with this.