New to Linode

don't use FTP for anything ever?

sarcasm aside, you really should be using sftp or scp or ftps, not ftp

When you're using FTP, the FTP user still needs to have read/write permissions to the files. As far as I know, adding a user to sudoers only allows that user to use the sudo command from a command prompt via ssh. Also follow the advice about not using FTP. If you have ssh setup, sftp should work easily and is secure.

Also, might want to check out some of the Linode Library articles, should help getting started out: https://library.linode.com/getting-started

See the Next Steps at the bottom of that page about securing your server. There's good information on networking here: https://library.linode.com/networking

I did read the linode starting set up. SSH root an all that. I use SFTp well tried……. I can login but no access to anything

I'm not sure from your descriptions what's going on. Try logging in with an ssh client.

1) Run "ls -l". Do you see your home user's files and directories?

2) Run "touch mynewfile". Can you create that new file?

3) If 1 and 2 work then from your client assuming it has scp ability, run "scp myfile.txt userid@yourlinode:/home/youruserid/desired_directory".

I don't know what your client OS is, if it's Windows and you're not familiar with Linux then you might want to use Putty or one I use when I'm stuck on Windows sometimes, WinSCP or if you want what WinSCP and Putty can do then try Bitvise's Tunnelier, excellent product.

If your client OS is Windows and you are familiar with Linux commands or want to learn them or just make Windows usable, install Cygwin and when you do remember to pick the OpenSSH package and you will get the real ssh and scp clients and the real Bash shell client.

After installing a new Linode instance of almost any Linux distribution, you should at least be able to scp a file to/from it. I use Ubuntu, I don't think you can go wrong there.

If you suspect you are installing from a bad distribution image offered by Linode (highly unlikely or someone else would have seen it by now) then contact support and describe your situation.

WinSCP no matter how many updates go by, never seem to get a grip on performance (which is abysmal).

Use Filezilla instead, it's SFTP mode is speedy, it's GUI is user friendly, it's actively developed, and you can use certs, so you can safely login as root.