I've had the problem recently. It seems a bit like a catch-22 to me; you need ftp permissions to edit the file, but try to edit the file in order to add ftp permissions (though technically perhaps Contao uses the provided permissions to edit the file since Leo is quite smart).
But to the point; you can activate the safe mode hack by editing the localconfig.php file and add these lines to the bottom;
Code:
$GLOBALS['TL_CONFIG']['useFTP'] = true;
$GLOBALS['TL_CONFIG']['ftpHost'] = '****';
$GLOBALS['TL_CONFIG']['ftpPath'] = '****';
$GLOBALS['TL_CONFIG']['ftpUser'] = '****';
$GLOBALS['TL_CONFIG']['ftpPass'] = '****';
Use your ftp info and provide the reltive path to the contao installation. I'm not sure about the path, it is mostly something alike /httpdocs or /sites/domain.com. Try with and without start-/ending slashes if this doesn't work.
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