Re: [Pan-users] Click on URL in a post??

[Duncan]

On Fri 13 Dec 2002 14:27, Eric Ortega posted as excerpted below:
> On Fri, Dec 13, 2002 at 02:59:07PM -0600, Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote:
> > On Thu, Dec 12, 2002 at 11:40:11AM -0700, Duncan wrote:
> > > Since the dependencies for VIM and MC were on /usr,
> > > I couldn't run them, either.
> >
> > I would think that plain vi would work without /usr; I'm sure I've done
> > it on some redhat boxes, in the course of swapping partitions around.
>
> Debian, for example, uses a link from /usr/bin/vi to /etc/alternatives/vi,
> which then points to /usr/bin/vim or /bin/vi depending on which packages
> you have installed.
>
> I would assume that something happened when he typed 'vi' that was not
> cool.  /bin/vi (on most installations) is only dependent, at most,
> on libraries in /lib for good reason.

I thought the same.  However, at least on Mdk, vi is a link to vim, which 
requires libraries (perl based, IIRC from the error) in /usr.  It did 
surprise me to, and that's a fine time to learn about it, because Rearing 
Horse (Running Linux) stated that VI/VIM was perhaps better than EMACS to 
learn, for this very reason -- often times EMACS and all the extensions 
wouldn't be available, and were to large to fit on a floppy in any event, but 
VI/VIM would work fine.  Thus, it said you might end up in a bad situation 
and having to run VI to get back up and running, so you might as well learn 
it before you got to that point.  Well, I DID get to that point (at least 
sort of, although I could have booted the install/rescue CD and done chroot 
from there, as mentioned), and it did NOT work as advertised!  <g>

I STILL don't quite understand what perl libraries and extensions should be 
needed for VI, but evidently they are, at least on Mdk, and THEY are on /usr.

> I still think the easiest way to fix things like this is to stick in the
> rescue disks, mount the directory, and fix it with a full complement of
> working tools ('chroot'ing to the disk, if possible, for even more).

Probably, but in some ways I deliberately chose the hard road early on, to 
force myself to progress from newbie to at least "advanced beginner" or 
"intermediate", ASAP.  I'd spent 10 years on MSWormOS, and was in some ways 
having to start over almost from scratch on Linux, and I didn't want to end 
up taking ANOTHER decade to get back to the equivilant of where I was in 
MSWormOS, on Linux.  I had the opposing factors of (1) wanting to get back to 
where I was on MSWormOS on Linux, ASAP, and (2) wanting to ensure that as a 
hobby, computing stayed fun for me -- I didn't want to burnout, accomplishing 
(1). In ordered to achieve that, as I said, I deliberately chose the hard 
route often early on, to force myself to learn the structure behind the 
facade, so I could work on it a bit more efficiently later on.

Interestingly enough, I stumbled across a discussion a month or two ago where 
some person calling themselves a "professional Linux developer" was 
complaining about some sort of options not compiled into the RH kernel 
package they were running.  That was a bit of an eye opener for me, as I 
probably won't, at least without some hesitation and without "hobbiest" 
qualifying it, be calling myself a "Linux developer", for some time to come, 
yet one of the things I learned before I even considered myself a FUNCTIONAL 
Linux power user / admin (I still don't, really, more intermediate user, 
basic sysadmin), let ALONE a PROFESSIONAL Linux developer, was how to 
properly configure, compile, and install, my own kernel.  To me, knowing that 
is part of the sub-qualification inherent in the "Linux" part of "Linux" 
developer.  While a person can be a competent MSWormOS developer (obviously), 
without learning how to compile a custom kernel, I don't think it's possible 
for one to be a competent LINUX developer without that skill as a 
prerequisite.  Obviously, this person would disagree with me, however, as 
they were calling themselves that, while yet dependent on RH spoon-feeding 
them an appropriate kernel.  That anyone could even THINK of being so bold, 
was certainly an eye opener to me, as I early on set out to be the exact 
opposite of the characteristics manifest there.

-- 
Duncan
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --
Benjamin Franklin