Ok so i've just installed mandrake 10 official next to my windows and suse 9.1 and everytime i try to to sudo i get a broken pipe error.
if i for example: sudo vi /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
it prompts for my password, i enter it and then: broken pipe.
i've never encountered this on suse and i've googled around a bit but i can't find what i'm doing wrong or how to fix it. anyone else had this problem?

I've got the same problem on Mandrake 10.0, but I'm running Mandrake on a virtual machine using VMWare. I really don't know if this is the problem. I'll try to solve it, and if I do, promise I'll share what I did to fix it.

Joejoejoe,

This is only a suggestion: Do not use Linux Distribution Releases that are beyond their end of life (e.g.: no longer supported or updated). If you want to try out Linux, install VirtualBox from Sun Microsystems (the proprietary version is free for personal use, or you can get the Open Source Community release if you do not like proprietary software), then install a current (Mandriva 2009.0) or beta (Mandriva 2009.1) release. Mandrake 10.0 is seriously outdated (about on a par with Windows 95 or 98) and may not run correctly on newer hardware (even if it is Virtual).

HTH,

Vi may probe for X11 extensions. If so, and if sudo did not allow
you to use X11 connection to your display, then you may solve
the problem by using xauth cookies and make sure you have the right
DISPLAY variable set (need not be :0.0, could be localhost:10)

You can see more in this thread:
X11 forwarding is broken after SUDO SU –

:-)