how do you exit from vim in slackware??? :q is not working and I found the following on the web, which is weird:

Auto-installing package ==>vim<== Priority: [optional]
vim: Version 5.5 of Vim: Vi IMproved
vim:
vim: Vim is an almost compatible version of the UNIX editor vi. Only the
vim: 'Q' command is missing (you don't need it). Many new features have
vim: been added: multi level undo, command line history, filename
vim: completion, block operations, etc.
vim:
Size: Compressed: 1263K, uncompressed: 3830K.
Installing package vim...
Executing installation script for package vim...
Done installing package vim.

if the q command is missing, how do you exit vim???

google did not give any solution!

Are you sure you're not using a Capital q ?
Are you sure you're in the right vi(m) mode ?

you can also use ZQ (don't save and exit) or ZZ (save and exit)

You could try :q! to exit without saving changes or :wq to save changes. Not sure if it means missing the :q command or if it means any command with q in it.

Hi,

You probably checked this already, but slackware uses elvis (linked to vi) by default.

Are you actually using vim or vi (elvis)?

Another question: You installed vim 5.5, why an 'old' version? Although this could not help with your current problem, you should consider upgrading to 6.x.

Hope this helps.

sorry for the misunderstanding;
I'm using slackware 10.2 with its vim installed, but I got the log from a web site, thinking that it may be related to my problem.
I know about the vi -> elvis issue
I do (for example)
vim xorg.conf
after it opens up the file,
:q
does not work and gives an error (I do not remember the specific error)
:q!
does not work, gives same error
even
:w
does not work, gives same error
I did not modify anything in Slackware except the default kernel (to 2.6.13).
I should be forgetting about something incredibly stupid, but what?

Then find out.

Not telling us either (1) why you didn't try the suggestions (:q!, :wq, ZZ, ZQ) or (2) what the result was.

Read ESR's `Smart Questions'.

Try copying the default config file: cp /usr/share/vim/vim63/vimrc_sample.vim ~/.vimrc

that worked. thanks so much. I wonder how I messed up the config file though never mind