alright..
i have no idea why, but i used mandrake 10.1 to build my new router.
ok.. cause i'm lazy, that's why.. i didn't have a slackware boot disk and this was for an old ppro180 that didn't boot off cd.. and i didn't feel like flashing the bios.

so i had this mandrake disc set laying around and used that.

copied my iptables script over to it. installed dnsmasq (cause mandrake didn't come with it - at least the way i installed it)
and it was cool.. got everything working pretty much how i wanted it.

went to open up some ports so i could use GAIM on my slackware 10.0 laptop, and then had my problems.

i use Eterm and ssh'd to the new router box.. hit up 'vi' to mod the script a bit, and got (forgive me, i'm at work, so i don't have the exact error):
some kind ov emulation error.. i can post the exact error later on tonight.

so my question/problem is: does mandrake have a different terminal emulation preference than the rest ov the known world?

and if not.. what did i mess up in the mandrake install? (probably a lot.. i never use mandrake)

thanks.. and sorry for the sarcastic tone

ok.. here is the message i got when i tried to run 'vi' from the Eterm window:

[root@chain brad]# vi /etc/rc.d/rc.firewall

E558: Terminal entry not found in terminfo
'Eterm' not known. Available builtin terminals are:
builtin_riscos
builtin_amiga
builtin_beos-ansi
builtin_ansi
builtin_pcansi
builtin_win32
builtin_vt320
builtin_vt52
builtin_xterm
builtin_iris-ansi
builtin_debug
builtin_dumb
defaulting to 'ansi'
Error detected while processing /etc/vim/vimrc:
line 1:
Interrupted
Error detected while processing /root/.vimrc:

If you have nano or pico installed or emacs, try using them. If you have xterm it is great too.

After you can check you vimrc file. Maybe mandrake installed some mandrake specific/customized stuff.

yeah, very strange xterm worked fine..

i'll have to dig in the .vimrc and see why Eterm isn't kosher...

i think i'm gonna kill that box anyway.. mandrake is just not what i'm looking for..

i really appreciate the help, tho
thanks.

my dog was right...

i should have used slackware to begin with...

i made the smboot.dsk disk and loaded slackware with everything else the same, and everything is cool...

thank you for your help.. it did solve my problem.. but i re-loaded w/slackware and everything is exactly how i want it..

kudo's to all who read/added.