A question for the kids developers

I understand that you are all born way after we all old people where using vi but is vi such a big program to include with volumio ??? or at least let us install it.

I have no problem to just copy it from another system, sorry I forgot you also still using armv7l.
I guess not enough good developers are working in volumio
I just found the same question since 2021
you lazy people

You’re surely are one of a good old dev :grinning:. If Volumio knew you before, it would be so better…

Hey @Gandalftw,

I find the “kids developers” framing inadequate. The age span here runs from those who have just discovered that thumbs are not for sucking, all the way up to those who find pleasure coding between bingo parties in retiree homes. Somewhere in that range sits the person who built the image you are running.

Now, to the actual question.

There is no package called “vi” in Debian. There never was. The vi binary is provided by vim-tiny, about 1.8 MB. Full vim pulls vim-common, vim-runtime, xxd and libgpm2, which is 41.7 MB installed. On a purpose built audio OS where the odds of anyone hand editing a FLAC are low, that is 41.7 MB of nothing.

So, no, vi is not a big program. vim is.

If you want the real thing:


ssh volumio@your_ip_address
sudo apt update
sudo apt install vim-tiny

Or sudo apt install vim , if you want the 41.7 MB.

The apt update is the part that matters. Without it the package lists are empty and apt tells you the package cannot be located.

On “I just found the same question since 2021” - that thread is yours:

@chsims1 answered it in post 2. You reported the not found error in post 4. You then posted the correct fix yourself in post 6, apt-get update followed by apt-get install vim. @AKK confirmed it in 2024 and @Darmur confirmed in 2026 that apt update is safe and required before installing packages.

So the question from 2021 was answered in 2021, in your own thread, partly by you. Five years of silence from us is a little easier to explain in that light.

Also worth noting from your own post 5 in that thread: nano was already installed on your system. It still is. For a quick config edit it is entirely sufficient, and it does not require anyone to remember which key leaves the building.

Kind Regards,

5 Likes