40 comment

1. Did you even read the question? The answer doesn’t address the question at all.

2. Actually answers the question.

   Ubuntu natively comes with tiny vim. This does not support syntax and other fancy stuff. So if you’ve just installed Ubuntu and run vim, you will get the error reported.

   In order to get syntax highlighting and other features, you must install the complete vim via apt-get.

3. Installing the full vim via apt-get doesn’t help at all. The problem stays as it is.

4. Installing vim via apt-get solved the problem. Thank you.

5. Great post, solved my problem, thanks!

6. Works perfectly – who would have thought – two vim packages.

7. you should be using vim-tiny that is the default package in Ubuntu.
   You should install a more bloated version. :-)

8. It works. ha ha

9. Thank you for this post, it worked fine!

10. solved my problem.

    Thank you.

11. Thank you :-)

12. I’m running Debian and I came across the same issue. I originally thought I was using some archaic version of vim! This article did the trick.

13. Works fine. Tk’s

14. Thank you. I have apt-got vim, and my world is colorful now :)

15. My Ubuntu 8.10 natively comes with vim-tiny. By installing full vim, now the syntax highlighting works.
    The vi command no longer points to /usr/bin/vim.tiny. Instead it now points to /usr/bin/vim.basic

    $ readlink -f `which vi`
    /usr/bin/vim.basic

    $dpkg -S /usr/bin/vim.basic
    vim: /usr/bin/vim.basic

    Thanks so much Vivek!

16. Ole! Thanks.

17. It works, thanks.

18. Worked for me too. Thanks.

19. excellent tutorial!
    Thanks!

20. I was getting the same error. Dint know that I was running vim.tiny :D…. Thanx for the post .. Thank you . :)

21. Thanks for the tip! It solves my problem:)

22. Thanks a lot..it has solved my problem .Top of it other few errors are also solved …

23. This is long-winded answer which is why a few people didn’t understand it.

    The answer is the default version doesn’t have syntax highlight, so install the full version using:

    sudo apt-get install vim

24. hey this was very useful, before trying your soln i tried
    apt-get update vi ….. but no luck

    what to say vivek,, u r just too good :)

25. I had the same problem on Ubuntu 9.10, but this didn’t fix the problem!

    I had to remove vim, vim-tiny
    sudo apt-get remove vim vim-tiny

    And reinstall vim
    sudo apt-get install vim

26. same problem, thx for help!

27. Thanks for your help. It solved my problem.

28. It works on debian 6.0

29. Thanks for the post. It solved my problems…

30. Thanks:)

31. Sill works, Ubuntu 12.04

32. You may also need to run the following command, to use the “non-tiny” vi:

    sudo update-alternatives –config vi

33. great! Your’are my hero.

34. DOH! DUH! Now my highlighting works. Thanks.

35. The answer is not proper for people who are facing issues when vim is installed from source. Do you have a solution for people facing this problem after installing vim from source?

36. Thanks!!! installed the full version of vim, resolved the problem

37. Works fine, thanks

38. thanks a lot

39. Thanks, it works!

40. apt get solved my problem

    Still, have a question? Get help on our forum!