OK, I searched through the posts and found a solution to this (create a blank file called links.db.bak in the \data directory and chmod it 666). Did that, still have the same error message. What else do I need to do?

Building Pages

Pages built on 2-Apr-2002 at 10:30:18
--------------------------------------------------------

Backing up database . . .
Backing up links, category and email database (File::Copy) ...

CGI ERROR
==========================================
Error Message : Unable to copy links backup. Reason: No such file or directory
Script Location : /home/vs041ce/cgi-bin/links/admin/nph-build.cgi
Perl Version : 5.006

Form Variables
-------------------------------------------

Environment Variables
-------------------------------------------
DOCUMENT_ROOT : /home/vs041ce/public_html
GATEWAY_INTERFACE : CGI/1.1
HTTP_ACCEPT : image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, image/png, */*
HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET : iso-8859-1,*,utf-8
HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING: gzip
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE: en,pdf
HTTP_CONNECTION : Keep-Alive
HTTP_COOKIE : sympvotes=a%3A2%3A%7Bs%3A14%3A%22symp1014770714%22%3Bs%3A1%3A%220%22%3Bs%3A14%3A%22symp1014780336%22%3Bs%3A1%3A%225%22%3B%7D
HTTP_HOST : barntowire.com
HTTP_REFERER : http://barntowire.com/cgi-bin/links/admin/admin.cgi?display=navigation
HTTP_USER_AGENT : Mozilla/4.75 [en] (Win98; U)
PATH : /sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
QUERY_STRING :
REMOTE_ADDR : 12.247.144.117
REMOTE_HOST : 12-247-144-117.client.attbi.com
REMOTE_PORT : 3960
REQUEST_METHOD : GET
REQUEST_URI : /cgi-bin/links/admin/nph-build.cgi
SCRIPT_FILENAME : /home/vs041ce/cgi-bin/links/admin/nph-build.cgi
SCRIPT_NAME : /cgi-bin/links/admin/nph-build.cgi
SERVER_ADDR : 64.14.23.153
SERVER_ADMIN : webmaster@barntowire.com
SERVER_NAME : barntowire.com
SERVER_PORT : 80
SERVER_PROTOCOL : HTTP/1.0
SERVER_SIGNATURE :
Apache/1.3.17 Server at barntowire.com Port 80


SERVER_SOFTWARE : Apache/1.3.17 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.8.0 OpenSSL/0.9.6 PHP/4.1.2 mod_perl/1.24
UNIQUE_ID : PKn4un8AAAEAAFuyMHw

And do you have a backup FOLDER in your admin folder and is the permission of that FOLDER set to 777?? If you answered NO this question...

1) Create a folder called backup in your admin folder.

2) Change its permission to 777 (chmod 777 backup)

3) Read the README file next time, too.
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me

OK, did that and got a few steps further. However, I have gone back and read the readme on this website (already printed out the one that came with the distribution) and do not see anything about creating a backup directory.

Now it seems to be looking for some index files? I'll check the permissions again too:

<snip>
Updating New and Popular Records . . .
What's New Cutoff: 14 days
Popular Cutoff: 2 hits
Updating record: 3, marking as new.
Updating record: 4, marking as new.
Couldn't rename! Had to copy. Strange: Permission denied
Done.

Updating ratings ..
Couldn't rename! Had to copy. Strange: Permission denied
Done.
<snip>
CGI ERROR
==========================================
Error Message : unable to open home page: /pages/index.html. Reason: No such file or directory
Script Location : /home/vs041ce/cgi-bin/links/admin/nph-build.cgi
Perl Version : 5.006

Uh...the README file gives you a complete set of permissions for folders in the Links 2.0 system. Also, there is a FAQ in the Resources section of this web site (Links 2.0 -> FAQ) that provides details on proper folder/file permissions, which is the CRUX of ALL your problems!
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me

OK, I still have not found this comprehensive readme file you are talking about. This is the one I have found:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scripts/links/Readme.txt

All it mentions are:
3. Set permissions:
chmod 755 (-rwxr-xr-x) on all .cgi files.
chmod 666 (-rw-rw-rw-) on all files in the data directory.
chmod 777 (drwxrwxrwx) on the hits directory
chmod 777 (drwxrwxrwx) on the directory where Links pages will be created.

It says nothing about creating directories or other files.

I have also found this file:
http://gossamer-threads.com/perl/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_threaded&post=84226

It looks very helpful and I am working my way through it.

But it is mentioning lots of files/directories that I don't have. Is there another file somewhere that tells me to create these? For example,

755 DIRECTORY cgi-bin/links/admin/Html/

644 Entities.pm
644 HeadParser.pm
644 Parser.pm

I do not have this subdirectory or any of the files in it.

Hi,

In links.cfg you'll need to enter full paths, they should start with /home/vs041ce/ ....it looks (for the root path at least) you've entered a relative path.

Hope that helps.

Yippee! Thanks Paul! OK it's building pages now. But I'm still getting this error:

Updating New and Popular Records . . .
What's New Cutoff: 14 days
Popular Cutoff: 2 hits
Updating record: 3, marking as new.
Updating record: 4, marking as new.
Couldn't rename! Had to copy. Strange: Permission denied
Done.

Updating ratings ..
Couldn't rename! Had to copy. Strange: Permission denied
Done.

Rates and Hits are both 777, the index files within them are 666.

OK, somewhere I am still missing some permissions. I have been able to modify links.css and it is mostly working the way I want. BUT. I can't seem to modify site_html.pl or any of the templates. The changes take, but they don't show up when I call up the home page.

Even worse, after I try using the online editor, I can no longer access the templates folder through WS_FTP. I can't view the contents or delete the folder. It does allow me to rename it though, so that is what I have done. I then re-upload a clean copy of the templates folder and contents, chmod them all 666, and try again. Same thing.

The error message I am getting from the online editor is:

CGI ERROR
==========================================
Error Message : Can't open template: /home/vs041ce/cgi-bin/links/admin/templates/home.html for writing. Reason: Permission denied
Script Location : /home/vs041ce/cgi-bin/links/admin/admin.cgi
Perl Version : 5.006

Form Variables
-------------------------------------------
db : links
edit_tpl : home.html
save_template : Save Template
save_tpl : home.html
tpl :

Please help, thanks!

Your templates folder needs to be 777 - (drwxrwxrwx) and your template FILES need to be 666 (rw-rw-rw-) as posted in the README file!
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me

Thanks!!! I have changed all possible links folders to 777 and all files within them to 666 (cgi to 755). It's working! Still have html issues, but I'll work on them. No error messages at all right now.

Great! And next time, take time to read the README file more carefully, okay?
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me