well, you were both right. i reflashed the OS, enabled r&d mode to modify gainroot, and then disabled r&d mode. after running the extrootfs script again my system has been restored EXACTLY as it was previously, with the exception of the chmod'ed /etc/sudoers file. i can now safely get in and add the entry in sudoers for the swapfile menu item in the new load_plugin_aw that is now available on maemo.org. it is REALLYnice to be able to get things right back the way they were with so little effort. thanks for your help! goodtimes indeed for this linux novice. my new issue is i accidentally popped out the usb cable from my ibook before all this nonsense with /etc/sudoers, but under Control Panel>Memory it says my usb cable is attached. i tried mount and umount, but to no avail. regardless i have access to both partitions, which is where i saved my vim-tiny, extrootfs, and all other installation files. i'll have to figure that one out later.