======================================================================= THOR Frequently Asked Questions Last updated 14 Dec 1997 Maintained by: Petter Nilsen (pettern@thule.no) Contributors: Kjell Irgens (kjell@spacetec.no) Kimme Utsi (kimme@articnet.no) ======================================================================= General: ~~~~~~~~ 1.1 What is this 'system' you talk about all the time? 1.2 "Failed to load the configuration datafiles." 1.3 "Systems Config -> Type" is empty. 1.4 When I quit THOR, it doesn't free all the memory used. Why? 1.5 "waitforport" in ARexx scripts fail from within THOR. 1.6 Multiuser filesystem (MuFS) problems with THOR. 1.7 Moving the database correctly. 1.8 Waitpointer is "hanging" after some operation. 1.9 Adding messages to the database is slow. 1.10 How to repair broken or damaged message databases. 1.11 How to snapshot the window positions. 1.12 XPK/DiskExpander problems 1.13 Where to get the latest versions of THOR. 1.14 What is the latest version of THOR? 1.15 How do I save several messages in a single operation? 1.16 My list of events doesn't seem to clear. 1.17 My computer freezes when I click on a icon for a file attachment. 1.18 How can I use the GoldEd 4.7.x WORDS extension to spellcheck my Thor messages? Internet: ~~~~~~~~~ 2.1 Password is not accepted at a POP host 2.2 ConnectTHOR still running after being closed with the close window gadget. 2.3 What is socket.library? 2.4 "Could not open socket.library". 2.5 "domain name missing.." when sending mail. 2.6 Error message when trying to select a newsgroup to join. 2.7 Collecting mail with SMTPd instead of POP3. 2.8 "Connection refused" when using "Get Mail". 2.9 How do a send a carbon copy of a mail to several users? 2.10 How do a get a list of newsgroups from the newsserver? 2.11 "You must configure e-mail address for the system..." 2.12 The progressbar total counts down on newscollection. 2.13 "441 400 No space (spool)" etc. error message 2.14 Slower getting news/mail on a custom screen whan on WB? 2.15 My EMail conference claims it's "READ-ONLY", how do I fix that? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.1 What is this "system" you talk about all the time? To put it simple, a system is either a particular BBS, an Internet provider or a Fido site. You can use THOR to read messages or postings from many systems. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.2 "Failed to load the configuration datafiles." 1. Since the message database is located on disk, it is sensitive to whatever might happen to the disk. In case of a disk crash or similar problem, use one of the commercial or shareware tools that can fix such problems. DiskSalv, Quarterback Tools or AmiBack Tools are all recommended for this purpose. 2. One or more of the datafiles that THOR needs might be corrupt or damaged. Take a backup of your database, then use BaseManager to fix the problem. If not even that helps, you may have to delete the conference (or in the worst case, the whole system and make a new one). It might help to copy the .bak file for the reported failed file over the original. 3. If the IoErr: value is 103, you do not have enough memory to start THOR. See also 1.10 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.3 When I try to configure a new system, the "Type" gadget is empty. THOR isn't installed correctly. Re-run the installation, reboot and try again. If you don't want to install again, you might execute the cfg* scripts i <YourThorDir>/s/ from shell with the command "execute". ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.4 When I quit THOR, it doesn't free all the memory used. Why? bbsread.library uses a buffering system. The buffers will not be freed immediately by the library. The library will flush the buffers after 5 minutes if the library isn't used anymore. You can flush the library manually with the "avail flush" command, but AmigaOS will automatically flush the library from memory when the memory is needed by some other program if the library is not in use anymore. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.5 "waitforport" in ARexx scripts fail from within THOR. Associated problems: THOR does not find programs I start from within THOR, like the ThorStat program, even if the directory these programs reside in is in my path. I have made sure I have the correct path statement in my user-startup. What it wrong? Answer: If you have made sure you use the ADD keyword to the path command in your user-startup and that this directory actually exists, one possible reason might be that you start THOR as a WB Prosess from ToolManager. The WB Startup code in ToolManager is buggy and ignores any path, so you should start THOR as a CLI prosess from ToolManager instead (WBStart-handler 1.4 included with ToolManager 2.1a fixes this problem). THOR will inherit the path even if started from Workbench since THOR converts itself to a cli prosess on startup. ParM will show simular (bad) behaviour when started from WB, so start if from CLI whenever possible. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.6 Multiuser filesystem problems with THOR. Due to a bug in MultiUsers handling of async lowlevel dos packets, the files in all THOR's datadirs must be set up without any user or group. This can be done with the following command: mprotect `getenv thor/bbsdatapath` RWD group RWD other RWD all ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.7 Moving the database correctly. Sometimes it might be useful to move the THOR installation to another disk or somewhere else on the same disk. This can be done in the following fashion: 1. Make sure you are not running THOR and flush the memory with the command "avail flush" from a shell. Also, check with Commodities Exchange that ConnectTHOR is not running, and if it is, Quit it. 2. Move the database to wherever you want it. 3. Change envarc:THOR/THORPath to point to the new directory you have THOR in. The database is usually stored in a "data"-subdir under the THOR directory. 4. Change envarc:THOR/BBSReadPath to point to the new directory you have you database. The database is usually stored in a "data"-subdir under the THOR directory. 5. Reboot. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.8 Waitpointer is "hanging" after some operation. This can happen with certain commodities that change the mouse pointer in various ways. Particular older programs (eg. QMouse) is known to not handle this correctly. Try running without these programs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.9 Adding messages to the database is slow. Several things can be done to speed this up: - Turn off the "Add Users" option on the system in question in Systems Config -> Import/Export. - Open the user database window and delete all the users you do not want in the database. Then select Maintenance in this same window. - Set up more buffers and higher buffer size in Global Config -> Database options. 15 buffers on 15K is a good setting if you can afford to use that kind of memory. - If you use XPK packing, turn off "Auto XPK packing" in Global Config -> Database options. - Check the kills/emphasizes you might have setup for this system and remove redunant ones. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.10 How to repair broken or damaged message databases. If you experience problems adding messages to the database, reading messages or other related problems, use the ValidateThor script located in your bin/ directory under your root THOR directory. The alternative procedure, which is basicly what the above mentioned script does, follows: - Make sure you are not running THOR and flush the memory with the command "avail flush" from a shell. - Run the program "basemanager" with the validate switch: bin/basemanager validate <systemname> eg. bin/basemanager validate "news&mail" - Use the ARexx script "CheckDatabase.br" with the DELETE switch: rx rexx/bbsread/checkdatabase.br <systemname> DELETE eg. rexx/bbsread/checkdatabase.br "news&mail" DELETE - Now, enter the conference with a problem with THOR and make sure you have the message list window open. Multiselect (with the shift key) all messages with "*BAD DATA*" or "Failed to get message data" and then select Delete msgs from the menu. - When you have preformed the steps above, select "pack/purge" on this system from within THOR or use the "bin/packbbs" program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.11 How to snapshot the window positions. Select "Visual Options" from the Configuration menu and then "Save". ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.12 XPK/DiskExpander problems - DiskExpander is very buggy and should not be used under any circumstances until it has been updated. AFAIK, the authors are "working" on fixing the known problems with DE. - XPK packing is supported directly in THOR, and this is more efficient than running THOR on a partition with XPK. However, there seem to be problems when using RAKE as compressior, but later NUKE versions has been tested and works fine. If you have a problem with RAKE or any other methods, NUKE is generally a good alternative. Some of the versions of xpkmaster.library higher than V2 is seriously broken in the implementation of memory-to-memory compression, which Thor uses. If compression works with V2, but not with newer versions, you should contact the current maintainer of the XPK package. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.13 Where to get the latest versions of THOR. The latest versions and fixes can always be found for ftp at ftp://ftp.thule.no/pub/thor/. THOR World Wide Web site: http://www.thule.no/thor/ These sites might contain fixes, ARexx scripts etc. not released on Aminet. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.14 What is the latest version of THOR? THOR 2.5a is the latest version. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.15 How do I save several messages in a single operation? Open the message list window and select the messages to save with the mouse while holding the shift key in. Then select save from the menu and all the selected messages will be saved to the same file. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.16 My list of events doesn't seem to clear. Open the event edit window and check for events with FRZ and ERR in front of them. When these are gone (eg. deleted), the list will be cleared the next time you send events from ConnectTHOR. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.17 My computer freezes when I click on a icon for a file attachment. This is most likely caused by a patch that influences how the chooser.gadget works. Remove MCP, MultiCX, NewObtainGIRPort and SleepingPointers patches and see if it works any better. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.18 How can I use the GoldEd 4.7.x WORDS extension to spellcheck my Thor messages? 1. Open up the menu in GoldEd 4.7.x. 2. Select The Extras menu and select Options Global 3. From the Global setting you create an new Filetype named (#?.MSG|#?.header) (This for Thor to use it's own GoldEd 4.x.x config files), and then you make 3 new GED config files named Thor.display, Thor.menu and Thor.layout config files by copying the standard.#? and giving them the Thor.#? names. 4. Then you move the Thor.#? files from the storage to the characteristic window in the bottom of the Extras/Options Global menu entry. 5. And then you notice that the WORDS extension for envWRD44.lha has made 4 files in the Storage window named words.api, words.mouse, words.syntax and words.gadgets. Copy them also over to the Thor extension named (#?.MSG|#?.header) (This are the filename extensions that Thor uses for it's internal messages in Thor.s database, and therefore are Thor messages that are edited) 6. Leave the rest as standard.#? as these are non important for this to work. 7. Open up the menu entry Extras/Options local to save the Thor.#? config files to your own like, and voila you have offline spell checking wihtin Thor with GoldEd 4.7.x as the external editor. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.1 Password is not accepted at a POP host There are several reasons why a password might be rejected at the POP host when trying to collect mail: - You are trying to get mail from a server you do not have an account on. - You have some special characters like *#? etc. in the password. Due to the way passwords are sent to GetTCP from ConnectTHOR, some of these special characters might be interpreted by AmigaDOS and changed. For instance, if you have a password with a '*' character in, make sure you pass in an extra '*'. Eg: "pass*word" becomes "pass**word". **** This problem was fixed in 2.3 of THOR. **** - You have a password longer than 8 characters. Many POP servers do not accept passwords longer than 8 characters. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.2 ConnectTHOR still running after being closed with the close window gadget. ConnectTHOR is a commodity and normal behaviour on commodities is to hide the program and not quit it when using the close gadget in the window. If you want to quit ConnectTHOR, use the Quit menu item instead. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.3 What is socket.library? socket.library is originally a library included with AS225r2 beta, a TCP/IP stack made by Commodore but never released to the public. However, since this is a nice and easy TCP/IP stack and a lot of developers use it, the THOR TCP programs have been programmed to use it. If you use AmiTCP, like most do, you need the socket.library for AmiTCP that emulates the AS225r2 socket.library in a way that makes AS225r2 programs work. This library is included with Grapevine, the IRC client, and can also be found on ftp://hstud6.cs.uit.no/pub/thor. *********************************************************************** Starting from THOR 2.3, the TCP modules do not need this library to work with AmiTCP. *********************************************************************** ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.4 "Could not open socket.library". Your socket.library is not installed correctly. Do the following: - Assign inet: to Amitcp:, like this: "Assign inet: amitcp:" - Create a directory called "libs" in Amitcp: (if it doesn't exist already). - Copy socket.library to Amitcp:libs. - Setup the SOCKETCONFIG file in envarc:/env: as described in the socket.library documentation. *********************************************************************** Starting from THOR 2.3, the TCP modules do not need this library to work with AmiTCP. *********************************************************************** ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.5 "domain name missing.." when sending mail. Your socket.library is not correctly configured. Create a file in envarc: and env:. Here's my file: UID=100 GID=100 USER=pettern DOMAIN=icenet.no UMASK=002 Replace the USER with you username, and DOMAIN with your domain, and it should work fine. *********************************************************************** Starting from THOR 2.3, the TCP modules do not need this library to work with AmiTCP. *********************************************************************** ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.6 Error message when trying to join a newsgroup. Error message when trying to join a newsgroup: Failed to load the configuration datafiles. Error in dh1:thor/data/bbs0/PassConf.Data. Cause: Dos failure IoErr reports 103 This error messages means that you do not have enough continues memory to load the large list of newsgroups into memory. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.7 Collecting mail with SMTPd instead of POP3. Some Internet providers do not provide POP3 mail. Mail needs to me collected using a SMTP deamon in these cases, and the "Get Mail" function in ConnectTHOR can not be used. However, THOR will read mailboxes created by any SMTPd just fine if you follow these steps: - Set the download directory in Global Config->Paths to the directory where incoming mail is stored. - Set the Mailpacket name in Systems Config to the name of the mailbox that is created by SMTPd and save. THOR will now automatically import these mailboxes into its database when you enter the system configured for Internet. Installation of the SMTP deamon is beyond the scope of this FAQ, see the supplied documentation for the SMTPd in question for how to do this. INetUtils on Aminet includes a SMTPd that will work fine. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.8 "Connection refused" when selecting "Get Mail". See 2.1 and 2.7. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.9 How do a send a carbon copy of a mail to several users? You can send a carbon copy of a mail to several users using one of the following methods: 1. In the to-address gadget, enter all addresses separated with a ',' (comma). 2. Use the popup gadget to select all the users from a list of users in the user database. 3. Enter at the very top of the message text a "Cc:" line containing the addresses of the users to send a carbon copy to. Example: Cc: user1,user2,user3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.10 How do a get a list of newsgroups from the newsserver? Select "Get Conf.List" from the Events menu, then select "Send Events" in ConnectTHOR and a list of newsgroups will be collected. This might take some time, so be patient. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.11 "You must configure e-mail address for the system..." If you get this message when sending mail, open the system configuration from THOR, select the system with the problem, then select the user info gadget. Enter your full email address in the email address field and select save. Try again. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.12 The progressbar total counts down on newscollection. You might notice that the total value in the progressbar on getting news counts down. This can be of various reasons, but the most normal reason is that an article is not available anymore on the newsserver due to cancellation. Another reason can be a short expire of articles on the server so that you do not have time to collect it before it's being deleted. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.13 "441 400 No space (spool)" etc. error message When ConnectThor or SendTCP gives you an error message like this, that means that your ISP has a full harddisk on their news server. A good idea then is to mail or phone them, or just to wait till the next day and hope that they have fixed it. All error messages starting with a number is from the mail or news server. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.14 Slower getting news/mail on a custom screen whan on WB? It doesn't make any difference for THOR if you get news/mail while running on Thor's screen or any other screen (like Workbench). If you notice a big difference in the speed, this is probably caused by DMA contention. This means that you are probably using a screenmode that requires more DMA "time" then on some other screen. Overscan can cause this, along with a high number of colours on the screen. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.15 My EMail conference claims it's "READ-ONLY", how do I fix that? Due to a bug in the 2.4 Installer script, the EMail conference was made READ-ONLY, which is ofcourse wrong. To fix this, get the following script from you local Aminet site: FixThorMail.lha comm/thor 1024 Fix the read-only email problem in Thor