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Question
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What is this "system" you talk about all the time?
Answer
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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.
Question:
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How do I choose which packet to open, and why is there no file
requester?
Answer:
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You don't need a file requester. Instead of manually choosing which
packet to open, THOR checks your download directory for packets with
names matching the offset (or pattern) you have defined for the system
in the Systems Configuration part of the ConfigTHOR program.
Question:
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I get the following error message when I start THOR:
"Failed to load the configuration datafiles."
What's wrong?
Answer:
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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 section BaseManager
to fix the problem. If not even that helps, you may have to delete
the system and make a new one.
See section Repairing a damaged database.
Question:
-
I have configured a system with one of the QWK types, but when I exit
the system after having written a message, I get an error message
stating that a file called "control.dat" can't be found. What's
wrong?
Answer:
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PackQWK needs the file "control.dat" before a package with messages
can be packed. The solution is to call the system in question and
collect a message packet which must be parsed into the THOR database.
In this packet, the file "control.dat" is included and THOR/PackQWK
should not give this error message anymore.
Question:
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When I try to configure a new system, the "Type" gadget is empty.
Why?
Answer:
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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".
Question:
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When I quit THOR, it doesn't free all the memory used. Why?
Answer:
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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.
Question:
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The ABBS/MBBS NComm script do not seem to work at all on MBBS systems,
and the script stops on the first prompt after it has written my name
and password. What is wrong?
Answer:
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Make sure you have selected "English" as language on the system.
Question:
-
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:
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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 similar (bad) behaviour when started from WB, so start
if from CLI whenever possible.
Question:
-
ARexx scripts won't work correctly and says they can't find
"WaitForPort".
Answer:
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See the previous answer.
Question:
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THOR doesn't seem to work correctly while running on a MultiUser
partition, what is the problem?
Answer:
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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
Question:
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THOR has problems unarchiving and parsing my message packets. What
can be wrong?
Answer:
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1. Check that you do not have any extension on the MailPacket name in
Systems Configuration. If a QWK packet is names "somebbs12.qwk", the
correct mailpacket name will be "somebbs".
2. Check that you have the unarchiver (Unzip, Lha, etc.) in the path.
If you run THOR from ToolManager, make sure you start THOR as a CLI
prosess and NOT as a WB prosess.
3. Check the the MailPacket actually is in the format you have
configured the system in THOR to accept.
4. Check that you haven't configured a relative path to your download
directory. Use the complete path or assign to this directory.
Question:
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I have moved my database to some other directory, but THOR will not
find my database in the new location. What's wrong?
Answer:
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See section How to move a THOR installation for a description on how to do this
correctly.
Question:
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Sometimes THOR will not remove the waitpointer even when finished
doing prosessing of data. THOR will still recognize mouse clicks etc.
Answer:
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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.
Question:
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THOR seems to be slow in adding messages to its database, what can be
done to speed it up a bit?
Answer:
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- 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. When using the TCP module, 2-3 buffers for each
newsgroup you subscribe to is a good setting.
- If you use XPK packing, turn off "Auto XPK packing" in
Global Config -> Database options.
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