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Trouble-shooting guide

Question
What is this "system" you talk about all the time?
Answer
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:
How do I choose which packet to open, and why is there no file requester?
Answer:
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:
I get the following error message when I start THOR: "Failed to load the configuration datafiles." What's wrong?
Answer:
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:
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:
When I try to configure a new system, the "Type" gadget is empty. Why?
Answer:
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:
When I quit THOR, it doesn't free all the memory used. Why?
Answer:
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:
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:
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:
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:
See the previous answer.
Question:
THOR doesn't seem to work correctly while running on a MultiUser partition, what is the problem?
Answer:
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:
THOR has problems unarchiving and parsing my message packets. What can be wrong?
Answer:
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:
I have moved my database to some other directory, but THOR will not find my database in the new location. What's wrong?
Answer:
See section How to move a THOR installation for a description on how to do this correctly.
Question:
Sometimes THOR will not remove the waitpointer even when finished doing prosessing of data. THOR will still recognize mouse clicks etc.
Answer:
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:
THOR seems to be slow in adding messages to its database, what can be done to speed it up a bit?
Answer:
- 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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