Radio UserLand: The Missing Manual

Steve Kirks: "2005 is going to be a great year for UserLand. We're working hard on more Radio UserLand improvements and a new twist or two."

I'm looking forward to it!

The UserLand FAQ says,

If you're getting an error message, check the list of common errors getting started with Radio.

You can also post questions on the discussion group and mailing list.

If that doesn't fix it, email UserLand directly at customerservice@userland.com. Give us as much information as possible about the problem, what might have changed on your setup lately and what steps you've taken to troubleshoot.

I will now do all these things, starting with a post to the Radio discussion group.

I just subscribed to the Radio mailing list and will ask for help there.

Next I'll email UserLand at the email address above with all the text from my previous post explaining what is happening.

Previous tips showed you how you can use Thumbscrew to add a fancy border effect to an image and have Radio instantly upstream it to your site. This week we cover our bases and learn how and why to upstream your backup files to the public server. [Jan 02, 2005]

At this point I should mention that UserLand suggests that you answer the questions on the Upstreaming troubleshooting checklist should you be experiencing problems, as I am, with Radio. Here are my answers:

Were you ever able to upstream from this copy of Radio? Or is this a new installation that has never been able to upstream?

If upstreaming was working and it stopped, do you recall any recent software, network or hardware changes on the machine that might have coincided with upstreaming not working.

DW: I've been able to upstream in the past. I don't recall any recent changes that might have coincided with this problem.

What kind of Internet connection do you have? Also, what operating system (including version) do you have installed on your machine?

DW: DSL. Mac OS X 10.3.7

Do you have any Internet security software or hardware (firewall/proxy server) installed on your machine and/or network?

DW: Yes. I have the built in firewall installed on my laptop.

On the Events Log page, do you see any upstream error messages?

DW: No.

Are you upstreaming to the UserLand community server? Or are you using FTP to your own server?

DW: FTP.

If you are using FTP upstreaming, you can check a list of TCP/IP error messages that you might come across.

DW: I'm not seeing any of those messages.

Basic things to check in Radio. Is upstreaming enabled? Is Radio in work offline mode? How many threads do you see running in the About Radio UserLand window?

DW: Upstreaming is enabled. Radio is not in work offline mode. There are 7 threads.

Is there any change if you exit and restart Radio and/or your machine?

DW: If I choose Publish home page from the Radio menu, nothing happens. If I exit and restart Radio, the home page and rss.xml file will be uploaded.

UserLand suggests that Radio users compact data files from time to time.

When I choose Compact Data Files, Radio runs through my root files rather quickly, and then hangs when it attempts to process weblogsComData.root. I ran this dilemma by those on the Radio Developers list and got two responses. Dave Winer offered up a script that would simply bypass the weblogsComData.root file during a compact. Matt Mower suggested I reinstall Radio.

I tried Dave's script first. I'm not sure if it skipped the file in question but it did get farther than my earlier attempts. However, it ended up by attempting to upload something and then hung.

So, on to suggestion 2. I tried to reinstall Radio but that's when more problems surfaced. And that's the subject of future posts. Stay tuned..

In Radio, I choose Publish, Weblog Home Page from the Radio menu. Radio does not publish my home page. It should and it has in the past.

So, I've learned that if I exit and restart Radio, at the end of the Radio startup process, Radio will then upload my home page and the RSS file.

Why must I restart Radio to make this happen? The same issue happens when I touch a file. It should and used to upload to my ftp site but now requires a exit/restart of Radio. Any ideas?

Notes

• In the About Radio UserLand window I see 7 threads. I understand that if I see a single thread that I would need to restart Radio Threads to tell Radio to run more threads. I've done this after attempting to Compact data files (the subject of my next post) and it hasn't helped.

• I'm running Mac OS X 10.3.7. I'm running Radio UserLand version 8.0.9b2 with 20MB free.

In my last post, I mentioned that posts to Radio UserLand: The Missing Manual would be light while I somehow get my Radio to work right once again.

Well, scratch that. I'm going to post my journey, 2 entire days now spent, attempting to fix Radio. Follow along if you want. I've learned an awful lot about Radio as a result of my troubles. That's a good thing for my readers because I'm going to make my findings public. There are some great Radio reference sites out there to draw from.

To organize my thoughts and process, I created an outline in Radio. You can open this outline in your copy of Radio, or you can view it as a web page.

Dear readers..

I've been experiencing a meltdown of my install of Radio UserLand. Several people have offered suggestions and I've spent the entire day trying to get Radio working properly with no such luck.

Until I can get Radio working again, updates to Radio UserLand: The Missing Manual will be slow or non-existent. I'm taking the best notes I can to document my journey in the hope that it might benefit other Radio users in their time of need.

Already, I've gathered a number of links to various pages that might help with your Radio troubleshooting. Nothing has solved my problem yet, however. Hopefully, I can get this resolved soon so I can get back to business.