=========================================================================== UMS.FAQ V2.0 06/07/95 Installing UMS & Intuinews for accessing Demon IP. =========================================================================== INTRO ===== This FAQ is 95% Doug's hard work and 5% of mine in re-formatting and adding a few bits of info here and there. The reason I formatted it was to make things absolutely clear to the beginner (ie ME!) so that anyone can install and customize UMS to their liking. Since I wrote this FAQ, both UMS and the rfc packages have been updated, and so this FAQ has to be updated too :) DISCLAIMER ========== UMS V11 is still in beta, which means it works but there MAY still be some hidden bugs, however several people have had it running for a while now and it seems quite stable :). Also the RFC package has the suggestion that it should NOT be used unless you HAVE to, again most Demonites running UMS have it up and running. In fact there is a new version out (v8) which I'll check-out in the next little while. So you have been warned.. Buyer beware, as they say. I cannot be held responsible for any damage etc. caused by the use of the software or this FAQ. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- REQUIREMENTS ============ There are two sources at the moment, to get the required packages. Your local Aminet site and UMS's public beta-site, so first of all got to Aminet and get: comm/ums/UMS109_1.lha (625637 bytes) comm/ums/UMS109_2.lha (700184 bytes) *NEW comm/ums/umsrcf0_10.lha (296092 bytes) Now go to ftp.dfv.rwth-aachen.de and download: pub/amiga/ums/UMS11_3_public_beta.lha (186769 bytes) pub/amiga/ums/umsrfc0_7.lha ( 96778 bytes) pub/amiga/ums/ConfUMS-1_2.lha ( 79096 bytes) *NEW pub/amiga/ums/UMS11_4_public_beta.lha (391128 bytes) *NEW pub/amiga/ums/umsrfc0_10.lha (296092 bytes) There is a lot of other stuff, both on aminet and at the public beta site. Some of this is included in the UMS109#? files, so don't just get everything. NOTE: During the writing of this FAQ the umsrfc package has been updated from v9 to v10. It's filename is now 'umsrfc0_9.lha'. Bear this in mind when downloading the others, as they too may be update and so have a different version number. If you want to use IntuiNews you will also require MUI, available from Aminet: dev/gui/mui23usr.lha (678109 bytes) simply type: cd HOME:downloads lha x mui23usr.lha ram: (or anywhere you have room) cd ram:MUI read the readme file and then double-click the MUI-Install icon. NOTE: In the following text you will see references to HOME:downloads. This is simply the directory where I store my downloads. Adjust accordingly to your download directory :) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLATION ============ To make life easy print this file out and also Install-UMSv10.txt and read them a couple of times before you attempt this, so that you can get an idea of what's involved and also you can easily refer to them DURING installation. Also in the following instructions you will frequently see: delete ram:UMS ALL QUIET or similar. This basically means that after copying the specified files/directories there are some left over. You can have a snoop around the uncopied ones if you want, but they are not needed, don't worry about them :). Basically, as an overview, you have to install v10 first, then update it to v11 then add the RFC package and add a few (supplied) scripts so that it is usable on Demon. So on with the show. Unpack each of the ums109 archives onto blank formatted disks as folows: Insert blank disk 1 into df0: , open a Shell and type: cd HOME:downloads ( or wherever the files are ) lha x UMS109_1.lha df0: Insert blank disk 2 into df0: and type: lha x UMS109_2.lha Now to install it. First of all create a directory somewhere called UMS, your best bet is to put it 'close' to your AmiTCP directory or in your comms directory, I've put mine in Work: as follows: cd Work: makedir UMS cd UMS makedir Text cd Text makedir Mail makedir News That done insert disk 1 in df0: (if you have df1: put disk 2 in it as well), and double-click it's icon, you'll see a readme file - READ IT! Then double-click the install icon. Answer all questions by refering to InstallUMS.txt. Once finished you will have the old version installed. Now before running anything, you must update to v11.3. To do this we will attack another file :) Type the following: lha x UMS11_3_public_beta.lha ram: This puts a UMS directory in your RamDisk, now type the following: copy ram:UMS/l/#? to l: copy ram:UMS/libs/#? to libs: copy ram:UMS/bin/#? to work:ums/bin (or wherever you put UMS) copy ram:UMS/doc/README.UMSRFC to work:ums/doc copy ram:UMS/doc/History to work:ums/doc delete ram:UMS ALL QUIET Next step is to unpack umsrfc0_7.lha, so type the following: cd HOME:downloads lha x umsrfc0_7.lha ram: copy ram:UMS/bin/#? Work:UMS/bin copy ram:UMS/libs/#? LIBS: delete ram:UMS ALL QUIET Nearly there, you just have to get UMS to communicate with demon by using the following scripts: o Connect This dials in and starts everything going It starts NewUp, MailUp, NewsDown o Xfer This is called by connect and does the work of starting all the above stuff. o MailUp This checks for mail that needs posting, It then keeps trying until it has gone. To stop it, click in it's window, then press CTRL-C then CTRL-D then CTRL-\ o NewsUp This checks for News postings, then it keeps trying until all the postings have been sent. same as before to stop. o Disconnect This logs out of demon, and puts the phone down, it also imports your news and mail into Intuinews. o UMSMail This imports mail into UMS, it gets called from disconnect. o UMSNews This is one method of Importing news into UMS using bq is better. If you have problems with bq replace the line in the disconnect script with one that says, umsnews (just one command on its own line) o Keyfile Used by UMSNews. You will also need to create a ums.config file, and put it in UMS/mb. Load up your favorite editor and load UMS-INSTALL:mb/ums.config and replace: MY_DOMAIN with your domain MY_1STNAME with your 1st name MY_FULLNAME with your full name MY_ORG with your Organisation Most decent Text-editors have a global search and replace, see your ed's manual, otherwise you will have to do it 'by hand' :( For example my name is net address is clive@tlc1.demon.co.uk and my name is Clive Thomas, so: MY_DOMAIN = tlc1 MY_1STNAME = clive MY_FULLNAME = Clive Thomas MY_ORG = MovieKing Inc. then save it. As before you will need to go through all the scripts mentioned above, (they are in UMS-INSTALL:bin) and customise them for your setup. just replace all the MY_DOMAIN's to your domain name and all the MY_1STNAME to your mail handle as before. You may also want to alter the window sizes and positions as they are for an 800*600 screen :). Then type: cd UMS-INSTALL copy bin/#? Work:UMS/bin/ copy doc/#? Work:UMS/doc/ copy mb/ums.config Work:UMS/mb/ copy uuspool/#? UUSPOOL: copy misc-stuff/IntuiNews.Addresses Work:UMS/reader/IntuiNews/ The last archive we have to deal with is for confums, which is basically a configuration set-up program for UMS :) so let's get on with it, type: cd HOME:downloads lha x ConfUMS-1_2.lha ram: copy ram:bin/#? Work:UMS/bin/ copy ram:bin/doc/english/ConfUMS.guide HELP:english/ del ram:UMS ALL QUIET FINALLY, edit your User-Startup by adding the following line to it: setenv EDITOR c:ed or: setenv EDITOR c:ed -sticky if you use ced, but see the Problems section further on first. =========================================================================== THAT'S THE INSTALLATION DONE :) TURN OFF YOUR MACHINE AND WATCH A FILM OR DO SOMETHING USEFUL! ;) Seriously though, take a break, you deserve one after all that! Once you feel refreshed boot-up your Amiga and have a look around the directories, reading/printing out any and all doc files you can find. Then take another break to 'digest' what you've read. =========================================================================== ARGUEMENTS and TOOL-TYPES ------------------------- Programs like ConfUMS and IntuiNews require some Arguements: NAME PASSWORD SERVER These are also Tool-Types, so by getting info from a program's icon, and editing the tool-types you can defeat the login window. For example I type: IntuiNews clive "" default to get IntuiNews running. For your set-up you change 'clive' to your name, though the IntuiNews Tool-Types SHOULD be changed by the Installer. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *NEW UPGRADING ========= This section assumes you have UMSv11.3 and umsrfc v9 up and working. There's a lot more documentation than previous versions :) and some things have changed. Anyway, on with the job in hand... First of all, let's attack the UMSv11.4 archive: cd HOME:Downloads lha x UMS11_3_public_beta.lha ram: This puts a UMS directory in your RamDisk, now type the following: copy ram:UMS/rexx/#? to Work:UMS/rexx/ copy ram:UMS/libs/#? to libs: copy ram:UMS/l/#? to l: copy ram:UMS/doc/#? to Work:UMS/doc/ copy ram:UMS/developer/#? to Work:UMS/developer/ copy ram:UMS/bin/#? to Work:UMS/bin/ copy ram:UMS/AmiTCP/serv/#? to Work:AmiTCP/serv/ There are two files we may need to change: 1) Load Work:AmiTCP/db/services into your editor and append ram:UMS/AmiTCP/db/services to it, then save it. 2) Load Work:AmiTCP/db/inetd.conf into your editor and append ram:UMS/AmiTCP/db/inetd.conf to it, then save it. Before appending either file, first check to see if the UMS-file entries are not already in the relevant files. Having completed that you can type: delete ram:UMS ALL QUIET Next victim is the umsrfc package: cd HOME:Downloads lha x umsrfc0_10.lha ram: This puts a UMS directory in your RamDisk, now type the following: copy ram:UMS/bin/#? to Work:UMS/bin/ copy ram:UMS/doc/#? to Work:UMS/doc/ copy ram:UMS/libs/#? to libs: cd ram:UMS/Networks/RFC/ copy convert/#? to Work:UMS/Networks/RFC/convert/ copy lib/#? to UULIB: copy src/#? to Work:UMS/Networks/RFC/src/ cd HOME: delete ram:UMS: ALL QUIET just a couple of more files to copy over.... cd UMS-INSTALL: copy misc-stuff/ServerControl to Work:UMS/bin/ copy s/ClearMB to Work:UMS/s/ That's all the copying done :) now take a well earned rest.... Then RTFM, there are quite a few new things in both packages!!!! RTFM especially 'umsrfc.txt' or 'umsrfc.guide' for configuration variables and also 'vars.txt' as well as the other txt files. NOTE: ===== As of v11.4 Flushums,Quitums,CleanMB are _OBSOLETE_!!! DO NOT USE THEM. The replacement is ServerControl (in the bin directory) Type: ServerControl ? to see the options. ClearMB (in UMS:s) is the equivalent of CleanMB that removes out of date articles from your Message Base. NOTE: ===== Also your UMS:mb/ums.config MUST be altered if you are upgrading from v11.3 to v11.4!!! Load it into your editor or use confums and delete the '@' from the variable 'Sysname'. ie it was: ( Sysname @tlc1.demon.co.uk ) but now it is: ( Sysname tlc1.demon.co.uk ) if you do not change this you WILL have problems, you have been warned.. In UMS-INSTALL:mb you will find 'v11.4ums.config'. This is my current config file to serve as another example, again RTFM carefully. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TESTING ======= This consists of two steps. First of all you need to set up the message-base, and what better way to do that than by using the news you already have :) So, open a Shell and type: work:ums/drivers/uucp/convert/convauucpnews default This may take some time, so you have another opportunity to RTFM. ;) it's best to do a 'trimnews' before executing this command... *** It may take anything from 15 mins to 1.5 hours *** When this finally finishes, start up IntuiNews by double-clicking on it's icon. You should now see a list of newsgroups and message-counts, this means everythings okay upto now :) Click on the MAIL button: Go ahead, send me a mail at umstest@tlc1.demon.co.uk, and or doug@defocus.demon.co.uk as he has provided most of the info here :). You can do this by clicking the popup icon next to the TO: text-entry gadget. The Address-book will pop-up and you can double click on my name (and/or doug's - to mail both of us ;) Your text-ed should appear. Once finished, save and exit the ed and then click on SEND. Click on the MAIL button again: Send yourself a mail, this time type your net address in the TO: area. Click on the POST button: Send a post to demon.test (put "ignore" in Subject or you get all kinds of wierd messages back from autoreply servers). Don't forget you'll have to subscribe to demon.test to actually see your posting ;) Have a read of some/all the articles you've got 'just to make sure' it did it's job :) If you want help, then press the HELP key as IntuiNews has an online Amigaguide help-file. Remember at the beginning of this installation you created a few directories - Text,Mail and News ? Well now you can use them :) Whenever you want to save a News or Mail article, simply click on Save and a File Requester will open showing these dirs. Thus keeping all your news/mail tidy. After you've finished messing around exit Intuinews. That's the off-line 'work' done, now to go on-line :) Type: connect your screen should burst into life as it normally does, by dialing into demon. Once the connection is made three shell windows should appear: 1st window = sends your mail to demon. 2nd window = sends your news to demon. 3rd window = reads your new news from demon. In the 3rd window you will see the connection attempts and blip messages that normally happen. When each window completes it's task, it will disappear. When all the windows have shut, check all your post has come down the line by typing: finger tlc1@post (substitute your site for 'tlc1') if there is mail you can either wait around until it downloads or, if the modem lights are'nt flickering, type: disconnect Your modem will hang-up and there will be a load of disk activity as the mail and news you've downloaded is transfered to UMS. This could take some time :( go away and have some coffee :) You should then be able to start up Intuinews, and all should be perfectly O.K. Check-out your mail, maybe REPLY to some :) and have a read of your new news articles. Don't be worried about seeing news-groups you don't subscribe to, they are the result of cross-posts by the postee. And that is, as they say, that! ;) You should now have the basic set-up working. If you don't, go back over this FAQ and check you've followed all the steps. From here on you can customize your set-up with random sigs, 'foldered' mail etc. I'm willing to help where possible, though I've only had UMS running about a week, so I am in a very steep learning curve. However, there is help out there far more knowing than myself :) There is the UMS mailing list, to subscribe send a mail to: request@lyssa.owl.de with the following in the body: SUBSCRIBE Ums-Intl "your real name in quotes" your@full.net.addr ie. I subscribed with: SUBSCRIBE Ums-Intl "Clive Thomas" clive.tlc1.demon.co.uk Also, a few Demonites are running UMS now :) so send your queries to the newsgroups: demon.ip.support.amiga or demon.tech.amiga you're bound to find some friendly help there. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROBLEMS ======== Not wanted, but you will probable get one or two :( These were my main problems: Editor ------ If you are using CED, you wil no-doubt come upon the -sticky problem. ie when you mail or post CED will detach itself! You can test for this quite easily. Click on MAIL in IntuiNews, your editor pops-up now go back to the IntuiNews screen and click on CANCEL. If the pointer 'turns busy' everythings okay, if not then it is detaching itself and your writings will be ignored :( Now the good news :) if you look in UMS-INSTALL:misc-stuff you will find a copy of lpatch, copy to the same dir that CED resides in, then goto Aminet and get: biz/patch/EdPatch.lha RTFM and obey :) once done CED will truely be sticky and it now works like a dream :) Cleanmb ------- This file is found in Work:UMS/s. After a few downloads your message base may be rather large and you might want the 'trimnews equivalent for UMS. Well this is it. It is created by the installer. Here is my cleanmb: Expire clive "" ARCHIVE OLD Wait 3 QuitUMS.rexx Wait 3 Copy "Work:UMS/mb/.~(IDcount|hash#?)" TO "Work:UMS/bak" Wait 3 CleanUMS.rexx I have a problem with this :( Everything is fine until it gets to the copy line, as soon as it tries to copy '.text' my system stops dead as the proverbial parrot. So I have deleted the offending line until I find out what is happening. *NEW As of UMSv11.4 CleanMB is now obsolete! See Section on upgrading from v11.3 to v11.4. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CUSTOMIZATION ============= Now you have the basic set-up running, you will probable want to make it your own, with things like different sigs for mail and different news-groups, rnd sigs etc. If you look in UMS-INSTALL:mb you will find two files: MY_UMS.CONFIG: This is a copy of my current config file, it shows how to use SetFolder and other variables. ums.config: This is a copy of the file that you are currently using. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAIL-FOLDERS ------------ If you subscribe to one or more mailing-lists, then you can seperate their emails into their OWN folders. Make's sorting them out a lot easier. Go to Aminet and download: comms/ums/SetFolder1_2.lha *NEW comms/ums/SetFolder1_3.lha then type in a shell: cd HOME:downloads lha x SetFolder1_2.lha ram: copy ram:UMS/bin/#? Work:UMS/ copy ram:UMS/doc/english/#? Work:UMS/doc delete ram:UMS ALL QUIET now RTFM! Done that? Good, now run confums and enter the three SetFolder variables needed. Now edit the 'disconnect' script I supplied earlier in this FAQ and add the following to the bottom of it: SetFolder sysop "" MLIST CheckLen 2000 NOPROGRESS QUIET parent and save it. The next time you do a download, your mail will be neatly sorted into folders :) You could also type this line in a shell to sort out the mail that you already have. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALIASES ------- Do you want to use mail-aliases? Why use aliases? Well, I use one for this faq. My real addr is: clive@tlc1.demon.co.uk however, I use: umsfaq@tlc1.demon.co.uk so that when you mail the above it will be put into it's own folder, so that I can keep it all together. The way to do this is: a) Add an aliase to UULIB:Aliases, ie: umsfaq: clive b) Add the following to your list under 'SetFolder.Folder' in your ums.config with confums: umsfaq Comments "#?umsfaq@tlc1.demon.co.uk#?" and that's it, now any mail addressed to umsfaq will appear in the 'umsfaq' Folder. Simple huh? See MY_UMS.CONFIG for more examples. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- RANDOM SIGS ----------- I use a 3-line fixed-sig followed by a 1-line random bit, thus keeping within the 4-line guideline :) There are a few 'cookie' progs on Aminet (search the INDEX, you have got one have'nt you? ;) None suited my needs, so I wrote a simple little Arexx script to do the job :) To set it up type the following: cd UMS-INSTALL copy rexx/MyLine.rexx Work:UMS/rexx/ copy misc-stuff/lines Work:UMS/rexx/ Now run confums and enter some new variables: IntuiNews.Signature : Either a single-line or multi-line variable, depending on your taste :) IntuiNews.Fortune : SYS:rexxc/rx Work:UMS/rexx/MyLine.rexx ALL DONE :) I guess you will want to alter the rnd-sigs to your taste ;), to do this edit the lines file, it's format is: 1st line = total number of rnd-sigs in numeric form following lines = a rnd-sig per line see the 'lines' file if you're stil confused ;) NOTE: Before you do the above, load UMS-INSTALL:mb/MY_UMS.CONFIG and have a look at how I've set mine up as a guidline. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- DIFFERENT SIGS -------------- In some groups, if you go over 4-line sigs you get flamed, other groups don't like sigs, others don't care. How do you cope with all this? All you do is run confums ;). The above bit on rnd-sigs assumes you use the same sig everywhere to change this, for example sig1 and rnd-sig for all comp.* news groups sig2 for all demon.* groups and sig3 for mail-groups, run confums and enter the following instead: IntuiNews.Signature.comp : "sig1" IntuiNews.Signature.demon : "sig2" IntuiNews.Signature.Mail : "sig3" IntuiNews.Fortune.comp : SYS:rexxc/rx Work:UMS/rexx/MyLine.rexx "sig1", "sig2" and "sig3" can be either single or multi-line variables to taste. This principle applies to all IntuiNews variables, which means you could have different 'ReplyTo's etc. for different news/mail groups. In the above example, if I'd have missed of the ".comp" from Fortune then ALL the sigs would be followed by the rnd-sig. NOTE: Usually, "-- " appears on the line before a sig, I have'nt found how to do this yet in IntuiNews, so I put it in the IntuiNews.Signature by using a multi-line :) Again see UMS-INSTALL:mb/MY_UMS.CONFIG. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHAMELESS PLUG -------------- Are you at present using phil's excellent Plink2.1 script for connecting to Demon? Do you want to use it for UMS? Well, I've some good-news for ya... I've converted it, so that it can cope with UMS as well, here's the new command line: clink help |gui |[ [noclock] [logmail] [nomailkick] [nolog] [nocheckcon] [noretry] [logstat]] Short: clink ? |gui |[ [NT] [LM] [NM] [NL] [NC] [NR] [LS]] FEATURES: * It's called CLink (Clive's link ;) * Now has a GUI :) * You can specify a different newserver per session from the GUI. * Multiple retry to connect to newsserver. * Finger and save demon's motd and status (if it's new!). * Reduced size to approx 35k (was about 47k). * Removed speech and the batchfile options as I have never used them ;). * Can now cope with UMS/NNTP and others can easily be 'plugged in'. * Seperated auto from news so that you can 'auto ums' or 'auto news'. The modified script is in testing at the moment, hpefully it should be made public by the middle of July. If you want to be a beta-tester for it please email: clink@tlc1.demon.co.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADDRESS-BOOK ------------ Do you regularily email friends/foes/mailing-lists? If so instead of typing their address all the time you can simply click on it :) If you load up: Work:UMS/reader/IntuiNews/IntuiNews.Addresses into your favourite ed you can edit it to your heart's content, ie add your mailing-lists you're subscribed to. I have included the ones I'm on as examples. If you're not subscribed DO NOT mail them, if you want to join email me or ask around for the subscription address. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CREDITS ======= Matthias Scheler : tron@lyssa.owl.de The programmer of IntuiNews. Stefan Becker : stefanb@yello.ping.de The programmer of the umsrfc package. Doug Smith : Doug@defocus.demon.co.uk What can I say, but Thanks. With the help of his original FAQ, I was able to get UMS up and running ]ain Hibbard : plunky@skate.demon.co.uk He has also provided invaluable help in getting things up and running, and answering my queries. Phil Stewart-Jones : phil@curve.demon.co.uk The author of Plink2.1, and has contributed so much to Demon user's --------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHERE AM I? =========== If you have any comments/suggestions send me an email at: umsfaq@tlc1.demon.co.uk or click on it in the address book provided when you click mail :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------