[Pan-users] Re: Pn 0.97 won't start

[Duncan]

"Alex van niel" <address@hidden>
posted address@hidden,
excerpted below, on  Thu, 18 May 2006 11:21:19 +0200:

> AlexHi,<br><br>I have allready filed a bug report on this but wanted to
> know if more people are experiencing the same problem. As soon as I
> start 0.96 or 0.97 I get a symbol lookup error. This is on an Ubuntu
> Breezy 5.10 system. The program doesn't start, all I get is this error
> and nothing else happens. <br><br>The bug report I filed can be found
> here with some more details: <a
> href="http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=342109";>http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=342109</a><br><br>I
> was using 0.95 until I upgraded to 0.96/0.97 which don't work for me.
> <br><br>Also, when downloading (with 0.95) binaries sometimes an article
> is downloaded but never saved. I have had this happen to me a couple of
> times and since I am on a pay server, this is quite frustrating since it
> costed me money to download something that I never got to use. This is
> the main reason why I stopped using Pan for now and am having to resort
> to GrabIt under Wine :( . I'd rather use Pan but if it means playing
> russian roulette with my payed account, I'd rather use some M$ based
> program. So, is this a known problem or a new problem all together?
> <br><br>Cheers,<br><br>Alex<br>

OK, this may seem overly harsh, but please don't take it wrong.  Just...
do it  a bit different next time, please?  The below answers your
questions, but also explains a bit about what could have been done a bit
differently... better.  No harm in doing it wrong, if you learn from it
and put that to use the next time.  Deal?  =8^)

First, please kill the HTML.  Many consider it a security hazard, and
those that use it either spammers looking to exploit web bugs or the like,
or malware looking to exploit that sort of bug, or AOLer newbie types who
don't care about the possible carnage such risky behavior can cause. As
such, many either wouldn't see your message at all, due to the HTML
causing it to get snared in the spam/malware filter, and others may simply
killfile anyone who uses it out of principle.  I do at least try to tell
someone how offensive it is, first, and only killfile them if they
continue with it. You use PAN, you likely know it doesn't do HTML. There's
a reason for that, yet you post HTML to the pan list. Doesn't that seem a
bit to you like slapping the people you are asking to help you, in the
face?  So anyway, next time, please, no HTML.  Nearly all mail and news
clients have the ability to turn off HTML if you choose to do so.

That slice error is indeed a known issue.  I figured that's what it was
before I even clicked the link, as others on your distribution have
already posted the problem.  (BTW, it's normally considered basic
netiquette to read a list's archive if available, as is this one on the
pan site, before posting what might have already been covered.)  The
problem isn't with PAN per se, but with the older version of gtk on your
distribution.  Presumably, you are using a prepackaged deb rather than
compiling it from source, or it would match what you have, since it
detects that at compile time.  The problem in this case was that the
packager used a newer gtk when he compiled it, one not on the older
version of the distribution you are using.  With 0.98, the problem should
be corrected, as he's aware of it now.  0.98 should be out this weekend,
BTW.

As for the download-no-save issue with 0.95, depending on the bug you were
seeing, it's likely been fixed or will be for 0.98, which should be out
this weekend.

BTW, if you just want a stable, working news client, try the older pan
0.14.x versions.  As the pan site says, the 0.9x series is a fast-moving
beta series, not to be considered stable yet by any means.  It has some
new features (better multi-server support and better memory management
being the biggest ones), but it's not yet anywhere near stable.  If you
just want stable, the 0.14.x series will be better for you.  The 0.9x (to
soon be the 0.10x) series is more for those willing to compile from source
(if necessary) and put in the bug reports early in the weekly cycle, so
the fixes can hopefully appear in the next weekly release.  Those wanting
stable, stick with the tried and true 0.14.x series, for now.

Oh, if you have KDE installed, you may also want  to try klibido, for
binary-only downloading.  It's another alternative, probably at this point
a bit more stable than pan 0.9x series and handles multi-servers better
than pan 0.14 series, and functions amazingly efficiently as a binary
downloader, but /only/ does binary downloading, and of course requires the
KDE libraries (and possibly parts of kdebase), which might be a big
negative if you don't have them installed for other programs.

Hope that helps, and that I didn't scare you off being TOO negative. =8^)



-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman