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FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) SlipKnot V. 1.0 through 1.50 This file is designed for solving SlipKnot problems, not for tips on general usage. Please skim the file for areas of interest before wading in. Updated on Feb. 26, 1996 for Version 1.50 Updated on Dec. 8, 1995 for Version 1.40 Updated on Oct. 1, 1995 for Version 1.13 Updated on July 27, 1995 for Version 1.12 Updated on June 11, 1995 for Version 1.11 Updated on Apr. 26, 1995 for Version 1.10 Updated on Mar. 26, 1995 for Version 1.08 (beta) Updated on Mar. 6, 1995 for Version 1.07 (beta) Updated on Feb. 10, 1995 Updated on Jan. 30, 1995 for Version 1.05 (beta) Updated on Dec. 15, 1994 for Version 1.0 Created on Dec. 4, 1994 by the MicroMind SlipKnot folks. ======================= Problems -- Table of Contents. -- Update news and upgrading instructions -- Introduction -- Section 1. What you need before getting SlipKnot -- Section 2. Problems in getting SlipKnot and running SETUP -- Section 3. Problems when starting SlipKnot for the first time -- Section 4. Configuring SlipKnot Terminal and testing the settings -- Section 5. Problems in "Initializing the Host" or when pressing the World Wide Web button -- Section 6. Problems in SlipKnot Web -- Section 7. Current SlipKnot limitations and peculiarities -- Section 8. Miscellaneous Communications Problems -- Section 9. Problem with SlipKnot Terminal -- Appendix 1. Choosing and setting up a UNIX prompt. -- Appendix 2. "Initializing the Host" manually -- Appendix 3. If this document does not help solve the problem ======================== Upgrading to Version 1.50 =============== === Upgrade Method 1 === If your version of SlipKnot is working and you are normally able to retrieve large documents in SlipKnot Web, then retrieve the SlipKnot What's New Page. There's a link to it in the SlipKnot Local Home Page which you can use, but here's the location anyway: http://www.interport.net/slipknot/whatsnew.html You will find easy upgrade instructions on the What's New Page. ==== Upgrade Method 2 === If you are having problems with SlipKnot, then 1. retrieve the following file using anonymous FTP: site: interport.net directory: /pub/pbrooks/slipknot file: snup150.zip or site: ftp.netcom.com directory: /pub/pb/pbrooks/slipknot file: snup150.zip 2. Place the snup150.zip file into your \SLIPKNOT\UPGRADE directory 3. Terminate SlipKnot completely 4. In the Windows SlipKnot group of icons, there is a "NEW" icon, which should perform the complete upgrade for you. If this fails, then unzip the snup150.zip file (making sure that there are no CRC errors, and if there are errors, then *do not* try to fix them in any way -- try to retrieve the file again). Place the unzipped contents of the upgrade file into your \SLIPKNOT directory, overwriting some older files there. Then, using an ASCII editor, edit the \SLIPKNOT\SLIPKNOT.INI file to change the version number inside to 1.50 If you are having trouble upgrading using SlipKnot's NEW icon, then: 1. Unzip the SNUP150.ZIP file into a temporary directory. Make sure that there are NO unzipping errors. If there are, try a different unzipping program (we recommend PKUNZIP 2.04c or later), or try retrieving the file again in case there were any downloading problems. 2. Copy the resultant unzipped files into your \SLIPKNOT directory. ===================== Introduction If you are having a problem with SlipKnot recognizing your UNIX prompt, please see the Appendix on this topic. Although installation has gone smoothly in most cases, there have, of course, been some problems. This file is designed to address the most common problems in installing and using SlipKnot, and some of its current limitations. We have tried to make this document cover as many as possible of the problems that we have heard of, hence it is long. We urge you to read this FAQ and check with the Usenet group comp.infosystems.www.users before sending us email fo support. If you know of others interested in SlipKnot, we ask your help in posting this document *locally* to help others. If you are in contact with your UNIX system administrator, feel free to send this document to that person. Since SlipKnot tries to run on a large variety of differently configured PCs connected to a large variety of different UNIX systems, many of the problems below are rare, but are listed because someone has reported them. Choose the section below where you are having a problem -- it is not necessary to read this entire document. In any case, we know the frustration of software installations, and apologize in advance if the problem is due to SlipKnot. NOTE: If you are using a beta version of SlipKnot (prior to Version 1.0), then we strongly urge you to upgrade to version 1.50. -- we no longer support any beta versions. Particularly, if you are using Version 0.53, (a version with many problems), your best bet for solving its problems is a complete re-installation. Retrieve the latest version file using anonymous FTP from: ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/win3/internet/slnot150.zip then remove all files inside your \SLIPKNOT directory and all of its subdirectories, before re-installing. NOTE: If you are having trouble, one of the best ways of receiving help is to ask other SlipKnot users on your UNIX system (possibly by posting a question to a local newsgroup). Since each UNIX system is slightly different from all others, we at MicroMind may not know about such problems, and local people might already have solved the problem you are experiencing. ======================= Section 1. What you need before getting SlipKnot: You must have a PC running some flavor of Windows, and a subscription (account) on a UNIX system. At this time, you MUST be calling up your UNIX system using a modem (no direct connections are supported in Version 1.0). On your PC: -- A 386, 486, or Pentium PC running Windows 3.1+, or Windows for Workgroups, or Windows NT, or Windows 95. OS/2-Win is now supported in Version 1.11 or later. -- SlipKnot WILL NOT currently run on: -- Mac running SoftWindows (because, we are told, SoftWindows emulates a 286 processor, and SlipKnot requires a 386. SlipKnot may run on the hardware-based 386-enahnced "Houdini" processors, but we have not gotten any reports. -- Windows should be running in 386 Enhanced mode. If you are not sure whether yours is, then launch Windows, and in the Program Manager, press the menu item Help and the About Program Manager. At the bottom of that small screen is an indication of the Windows Mode, which should read: "Enhanced Mode". If it does not, you must change the way Windows is launched. On your Host: -- Your Host MUST be running UNIX (SlipKnot will not work with VAX/VMS) -- You must have a shell account with your host. You cannot be trapped inside a menu or inside a program. You must be able to get to a UNIX shell prompt from which you can execute any program of your choice. NOTE: many "freenets" do not offer shell access to their subscribers, choosing instead to provide program access via menus -- SlipKnot will not work with such systems. -- Your Host's UNIX system must have either the lynx or www program available. The lynx program MUST be called "lynx". If your system only has a single World Wide Web program called "www", make sure that it is not really the lynx program in disguise, by trying to execute the following command from your UNIX prompt: www -version If you get a message indicating that you are running some version of lynx, then you must create a "pseudo-command" called lynx which will execute your www program. The reason is that the official "www" program is different from lynx, and SlipKnot will get confused if one masquerades as the other. -- If you are not sure whether your UNIX system has lynx or www available, then execute: lynx -version or www from your UNIX prompt. If either works, then choose the appropriate one in your SlipKnot Terminal Setup/Host screen. -- If you are going to be using lynx, then make sure that it's version is at least 2.2 (and preferably 2-4-2 or 2.4-FM or later). Versions of lynx prior to 2.2 will prevent SlipKnot from retrieving pictures. Versions of lynx prior to 2.3.7 may, under some circumstances, cause other unspecified difficulties. -- If you are using SlipKnot 1.0, then your UNIX system must have a program to download files using either the Xmodem or Ymodem protocol. If you are using SlipKnot 1.05 or later, then you may also use either Zmodem or Kermit. You will need to know what the correct command is for your UNIX system for initiating a download procedure using the protocol of your choice, for downloading *binary* files. 1.1 -- The "Exclusive in Foreground" setting: In Windows 3.1, there is a setting in the Windows Control Panel that affects SlipKnot's background operations. Go to the Windows Main group, launch Control Panel, go to the "386 Enhanced" settings. There should be a checkbox called "Exclusive in Foreground". This box should be unchecked! If it is unchecked, then everything is OK. If it is checked, then uncheck it, save the setting by pressing OK, terminate Windows, and then come back into Windows and make sure it remains unchecked! We have heard of systems where this is a difficult box to uncheck (it seems to want to remain set). If all else fails (the box insists on remaining checked), then you will have to force this setting manually by using an ASCII editor to edit the SYSTEM.INI file in the \WINDOWS directory. Exit Windows. Edit the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI file. Therein you will find a setting: "WinExclusive=1". Change this to: "WinExclusive=0". Save the file and go into Windows Control Panel to make sure that the box is, in fact, unchecked. On your UNIX system: -- You must have a "shell" account on your UNIX system. This means that when you log in, there is a prompt and you type commands. Menu-based accounts are not supported (where you choose your activities by selecting items from lists). If you have a menu-based system, which allows you access to a shell prompt -- then that's all right -- as long as you can get to a shell prompt. -- Your UNIX system must have either the program "lynx" (Version 2.2 or later) or the program "www" available for your use. How to test: -- Try to execute: "lynx" from the shell prompt. If it works, you should see a page of information, and you can exit lynx by pressing "q". To find out the version of lynx, execute: "lynx -version" from the prompt. If it indicates a version of lynx prior to 2.2, then SlipKnot will not be able to retrieve binary files (e.g. pictures), and you may want to get your UNIX system to upgrade its version of lynx (see next paragraph). You can find current versions of lynx for a variety of UNIX systems at the following site: ftp2.cc.ukans.edu in the directory or subdirectories below: /pub/WWW/lynx If you are not quite familiar with your UNIX system, you should probably try to get someone else who is to retrieve and install the appropriate current version. -- If lynx is not available, try executing "www". If it works, please make sure that this "www" is not just another name for "lynx" ("www" is, in fact, a completely different program unrelated to "lynx", but on some systems, "www" just executes the "lynx" program). To test whether "www" has been aliased to bring up "lynx", execute: "www -version". You may get a short explanation which indicates that this a version of lynx. If not, then you are probably working with a legitimate copy of "www", and that's fine. If "www" turns out to be really a version of "lynx", then you must try to find out a way to execute this program by typing "lynx" instead of "www" (this is called "unaliasing"), and if you do not know how to do this, then the best bet is to try asking someone who knows. -- Your UNIX system must be able to send *binary* files to your PC (download) using any one of the protocols: Xmodem, Xmodem-CRC, Xmodem-1K or Ymodem-Batch, Zmodem or Kermit. You should also be able to upload files using these X Y or Zmodem or Kermit protocols, but it is not absolutely necessary for SlipKnot to be able to do so. If you do not know whether your UNIX system has this capability, try to ask someone knowledgeable, and in particular, ask what the appropriate commands are to launch one of these file transfer programs. Then install these appropriate commands in the Setup/Host screen. If your UNIX system does not have X or Ymodem file transfer programs, there are versions of these programs available on the Internet, but it may require a person knowledgeable with your UNIX system to install a version. ================= Section 2. Problems in getting SlipKnot and running SETUP 2.1 -- Unzipping problems: MOST IMPORTANT: If, after downloading the slnot150.zip file, you have errors in unzipping (say, CRC errors), then the file you have may be corrupted. If so, DO NOT proceed to either install or try to fix up the file (with programs like zipfix). SlipKnot will cause untold errors if its files are corrupted and then installed. -- If you unzipped slnot150.zip on your UNIX system, and then tried to download the resultant files -- don't. Download slnot150.zip to your PC first and unzip there. This is because the unzipping programs on UNIX may not unzip the file correctly. -- If you had unzipping problems on your PC, this may be caused by an incompatibility between your unzip program and slnot150.zip. Try to obtain and use the DOS program PKUNZIP (version 2.04). This program is available on most bulletin boards since the majority of the world's posted PC software is in zipped form using PKZIP as the standard. -- If you have used PKUNZIP, and there are still errors, then the problem occurred in downloading the file (file is legitimately corrupted). The problem either occurred in using anonymous FTP to download the file to your UNIX system (if you retrieved the file from the Internet) or in the process of downloading the file to your PC. -- FTP problems: the transfer must be in binary. Here is a sample session for transferring the file from one of SlipKnot's distribution sites (comments and FTP responses in UPPER CASE, your commands in lower case). ftp open oak.oakland.edu (MESSAGES FROM OAKLAND) LOGIN: anonymous PASSWORD: (enter your email address here) cd /SimTel/win3/internet binary hash get slnot150.zip (PROGRESS REPORT SHOWING FILE COMING IN) quit -- Downloading to PC problems: this process MUST ALSO be in binary mode, not ASCII, and the commands for this process are dependent upon both your PC comm program and the commands to trigger a binary download from your UNIX system. If you suspect that this may be the source of the problem, try to check with someone else on your UNIX system as to which commands to start for *binary* downloads. 2.2 -- SETUP problems: Once you have successfully unzipped slnot150.zip into a temporary directory (say, C:\TEMP), run Windows, and from the Program Manager, press File/Run and indicate there the path and name of the SETUP.EXE file (e.g. C:\TEMP\SETUP). -- Problem: You see "Initializing Setup", and then...nothing happens. The most probable cause of this is a corrupted slnot150.zip file or other problems in unzipping it. See the prior section (2.1) on these problems. We have heard that there may be an incompatibilty between SlipKnot's SETUP program and a program called VSAFE (or vsave?). When VSAFE is loaded, SETUP may not run successfully. Once VSAFE is unloaded, then SETUP may run. -- Problem: You get a message to the effect that DDEML.DLL cannot be copied. This is usually just a warning message and you can go continue installing. If instead, SETUP stops at this point, then: exit Windows, find your existent DDEML.DLL file in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM or \WINDOWS directory, rename the file to some other name (like DDEML.BAK), run Windows again and start the SETUP process again -- SlipKnot should then install its own DDEML.DLL file. -- Problem: You get a message to the effect that either CMDIALOG.VBX or THREED.VBX is out of date. Exit Windows, find the offending file (either CMDIALOG.VBX or THREED.VBX) in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM or \WINDOWS directory, rename the file to some other name (say, CMDIALOG.BAK or THREED.BAK), then run Windows again, and run SETUP again. ================= Section 3. Problems in running SlipKnot for the first time 3.1 -- Problem: a General Protection Fault occurs when you launch SlipKnot. -- Did you have any problems/errors in unzipping? If so, remove all files from your \SLIPKNOT directory and see section 2.1 above. -- Check your \SLIPKNOT directory to see if you have any files there whose names end in "_" (e.g. PDQCOM21.VB_). If so, then SETUP did not successfully uncompress these SlipKnot files. You will have to uncompress them one-by-one (or you can try running SETUP again to do the job). To uncompress the files, use the DOS program EXPAND.EXE (should already be available on your drive). Here's how to uncompress one of these files: Suppose the file to uncompress is PDQCOM21.VB_. Look up the suffix ("VB_") in the list below (you will find: "VBX"), then uncompress this file with the command: EXPAND PDQCOM21.VB_ PDQCOM21.VBX After successfully expanding the file, delete the original (PDQCOM21.VB_). The following is a list of the compressed suffixes and their matching uncompressed suffixes: Compressed Uncompressed ---------- ------------ .BA_ .BAK .BM_ .BMP .DL_ .DLL .EX_ .EXE .GI_ .GIF .HL_ .HLP .HS_ .HST .HT_ .HTM .IC_ .ICO .IN_ .INI .PI_ .PIF .TX_ .TXT .VB_ .VBX .WA_ .WAV 3.2 -- Problem: You get a message to the effect that SlipKnot cannot set your Terminal font to any known font. This is usually caused by a bad or corrupted SNTERM.INI file in your \SLIPKNOT directory. This is what that file should look like (if it doesn't, then copy the section between the two lines and recreate SNTERM.INI): --------------------- start of SNTERM.INI lines [Terminal] FontName=Courier New FontSize=9 BackColor=0 ForeColor=15 FontBold=0 Emulation=4 [Communications] CommPort=2 ModemInit=AT &F E1 V1 L1 S0=0 ModemHangup=,,,+++,,,,,,,ATH^M Connect=CONNECT Disconnect=NO CARRIER IsPulse=0 [Host] HostName=SAMPLE [Global] ------------------ end of SNTERM.INI lines -- If you still get this Font-related message, then make sure you have the "Courier New" font available. If not, then change the line "Fontname=Courier New" to some other font that you do have, and change the line "Fontsize=9" to a size available for the font you have chosen. 3.3 -- Problem: In version 1.05, if you get a "STACK OVERFLOW" message when bringing up the SlipKnot Terminal Setup/Communication screen: see section 8.1 below. ========== Section 4. Configuring SlipKnot Terminal and testing the settings If you have not read SlipKnot Help on Terminal Configuration, then do so (press on the Help menu item, and go to the topic: Terminal Configuration). You will find explanations there that solve many problems. 4.1 -- Problem: You are connected to your UNIX system through a serial line without a modem. SlipKnot does not seem to connect. Reason: SlipKnot Version 1.0 does not yet support direct serial connections. The next version should. 4.2 -- Problem: SlipKnot does not seem to dial correctly, or does not reach the dialing stage. If you have another communuications program that works successfully, then copy the "modem initialization string" from that program into the SlipKnot screen: Setup/Communications. 4.3 -- Problem: After SlipKnot dials and connects with the other modem, you see garbage on the screen. Most likely reason: wrong number of data bits or wrong parity set in the Setup/Host screen. If you are on a 7-bit line connection to your Host, SlipKnot does not yet support 7-bit connections. The next version should. 4.4 -- Problem: You are using the script-based login, and when the script finishes, SlipKnot waits for a while, and then logs off. This is most likely caused by SlipKnot not recognizing your UNIX prompt. See Appendix 1 below for a discussion on setting your UNIX prompt. 4.5 -- Problem: When SlipKnot starts up or when it connects to your UNIX system, you get a General Protection Fault involving PDQCOM21.VBX. If so, try changing the Terminal Emulation (inside the Setup/Host screen) to ANSI if it was VT100. =============== Section 5. Problems in "Initializing the Host" or when pressing the World Wide Web button This is where many problems can occur, because it is only at this point theat SlipKnot is actually trying to do work with your UNIX system. Most of these problems have to do with setting up the screen: Setup/Host. There is a quick way of getting the right settings: try to find another person on your UNIX system who is successfully using SlipKnot, (and doing so with the same shell [Bourne, C-shell, Korn shell, etc.] that you use). If you can find such a person, ask for a copy of that person's Host file. That is a file in the \SLIPKNOT directory with the suffix: .HST that contains all of the settings for this UNIX host. These files are in ASCII-readable format and can be transfered from person to person. NOTE: these .HST files DO NOT contain the login ID and password, so they are safe to copy and distribute. If you have tried the various suggestions below with no success, it is possible that the particular technique that SlipKnot uses to initialize your host is faulty for your UNIX system. There is a manual method of initializing your host, detailed in Appendix 2. Please note that this is a last resort mechanism and we do not guarantee that it will work successfully (but worth a try). 5.1 -- Problem: an error message occurs: SlipKnot does not recognize your UNIX prompt or your UNIX directory is not writable. -- This is usually caused by one of the two problems mentioned in the error message. For recognizing the UNIX prompt problem, see Appendix 1 below. For the other problem (writable directory), see 5.2 below. 5.2 -- Problem: an error message occurs concerning the "noclobber" setting. See the discussion in SlipKnot Help (topic: "noclobber"). 5.3 -- Problem: SlipKnot tries, unsuccessfully, to initialize your Host, and then presents a message that the Host could not be initialized. -- This is most likely a problem with file downloading (though it could be caused by the "noclobber" issue -- in which case see section 5.2 above). If it not a "noclobber" problem, see 5.3.1 below. 5.3.1 -- Inside Setup/Host, you chose a file transfer protocol (Xmodem-1K or Ymodem-Batch, or...) and also the UNIX command that starts file transfers using that protocol. It is likely that the command in Setup/Host is not correct for your UNIX system. For instance: if you chose Xmodem-1K, then SlipKnot will try to use the UNIX command "sx -k {filename}" to get your UNIX system to send a file using the Xmodem-1K protocol. Your UNIX system may not have the "sx" program and may be using a different program for Xmodem file transfers instead. If you can find out what the proper command is for this protocol, then install it in the Setup/Host screen (make sure you include the "{filename}" string for where to put the filename when the program actually executes). NOTE: make sure you choose a UNIX command that starts *binary* file transfers. NOTE: some modems have the capability to use compression, and if you are having file transfer problems, occasionally this may be the cause. So, try turning modem compression off. Modem compression is turned on and off using modem commands in the Modem Init String (this is settable in Setup/Communications). Please check your modem manual for the proper command to turn compression on and off (for instance, on the Supra FAXModem 28.8, the command to turn compression off is %C0) -- You can test whether downloading works by trying to download a small file using the menu item: Communcations/Get File from Host. If that fails, then the transfer command is either incorrect, or your UNIX system does not have any program that supports the chosen protocol. -- If downloading does not work, try a different protocol (if you used Xmodem-1K, try Ymodem-Batch, or vice versa). 5.3.2 -- If downloading works, but Initializing Host does not, then there may be a fix in a patched version of some of the SlipKnot files. These files can be obtained from the following source by anonymous FTP: site: interport.net directory: /pub/pbrooks/slipknot file: look for the latest file starting with the letters: "snt". NOTE: the filename of the patch indicates with SlipKnot version it is meant to fix. For instance, the "snt107c.zip" file is the "C" patch meant for SlipKnot version 1.07. Therefore, you must already be using version 1.07 to install it. DO NOT install a patch file that is meant for a different (particularly a previous) version. Also: if there are several patch files meant for the same SlipKnot version (e.g. snt107a.zip, snt107b.zip), you only need the one with the highest letter -- it incorporates all previous fixes. Once you have downloaded the patch file, unzip it, and make sure that there are no unzipping errors. If there ARE unzipping errors, try to unzip the file with another unzip program (we prefer PKUNZIP version 2.04 or later). DO NOT use some sort of a zipfixing program if there are errors, this will only introduce mysterious problems later. You should find a READ.ME file with instructions on installation therein. -- A rare problem occurs on some machines with the two shell scripts that SlipKnot places into your UNIX directory during Initialization. The shell scripts are called: ".slipcommand" and ".slipgeturl". After SlipKnot deposits these shell scripts on your UNIX system, it tries to make these scripts "executable". Please check to see if, in fact, these scripts exist and that they are executable. Here's how: execute the following commands at your UNIX prompt: ls -l .slipcommand and ls -l .slipgeturl In both cases, you should get a line of information indicating that the file in question exists, and at the beginning of each line there should be the string: "-rwx ...". If the files do not exist, then try Initializing your host again (use the menu item: Setup/Initialize Host). If the "x" in "rwx" does not exist, then execute the following two commands at your UNIX prompt: chmod u+x .slipcommand chmod u+x .slipgeturl ================= Section 6. Problems in SlipKnot Web At this point, you have gone through Host initialization successfully, and using, or about to use SlipKnot Web. 6.1 -- Problem: when running SlipKnot Web for the first time, it successfully takes its time in "analyzing your fonts", but then a red windows appears, saying "Analyzing" and nothing else happens. The most probable cause is the "Exclusive in Foreground" Windows setting. See Section 1.1. You should also check, in your Main Windows Group/Control Panel/ 386 Enhanced, that in the Scheduling box: the Windows in Foreground setting is approximately 100, and the Windows in Background setting is approximately 50. 6.2 -- Problem: an error message appears: "Cannot analyze document ()". At this point, SlipKnot is trying to display the document SLIPKNOT.HTM which should be located inside your \SLIPKNOT directory. Please check that it is there. If it is not, but you do find a file called: SLIPKNOT.HT_ then refer to Section 3.1. If it is there, then try to remember whether there were any errors in unzipping the original slnot150.zip file. If there were, then see Section 2.1. If there were no unzipping errors, then see Section 1.1. We have also heard of problems of this type when using 4DOS, an alternative to COMMAND.COM. 6.3 -- Problem: you can get some small documents from the Internet, but larger documents fail to come in. Downloading always fails at some particular number of bytes downloaded (say, 12288). If this happens for X or Ymodem protocols, and you are using version 1.0, then upgrade to version 1.1 which now supports Zmodem and Kermit. See the section on upgrading above. If you are using Zmodem (see the Setup/Host screen), and you are using as a download command: sz -b {filename} then try the following modification of that command: sz -beL 1024 -l 1024 {filename} (by the way, the third argument above is dash-EL, not dash-I). 6.4 -- Problem: you get a message: "Unable to display this file as a Web document". SlipKnot does not recognize the beginning of the document as a valid HTML document. Technical note: It currently looks for the following strings: "<html>", "<head>" and "<title>". If these are not found, then SlipKnot concludes (possibly mistakenly) that this is not a valid HTML file, and gives that message. Version 1.1 is now less strict (rejects fewer documents). If you are using 1.0, it would be wise to upgrade. 6.5 -- Problem: SlipKnot Web crashes: if this happens, you will still be able to go back to SlipKnot Terminal by pressing Ctrl-Esc and choosing SlipKnot Terminal or SNTERM. Once back in the Terminal, you may find the keyboard locked (try typing a couple of characters). If so, use the menu item: Debug/Unfeeeze Keyboard. At this point, you should be able to type, or disconnect, or be able to go back to SlipKnot Web (and your previously retrieved documents will still be in your History session, re-dislayable by pressing the icon with the circular arrow). 6.6 -- Problem: SlipKnot Web crashes while trying to display a document and messes up the screen. This can happen when the document has a huge number of pictures in it (sometimes a document author will use a small picture for each bulletted item over and over again). In this case, exit SlipKnot Web, disconnect, exit SlipKnot, exit Windows. 6.7 -- Problem: SlipKnot Web indicates that "you are not connected to the Host" while trying to retrieve a document. Exit SlipKnot Web back to the Terminal, use Debug/Unfreeze keyboard if the keyboard is locked. Try to see if your UNIX system is responding. If not, disconnect and re-connect. Some UNIX systems will log you off if there is no activity for a given period of time. SlipKnot tries to prevent this if you have checked the box in Setup/Host that says: "Tickle host every minute". This does not always work. 6.8 -- Problem: The document title appears twice. This is not really a problem but rather a design choice on the part of the document author. The author has chosen to use the same words in both the document title and its primary header, and SlipKnot displays both. 6.9 -- Problem: you get the message: "Unable to retrieve document". Often this has nothing to do with SlipKnot. This message may result from one of the following possibilities: -- The document address was misspelled (mispelled?), therefore there is no such document. -- The document has been moved, and left no forwarding address. -- The Internet is busy (this happens more and more frequently), and SlipKnot is unable to get through. -- The computer that the document resides on is busy or down. -- The document came through partly, but there was an error in the downloading process. If so, see Section 5.3.1, particularly concerning *binary* file transfers. To test whether the document is really out there, you can go back to SlipKnot Terminal temporarily, and try to retrieve the document using either lynx or www (whichever you chose in the Setup/Host screen). To do this, you'll need to know the document URL (Universal Resource Locator, or simply: its address). You can find out the addresses of the most recent documents you tried to retrieve using the Navigate/Retrieve from Internet menu item, and the drop-down list will show you the last 10 addresses. Copy down the address of the problem document (for instance: "http://service/path/filename.html"), go back to SlipKnot Terminal temporarily, and try to retrieve the document using lynx or www in the following way: lynx http://service/path/filename.html or www http:///service/path/filename.html If lynx or www can retrieve it, try it in SlipKnot Web again. If it fails again, then the problem is somewhere in SlipKnot, otherwise it's an address or Internet problem. 6.10 -- Problem: you get the message: "document too large". Under some circumstances, SlipKnot may not be able to handle a very large document or a document with a very large picture. 6.11 -- Problem: SlipKnot Web has lost the list of your personal Folders. Upgrade to version 1.1 or later (if you are not already running it). Launch SlipKnot Web, and bring up the Documents/Folders dialog box. There is a button: "Find lost folders". This will recreate access to your folders, although the original names from them will be lost. You can then look into each of the new folders (you should see the documents and bookmarks that you've saved there), and use the Folders dialog box button "Edit" to rename the Folders, one-by-one. 6.12 -- SlipKnot Web problems with the Diamond Stealth 64 card (or possibly other Diamond Stealth cards): One of our users reports that there is a small icon in Diamond Stealth's "Control Tools", which, when visible prevents SlipKnot Web from launching. His suggestion is to make sure that this icon is not visible (and presumably, therefore, not active). ========== Section 7. Current SlipKnot limitations and peculiarities. 7.1 -- SlipKnot does not do news, or WAIS. These are available through SlipKnot Terminal using common UNIX commands which are probably already better than SlipKnot would have given you. 7.4 -- SlipKnot Web windows are too small. You can resize these windows, just like any other window. ========== Section 8. Miscellaneous Communications Problems 8.1 -- When bringing up the Setup/Communications screen, the error message: "Out of Stack Space" appears. This is a mysterious problem occurring on some systems as a result of the upgrade to 1.05. All of the settings that would normally appear on this Setup/Communications screen can actually be set with an ASCII editor, editing the \SLIPKNOT\SNTERM.INI file. This screen allows changes to the serial line modem control strings, and if SlipKnot worked in 1.0, you may not need to make any changes to this screen anyway. However, here are the lines in then \SLIPKNOT\SNTERM.INI file that this screen controls: [Communications] CommPort=1 ModemInit=AT &F2 E1 V1 L1 S0=0 ModemHangup=,,,+++,,,,,,ATH^M Connect=CONNECT Disconnect=NO CARRIER IsPulse=0 Ismodem=-1 ModemBusy=BUSY ModemReset=ATZ^M Most of the lines above are straightforward in meaning, except perhaps the IsPulse and IsModem lines. On these lines, "0" means NO, and "-1" means "YES", therefore in the above lines, IsPulse is off (meaning that the telephone line is Touch-Tone, not Pulse), and Ismodem is on, meaning that there is a modem (rather than a direct serial connection without modem). 8.2 -- SlipKnot can no longer connect to the other modem -- it times out too quickly. This is fixed in 1.1. Try: In the Setup/Host screen, turn off the Retry if Busy check box, then save the settings, and try to connect. If it works, then you should be able to turn that setting back on. 8.3 -- When uploading a file using Communications/Send file to Host, SlipKnot says that it succeeded but the resultant file on UNIX is too small, and just contains a single character: "a". This is fixed in 1.1. If you asked SlipKnot to upload a file, (for instance, the "REGIST.TXT" file), SlipKnot may create two different files on your UNIX system: "regist.txt" and "REGIST.TXT", where "regist.txt" just contains the "a" character, while "REGIST.TXT" contains the full information that you wanted to send. NOTE: Unlike DOS, UNIX filenames are case-sensitive, so two files with different capitalization in their names can coexist inside a single UNIX directory. 8.4 -- When uploading a file using Zmodem, the file transfer sometimes fails. Not only does uploading fail, but it is possible that the Terminal is frozen after a failed upload attempt (you can type, but cannot see what yiou are typing, and you may get a mysterious "QuickWin Application Error" message). If this happens, you MUST disconnect and exit from SlipKnot, and then re-launch SlipKnot so that SlipKnot can recover from this error. Then try to use a different file transfer protocol (see next paragraph). Possible fix: change the default Zmodem upload command from "rz -b" to just "rz" without the "-b". This is know to fix uploading problems on some versions of UNIX zmodem (e.g. the one at Netcom). As of Version 1.13, you can now choose a different upload file transfer protocol. Inside the screen: Setup/Host, choose a different Send (upload) file transfer. If you have been using Zmodem, then try Xmodem-1K or, better yet, Kermit. You should, however, have some knowledge that your UNIX system supports the protocol that you are trying and that the command that SlipKnot uses for that protocol is correct. For instance, SlipKnot's default UNIX command for Kermit is "kermit -i -r". You can edit this command, if your UNIX system uses some other command to make kermit receive a file. ========== Section 9. Problems with SlipKnot Terminal 9.1 -- You get a GPF (General Protection Fault) naming the PDQCOM2R program. This can be caused by a number of things: 1. Your UNIX system sent some invisible screen control codes that SlipKnot Terminal was unable to interpret. Workaround: change the Terminal emulation in Setup/Host, particularly if you are using VT100 (best bet: change it to ANSI). After doing so, make sure to tell your UNIX system that you have changed your terminal emulation (say, to ansi). 2. On some video cards, SlipKnot Terminal will only work in 256 color mode (not thousands or millions of colors). This problem might occur when you attempt to cut and/or paste in the Terminal window or are capturing a URL to retrieve in SlipKnot Web. Workaround: as a test, change your video driver to 256 color mode. This can usually be accomplished with the Change Settings menu item in the Main Windows Group/Windows Setup screen. 9.2 -- You see little square boxes on occasion in the Terminal Window. This is usually caused by your UNIX system (or the program you are running on it) sending NULL-bytes or other non-ASCII characters to your terminal. We've no idea why the UNIX program would want to do this, but we will try to fix this visual problem in the future. 9.3 -- You have trouble uploading files from your PC to your UNIX system. See section 8.4 ========== Appendix 1. Choosing and setting up a UNIX prompt. The UNIX prompt that you tell SlipKnot about (in the Setup/Host screen) will be used by SlipKnot to recognize your UNIX prompt when it appears. What you tell SlipKnot need not match exactly your actual UNIX prompt, but it must still be recognizable. The problem usually occurs on systems using shells that change the prompt rom line to line. Say, for instance, that you UNIX prompt is: "peter[1]" when you just log in, but the number changes ("peter[2]", "peter[3]", ...) In this case, the solution is simple: tell SlipKnot (in the Setup/Host screen) that your UNIX prompt is: "peter", and SlipKnot shoud be able to recognize it. WARNING: try, if possible, not to tell SlipKnot that your UNIX prompt is ">" or your login id. This will sometimes confuse SlipKnot. If your actual UNIX prompt IS your login id, or the character ">", then you may have to change your actual UNIX prompt (and tell SlipKnot what the new one is) before SlipKnot will work. =========== Appendix 2. "Initializing your Host" manually. If all else failed in Section 5, then here is a mechanism of initializing your host manually, divided into 2 parts: App2.1.0: Getting the shell scripts to your UNIX home directory. Check to see whether the two shell scripts that SlipKnot needs (and would place into your UNIX directory) are already there. Execute the following command at your UNIX prompt: ls -al .slipcommand .slipgeturl You should see the following two lines, though some details may be different. -rwx------ 1 pbrooks user 227 Aug 13 1994 .slipcommand -rwx------ 1 pbrooks user 103 May 1 14:22 .slipgeturl If you see the UNIX response above, then skip to App2.2. App2.1.1: If you see that both files exist, but you do not see the "x" as the fourth character from the left. This means that the two shell scripts are there, but have not been set as "executable". Here's how to fix that: execute the following command at your UNIX prompt: chmod u+x .slipcommand .slipgeturl Then try the ls -al .slipcommand .slipgeturl again and see if the "x" appears as the fourth character. App2.1.2: If .slipcommand or .slipgeturl does not exist, then you can retrieve one or both of them using anonymous FTP. Here is where they reside on the Internet: site: interport.net directory: /pub/pbrooks/slipknot files: .slipcommand and .slipgeturl Put the files into your UNIX home directory, and go back to step App2.1.1 to make the files executable. App2.2: Making changes to your .HST file. Once you know that the appropriate shell scripts are in your UNIX directory, you will have to make a few small changes to your .HST file(s) on your PC. When configuring SlipKnot (in Setup/Host), you created the name of a new host, probably a name associated with your Internet Service Provider. For the sake of this example, let's call that host: "Fred". You now have a file in your \SLIPKNOT directory called FRED.HST. This is a text file and you will need to modify it with a simple text (ASCII) editor. Be careful not to use a fancy word-processor, or if you do, make sure that when you save the modifications, you save them in "text" or "ASCII" form. In the first paragraph (called, [Settings]), you will find the lines: UNIXLSColumn=0 UNIXLSTotalColumns=0 If you don't see them, create them as separate lines. Now look in section App2.1.0 above at the output of the ls -al command (starts with "-rwx..."), and execute your own ls -al command because it may be different! First, count the columns in each line. By "column" I mean the number of strings separated by spaces. So, for instance, in the example in App2.1.0 above, "Aug" and "13" and "1994" is each a column. In the example above, there are 9 columns in each line ("-rwx------", "1", "pbrooks", "user", "103", "May", "1", "14:22", and ".slipgeturl"). So change the number as follows: UNIXLSTotalColumns=9 Now, count which column (starting at 1) contains the size of the file. In our example above, it is column 5, so: UNIXLSColumn=5 Also, make the following modification: HostInit=-1 And finally, find the version of SlipKnot you are using (inside SLIPKNOT.INI) and place it in the following line, for instance: HostInitVersion=1.13 Now you can save the .HST file. The next time you log onto your UNIX host, and press the World Wide Web button, SlipKnot should not try to initialize your Host (hopefully), and you should be able to go to SlipKnot Web. HOWEVER, what we have done above is fool SlipKnot into thinking that the Host is already initialized, and maybe that cures the problem. You are a step closer to success, but may still not be able to retrieve documents using SlipKnot Web, for whatever reason Host Initialization failed in the first place. =========== Appendix 3. If this document does not help solve the problem If you are having file transmission problems or host initialization problems that are not covered in this document, then you can send us a debugging log file. Here are the steps to doing so: -- See SlipKnot Help topic: "If all else fails" aboout how to create the SLIPKNOT.DEB debugging file. -- Turn on debugging just before the problem occurs, and turn it off just afterwards (this can produce a large file -- so only debug the parts that are failing). -- If you turned on debugging while logging in, SLIPKNOT.DEB may contain your login ID and password. This is an ASCII file and you should delete those pieces of sensitive information before sending. -- Upload the SLIPKNOT.DEB file to your UNIX system, and embed it in the text of the message to us -- DO NOT send it as an attachment because our mailer will not understand it. -- Send the file and your description of the problem. To speed a response, please indicate the fact that you have read this FAQ by typing "**" (two asterisks) as the first characters in the subject line of your message. -- Send to: slpstaff@micromind.com Also, SlipKnot problems, answers and general discussion is held on the Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.www.users. SlipKnot's What's New Page can be retrieved for the latest news on versions and other information (there is a link to the What's New Page from the SlipKnot Local Home Page). ============================================== Again, we are sorry that you are having problems, and hope that this guide helped you through some of them. -- Brought to you by the overworked (and underpaid) MicroMind folks.