New Mars Forums

Adrian

Moderator

From: London, United Kingdom

Registered: 2001-09-04

Posts: 642

Website

Re: Upgraded to 3.1.2a

I upgraded the forums to Ikonboard 3.1.2a (from 3.1.1) today. There should be a number of bugfixes, speed improvements and a few additions.

(I had a real nightmare with this one. Every time I upgrade or do *anything* to these forums, something bad happens. There's no real reason why it should be difficult to do an upgrade - it's just a matter of FTPing over a few dozen files. In this case I discovered I didn't have access to the forum files because they belonged to the usergroup 'nobody' and even my admin status couldn't touch them. I was stumped for a bit and then hit upon the brilliant idea of using the forum's own file manager software to manipulate them. This worked, until I deleted an essential file which made it stop working.

I got really annoyed, and then started googling around to find an answer. I finally found out that only web scripts can touch 'nobody' files and so went around the internet looking for a suitable file manager. I downloaded one in short order and managed to fix everything up. Sigh. And here I was thinking it'd just take five minutes - okay, it only took an hour in total, which is much better than some other forum nightmares I've had, taking up entire days, but still.

At least I learned something today  )

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Editor of [url=http://www.newmars.com]New Mars[/url]

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Upgraded to 3.1.2a

*I'm happy it turned out successfully, but honestly...I can't believe you tried this, just as Spirit is about to roll (later tonight)...

All's well that ends well, though.  Hey, could we have the slash-mouth emoticon again?  You know:  :\ 

I miss that guy.

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

Adrian

Moderator

From: London, United Kingdom

Registered: 2001-09-04

Posts: 642

Website

Re: Upgraded to 3.1.2a

Well, I did consider the fact that if I managed to destroy the forums, it would be at a really bad time. However, on balance there didn't seem like there was a real risk of that, and in any case it turned out well. There was never any chance of losing any data - one way or another, I would have finished the upgrade by tonight 

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Editor of [url=http://www.newmars.com]New Mars[/url]

clark

Member

Registered: 2001-09-20

Posts: 6,362

Re: Upgraded to 3.1.2a

Why does your recent adventure sound like the NASA guys talking about their Martian rover?  :laugh:

Thank you for your continued work Adrian!

Josh Cryer

Moderator

Registered: 2001-09-29

Posts: 3,830

Re: Upgraded to 3.1.2a

Yeah Adrian, you could've probably done a fresh install in only 20 minutes tops, since you made that backup... awesome about the upgrade. I don't feel much of a difference, though, but it's good to know bugs are fixed in the background.

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Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
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The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.

clark

Member

Registered: 2001-09-20

Posts: 6,362

Re: Upgraded to 3.1.2a

I don't feel much of a difference, though, but it's good to know bugs are fixed in the background.

I feel better already!  :laugh:

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Upgraded to 3.1.2a

upgrade... upgrade? ? ?

Aaaaargh! Does that mean i have to buy a new computer-video-soundcard-memoryexpansion-harddisk to see all the new 3D effects, the dazzling trillion new colours (because i don't see them now...)  

Seriously, a good thing the messageboard software people are a sensible bunch, if i want gazillion colors and 3D i'll go and play a game instead! (OTOH... on my old computer? ? Hmmm...)