[Howto] Setup and use Leafnode-2 with the newsreader slrn

[andrew.46]

Hi orphean,

I managed to get leafnode up and running easily enough with the leafnode in the official universe repository. It seems to work fine so far, I was curious what benefit your procedure gives?

The repository leafnode is the stable version, sometimes known as leafnode 1, while this guide deals with the development version known as leafnode 2. To tell the truth if you are happy enough with the repository version I would advise you to stick with it. In particular 2009 has been a turbulent year for Leafnode 2 with some big changes (lua scripting) which still have not settled in vey well.

Andrew

[orphean]

Ahh. Sounds like something I should read up on since leafnode 1 is a seriously slick piece of software and it sounds like the new version is getting more bells and whistles. Thank you for putting up this guide so I can play with the new version (probably in a vm if it is as turbulent as you say.)

And just to editorialize for a bit, any readers of this thread who are wondering if they should do this: yes, you should! USENET is still a great resource where you can get connected with highly clued in people (as well as a... colorful cast of other folk at times).

If your ISP no longer provides USENET access you can get free, text-only (which is all you need really unless you are into copyright infringement or pornography), USENET access from sites like eternal-september.org so you really have nothing to lose to check it out.

Anyway, back to the thread proper.

[andrew.46]

Hi orphean,

Thank you for putting up this guide so I can play with the new version (probably in a vm if it is as turbulent as you say.)

Don't forget there is a small compilation problem under Karmic that requires a patch that will hopefully be rolled into the next release. BTW can I ask what newsreader you are using with leafnode?

Andrew

[orphean]

BTW can I ask what newsreader you are using with leafnode?

Of course, I use gnus via emacs for the majority of my newsreading. I have slrn setup on a server of mine for quick checks from ssh when I'm out and about.

Tried pan for a while and it is a nice program, but I'm just a weirdo who enjoys the gnus way more.

[andrew.46]

Hi orphean,

Tried pan for a while and it is a nice program, but I'm just a weirdo who enjoys the gnus way more.

I will admit to having experimented or some time with gnus, I even printed off the slightly crazy manual and read it from cover to cover. I certainly got it all working but I eventually decided that I would never truly embrace lisp and emacs so I would never truly understand what I was doing with this incredibly flexible newsreader. And I guess at heart I am really am a diehard slrn user .

BTW there will hopefully be some moves soon to fix up some of the confusion that has swirled around leafnode 2 for the better part of 2009:

http://www.dt.e-technik.uni-dortmund...q4/002208.html

and hopefully this will reward the faithful, such as myself, who have been patiently running the last 2008 version ever since it was released.

All the best,

Andrew

[orphean]

I will admit to having experimented or some time with gnus

I'm a big fan of gnus but I'm the first to admit it is incredibly arcane and not for everyone. Like so many others things when dealing with Emacs the trick is to learn the bare minimum to get it up and running and then figure out the customizations. The manual suffers from the same problem as a lot of FOSS documentation in that it is a fantastic reference but a poor guide.

The only thing I didn't like about gnus was that since Emacs is single-threaded it could be dog slow (that's one of the primary reasons slrn was created actually!). Leafnode fixes that for me.

BTW there will hopefully be some moves soon to fix up some of the confusion that has swirled around leafnode 2 for the better part of 2009

This is good news! Is there a PPA for leafnode-2 currently? If not, I'd be willing to set one up, or, help with the creation of a 'leafnode-2' team for ubuntu. While I do FOSS work with Gnome I have never been more than a user of Ubuntu so I am not familiar with how things work for the project.

[andrew.46]

Hi orphean,

The only thing I didn't like about gnus was that since Emacs is single-threaded it could be dog slow (that's one of the primary reasons slrn was created actually!).

I remember seeing some mention of that on the slrn website. In fact if you have a peek at the html source of the slrn site you might see:

<meta name="author" content="Andrew Strong">

This is me . I gained that information from John E. Davis in a personal email and he was kind enough to allow me to rewrite the website when he took over development of slrn a while back.

Is there a PPA for leafnode-2 currently? If not, I'd be willing to set one up, or, help with the creation of a 'leafnode-2' team for ubuntu.

There is no PPA for leafnode 2 unfortunately, I suspect the easy access to leafnode 1 from the repository combined with the relative complexity of setting up leafnode 2 has dampened the enthusiasm of most.

All the best,

Andrew

[EdKo66]

--sysconfdir=/etc/leafnode \

With this line I get an invalid variable name. I checked it several times but I believe I typed it correctly.

Using Ubuntu 9.10. Do I have to switch to an older version to get it working, or will that not work either?

(edit: I see that i have other problems as well. Can't get root access, can't edit any files ;( Guess I need to reinstall everything)

[andrew.46]

I have added in the patch required to build leafnode 2 under Lucid...

Andrew

[kindahero]

First of all thanks for your time write the tutorial..

I followed your tutorial carefully, seems my setup is working. I use gnus instead of elrn.

Two nitpicks right now is, there is no inetd.conf on default ubuntu installation. first one has to install inetutils-inetd package.

second, no syslog.conf, So look for rsyslog.conf and rsyslog.d/ forlder.


My question is, how to have full control on leafnode fetchings,
suppose, I want to have totally fetched group locally.
I dont want to news to be expired and deleted.( cheap memory after all). etc

This must be simple , I cant find anywhere.?