Question

I'm attempting to install the Koala skin on a hosted domain and am running into some problems. Actually, I've run into a bunch of problems and have slogged through most of them (and learned quite a bit about unix commands, editing cgi scripts, and using terminal program in the process). However, I still can't seem to get the koalaskin-generate script to work and it appears to be a problem with the DIR, data, & templates variables. The issue probably is related to the fact that my twiki directory holding the data and template directories is separate from my main twiki folder (remember this is a hosted twiki site).

What makes sense to me is that DIR refers to my main twiki folder while the data and templates variables are the same as the $dataDir and $templateDir variables in the TWiki.cfg file. However I've tried this (along with a whole bunch of variations) and when I attempt to run the koalaskin-generate script, I always get this error message: "ERROR: You must set the DIR variable in the koalaskin-generate script,\n or execute it from your wiki dir!"

I can't make much sense of this message - particularly the "script,\n " part. I've also tried relocating & executing the script from a variety of places but this didn't help either. I'm quite sure I've explored a great many ways NOT to do it right.

Anyone have suggestions for what I could try?

Many thanks!

• TWiki version: Dec, 01
• Web server: Apache
• Server OS: Unix
• Web browser: IE5
• Client OS: Mac OSX

-- LynnwoodBrown - 08 Apr 2002

Answer

Cannot help with setting DIR, but: do not worry about \n in error message. Author was trying to print new line, just ignore it.

I am looking forward that KoalaSkin installation process and documentation gets improved as a result of valiant beta-testers, so I could use it too

-- PeterMasiar - 09 Apr 2002

\n is strange. Do you run the script under the shell bash? (if not, the script may not work correctly)

What isn't clearly explained is that if your twiki install has the same structure as distributed, you just have to change DIR. In your case, you can ignore DIR and only set the data and template vars underneath, but... I see that it wont work! Please upgrade to the 1.11 version that will upload shortly...

-- ColasNahaboo - 11 Apr 2002

Colas - Thanks for addressing my question. I'm very excited about the prospect of using Koala skin on my site! Regarding your question about runing the script under the shell bash, I believe that I am, although I'm still a newbie in managing a site. As I mentioned, I'm working with a hosted domain, so I'm ssh-ing into the site at which point I get this prompt: bash-2.05$.

Regarding the DIR variable, the default (/var/www/htdocs/wiki) didn't make sense to me because I don't have any directory structures that look like that but perhaps I just don't understand the syntax. What I used here was the directory tree to my twiki folder that includes the bin and lib folders (e.g. home/domain-name/public_html/twiki/). Then for the data and template variables, I used the directory trees to my twiki folders which are outside of the public_html directory for security reasons (e.g. home/domain-name/twiki/data). I don't know if this helps clarify where my problem lies.

In any case, I will look for upgrade 1.11.

Thanks again -- LynnwoodBrown - 11 Apr 2002

Sorry for the delay - I forgot to monitor this topic. Did you manage to install it?

-- ColasNahaboo - 31 May 2002

Thanks for the check-in! I'm sorry to say that I haven't had time to get back to it. I see that you have 1.11 up now so perhaps it is time to give it another try. I'm making a trip to Ireland in a couple weeks so it will probably have to wait til my return in early July.

In the mean time, have you come across anyone who has successfully installed it on a hosted domain?

-- LynnwoodBrown - 02 Jun 2002

I just installed the skin on our site (sorry, not a hosted domain), but I did run into the same error message. My mistake was that I failed to create an empty WebList topic prior to running koalaskin-generate -i. After I created the topic the script ran just fine.

-- DaveAlsup - 02 Jun 2002

Thanks. I updated the error message in this case to be more explicit.

-- ColasNahaboo - 03 Jun 2002