faq
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How can I change the background ANSI that is displayed when I run Mystic -CFG ?
The ANSI file you want is called "cfgroot.ans" and resides in the DATA directory. This serves as the "wallpaper" for the System Configuration.
Q: ANSI output and other screens that Mystic displays looks a bit strange / distorted when I connect to the BBS or run a configuration change. Why is this and how can I fix it?
This is most likely caused by the Default CodePage setting you are using. Mystic can send client terminals either CP437 or UTF8 data output, converting relevant outbound data to UTF8 when selected. There are two settings that control this. They can be found in the Mystic Configuration System by running Mystic -cfg from the command line. Then head to the Configuration > Login/Matrix menu and look for the Default Codepage and Local Codepage settings. Default Codepage This sets the default codepage sent to the users console when connecting to Mystic. Local CodePage Mystic has a Local CodePage option which is used as the default when the -L command is used (local login). This allows separate defaults local console vs an incoming caller. Note that Local Codepage defaults to UTF8 for OSX and Raspberry Pi. MUTIL and MIS honor the local codepage settings and runs in UTF8 in Linux/OSX. The documentation has this to say about the Mystic codepage settings... [SNIP] If you do not understand what these are, set Default to CP437 and Ask CodePage to "Detect". What this basically does is allows users to use things like Putty to connect to your BBS, and everything should look and work as expected. When Mystic starts up, by default a user will have the configured "Default" code page. Then depending on the setting of "Ask CodePage", Mystic will do one of the following: Detect : Mystic only changes codepage from default if it is able to detect a terminal that is likely NOT the default, but the user is never prompted. Ask : Mystic will ask the user which Codepage they would like to use after detecting ANSI. CP437 : Codepage will always be set to MS-DOS (CP437) UTF8 : Codepage will always be set to UTF8 In Linux, the Default code page will actually be what Mystic runs in when you run mystic from the command line, too. In Windows, the Sysop side will always execute in CP437, even when a user is logged in that has UTF8 enabled (the user of course will still get sent UTF8). One other consideration, is that many terminals that use UTF8 are using VT102 instead of ANSI-BBS, which means a few things are different - most noticably are ANSI clear screen codes. In ANSI-BBS, the clear screen also moves the cursor to 1,1, while in VT102 it does not. This means its best to edit your ANSIs and add a |CL at the very top so Mystic clears the screen in a compatible way. [snip] Some other final tips. For a session you can override the the default code page settings from the command line by using the following syntax: Mystic -CP<mode> IE: ./mystic -CPutf8 will force UTF8 default output regardless of the default setting. Any -CP that does not contain UTF will cause Mystic to default to CP437 When a user selects UTF8 encoding, Mystic will now assume their terminal sends VT102 DELETE/BACKSPACE keys rather than the MS-DOS terminal behavior.
Q: How can I view the kludge lines for messages posted in a echomail message base?
When reading a message posted to a echomail message base press the V key. This toggles on/off the ability to view kludge lines such as PATH and SEEN-BY. If you then reply to the message while the kludge lines are visible you can also quote them in your reply.
Q: I use Mystic in Windows, but I want to move to Raspberry Pi. Can I move to a different operating system without losing my BBS data?
A: YES! You can easily switch platforms and retain your BBS! However, there are some basic steps required, particularly when switching to or from an operating system with case sensitive file names: 1. When copying files, make sure all data, menu, and display files are lower cased. Mystic uses all lower-cased files in case sensitive file systems. 2. Once the files are copied, you must run "mystic" with the -paths option on the new operating system, and change the paths to match your new Mystic location. 3. Now run "mystic" again with the -cfg option. Each theme has its own text, menu, and scripts directory so go into the Themes editor and change those directories to match your new directories. Each message base also has its own message base path which needs to be updated. This can be done all at once by using the Global Message Base Editor. 4. Note that one pain point is converting over file base directories, meaning the actual directories where files are stored for each base. These often have to be manually edited per file base, since those directories are specific to each base. If you encounter problems after performing these steps, the error messages and logs should guide you towards fixing the problem. Keep in mind that any configured item that uses a file name may now be case sensitive. For example, if you have a menu with a "GO" menu command in it, with an optional data of "MAIN", its going to look for "MAIN.mnu" in a case sensitive OS. The same holds true in other areas as well, such as in MUTIL's .ini files. If you are one of those people who always set things to UPPERCASE in your configuration, you may run into problems throughout your BBS. It is always best practice to use all lower cased file names just to keep things simple when moving between platforms.
Q: Can Mystic limit a door game to being executed only on one node at a time without scripting or batch files?
faq.1492403751.txt.gz · Last modified: 2017/04/16 23:35 by avon