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Frank Sanns
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Report any problems with site.

Post by Frank Sanns »

As you can see, thecoalman has the site up again.

Please report any problems with the site in this thread. Take a look around and see if all is working properly.
Achiever's madness; when enough is still not enough. ---FS
We have to stop looking at the world through our physical eyes. The universe is NOT what we see. It is the quantum world that is real. The rest is just an electron illusion. ---FS
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Steven Sesselmann
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Frank,

Well done on getting the forum back up.

I am using safari on a Mac, and for me the thumbnail images are not loading, but when I click on the image icons the images load. Seem to recall this problem going back to before the upgrade. Anyone else experiencing this?

Steven

PS: I am also finding quite a few posts where images don't link. error: "The selected attachment does not exist anymore."
Last edited by Steven Sesselmann on Sun Feb 06, 2022 10:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Liam David
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Liam David »

Many thanks to those who have worked on getting the forums up and running.

Like Steven, the thumbnail images do not show for me (one or two here and there do), but clicking on the associated text brings them up.
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Steven Sesselmann
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Frank,

I think you need to give all users permission to download files.

Steven
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thecoalman
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by thecoalman »

Frank forgot to mention the broken thumbs but I'm working on it. You can hold off any issues with attachments.

There may be permissions issues but the primary issue is a file issue. You should see link in place of broken thumb that may open the full image. If it's permissions issue there will be no link and a message you don't have permissions to download attachments.
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Richard Hull
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Richard Hull »

I have posted more images over the last 23 years than anyone. So far, not one of my many thousands of images are to be found.
The FAQs with hundreds of my images are gone. The Farnsworth forum "Richards Attic" is devoid of the nearly 100 images of historic value are all gone.
All were Jpeg images

Just sayin'

Not looking forward to doing the image thing again as in 2019 when this happened. It took many long hours over months to restore about 400 images back then. working from my 5 older computers trying to dig up lost images from years past. Might not even consider redoing that horrid 2019 experience of even 400 restorations of images. The rest are in their thousands. Two weeks before this recent horror I spent about 4 days restoring old lost images from the earliest FAQs on pages 25,26,and 27 from 2002 and 2003. Now all that work from this January is gone.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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Joe Gayo
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Joe Gayo »

I'm grateful for thecoalman, Frank, and others for their efforts. It seems the issue is more broadly attachments from older posts (PDFs and images).

Richard, hopefully, the story has a different ending than 2019. The work you, Jon (the posts I spot-checked were also missing attachments), and others put forward was significant and noble to keep fusor.net a resource for future fusioneers.

If the site is fully restored, I think a backup (not just the database, but fully implemented on another local machine) needs to be done. A snapshot that can be loaded to a new hosting provider should something happen. The community has offered money and support and there shouldn't be a reason this can't be done.

Joe
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Dennis P Brown
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Dennis P Brown »

Ditto on my thanks for the tremendous effort it must have taken to get this forum back on line. Agree, we who use this forum should pitch in to aid it to stay healthy.
Frank Sanns
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Frank Sanns »

FYI, the site is fully backed up approximately every 2-4 weeks. It is not just the database but the structure, the text, and the photos.

Thecoalman took those components are restored us on this server but it could have been on any. I keep a full mirror of everything on the site online plus backups and the photos. I also keep a copy on my RAID drive as well as a copy every few months on a USB also.

Finn brought up again the prospect of making a downloadable version of the site to date. I have wanted this for some time now but have tried a couple of programs back in the day but without full success. It would get some things but not everything. If somebody has a product to do that, now would be a good time.

Steven, Guests cannot download files. You must be registered to see and do a few select things on the site. Guests cannot see archives, advanced technical discussions, send PM, or download files. This was to provide incentive for people to give their real names and participate in the forum.
Achiever's madness; when enough is still not enough. ---FS
We have to stop looking at the world through our physical eyes. The universe is NOT what we see. It is the quantum world that is real. The rest is just an electron illusion. ---FS
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Bob Reite
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Bob Reite »

Spot checking I find that only 5% or so of the in-line images display correctly. Right clicking and choosing "open in a new tab" will bring them up, but only 95% of a time, The other 5% give the message "The selected attachment does not exist anymore".
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John Fenley
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by John Fenley »

I have also run into "The selected attachment does not exist anymore". My best guess is that it might be a permission problem with the file system itself that would prevent the site from accessing the file, even if it exists.

Good Luck, and thank you for all your hard work!
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Hannes Koenig
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Hannes Koenig »

Hello,
I created my account on Saturday, but when I tried to open a post it always only said that there are no Informations. I decided to wait and tried to login again today. When I tried to log in it didn't work. I tried to reset my password but it said that there's no account with my Email address. Looks like it got deleted. There was probably an error. I created a new account now and it looks like it works. That was probably because the website was getting up again, but I just wanted to post it here, just in case I did something wrong.
thecoalman
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by thecoalman »

It probably should of been mentioned but this forum was restored to its state on Jan 16th. With the exception of the "Loss of the fusor site" topic any posts, registrations, PM's or any other activity between that date and yesterday would be lost.

------edit-------

To clarify restored and upgraded to latest version of phpBB.
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Joe Gayo
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Joe Gayo »

@thecoalman

Are the older pictures/attachments permanently "lost" (unassociated, unlinked)?

Thank you for your help, again.
thecoalman
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by thecoalman »

The attachments table in the database is intact as far as I can tell and there is no reason to believe it isn't. It's approaching 24K ID's for attachments which means 24K files have been uploaded here over the years. The current table has 18K rows, there is various reasons for the discrepancy. Apparently some files were lost in 2019 so if someone edited a post "deleting" the missing file and uploaded replacement it's a new entry in the table and the old one is removed. As another example if someone uploads a file and never submits the post the database entry for the file and the file itself still exist, on phpBB's backend there is option to delete these files or attach them to a post.

The issue is related to the files themselves. If you are using regular FTP there is server configuration that limits the files it will list, in the case of Godaddy it's set to 10K. This can result in some unexpected behavior, even selecting the folder itself and downloading it results in 10K files. This is something I was unaware of myself but I have been using SFTP for more than decade and it's unaffected by this configuration. I use WinSCP for FTP client and other than an entry buried in the log file there is no indication the file list is truncated. It can easily be overlooked, one of the reason I immediately knew something was wrong is phpBB uses thumb_ prefix for thumbnails and none of these files were listed.

I waiting for the credentials for SFTP access and once I have them I'll be able to determine exactly what is available in the various backups. I'll merge what is available and generate all new thumbs for the images.

There may even be brighter side to this, Frank has older backups. I may be able to restore the files from 2019 if he has backup of the database and the files. At this point it's just a wait and see but you can be assured everything will be restored to the best state it can be and possibly even better than it was before.
Rex Allers
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Rex Allers »

Coalman and others, maybe these ideas about the missing files may be useful.

------
The current problem of missing attachment files looks like a repeat of the same problems we had after the problematic site move in 2019.

One issue is that pretty much all image attachments are missing their post inline as thumbnail images. I don't understand that but it may be related to the following, more serious problem.

In some posts, one can click on the attachment line and it will open the missing attachment image or other file. However in many posts the attachment doesn't open, rather you get the dreaded:
"The selected attachment does not exist anymore."

I did a lot of looking at this problem in 2019 and had a pretty strong theory of what went wrong.

The problem then, and now, seems to be related to the userID number of the member who made the post with an attachment. All attachments are lost for users with an ID number that has a first digit (high-order) of around 4 or greater.

So the problem hits users:
58 Richard
67 Jon Rosentiel
4450 Joe Gayo
but not:
2597 Rex Allers (me).

My theory is that the backup and restore of the phpBB '/files' directory was incomplete.

The /files directory holds all the files that were uploaded as attachments but before being put in the /files directory the file is given a new semi-random name. The new name begins with the userID number, then an underscore, then a generated random number.

So if the files in the /files directory are sorted alpha-numerically their order will be determined primarily by the first digit of the userID of the member who did the upload.

If the backup or restore of the files directory was truncated somewhere around a file starting with 4.... , then the files lost will be related to userIDs beginning with 4 or greater. (Maybe not exactly, maybe > 416... alpha-numerically.)

So that's my guess on what has happened (again).
I volunteered in 2019 to try to look around and see if my theory held and if there was data somewhere to fix it. Paul didn't want to give me the password for access.

Here's a post I made on the subject back in 2019 with a longer description.

---- My old detailed post ----
Re: I want to help fix fusor.net!! (join up listing)
Post by Rex Allers » Sat Dec 07, 2019 7:35 pm
viewtopic.php?p=85119#p85119
Rex Allers
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Paul_Schatzkin
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Big <*sigh*> of relief

Post by Paul_Schatzkin »

Like all of you, I am grateful beyond words to see the community restored, if not all of the images that have been compiled over the years.

As Frank and I have discussed, it's just kinda bizarre who this platform (phpBB) handles image files, assigning them 37-character alphanumeric markers in lieu of easily restored file names. Frank and I learning to our rising frustration just how complex all these things are, so many moving parts that and virtual gears that can easily slip.

Due to some changes in my personal circumstances*, I have a bit more (well, actually a lot more) time on my hands, maybe I can learn a few more tricks of the trade and be of more assistance when things start going pear shaped.

When last I spoke w Frank (over the weekend) he indicated that our mysterious "Coalman" is still sorting out the disconnected images issue and we have not given up on those connections being restored (correct me if I'm wrong about that, Frank).

In the meantime, we are trying to figure out what kind of beer The Coalman fancies - and how to ship him cases of it.

I'm reluctant to say this because I think it's been said before but... once things settle down we're going to explore what can be done to make the site both bullet- and bomb-proof in the future – starting with a hosting account that has some provision for long-term backup and restoration. Frank and I were both dismayed to learn that kind of functionality is NOT part of our existing GoDaddy account – both of us with a rich dose of "now they tell us?!?!? in response.

Anyway, whether or not we ever find a path to useful fusion energy it's gratifying that there is so much interest in the subject and that this site can provides an ongoing and useful resource.

Thanks,

--PS

- - - - -

*if anybody wants to know more about my 'change of circumstances,' read this:
https://www.incorrigiblearts.com/2022/0 ... rmination/
Paul Schatzkin, aka "The Perfesser" – Founder and Host of Fusor.net
Author of The Boy Who Invented Television: 2023 Edition – https://amz.run/6ag1
"Fusion is not 20 years in the future; it is 60 years in the past and we missed it."
thecoalman
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Re: Big <*sigh*> of relief

Post by thecoalman »

Paul_Schatzkin wrote: Tue Feb 08, 2022 1:28 pm As Frank and I have discussed, it's just kinda bizarre who this platform (phpBB) handles image files, assigning them 37-character alphanumeric markers in lieu of easily restored file names.
There is mutiple reasons for the way they are named. You will inevitably have duplicate filenames which is going to require they be renamed anyway, it would end up something like this: myfusor.jpg, myfusor(1).jpg , myfusor(2),jpg etc. About the only way you could get around this other than the phpBB method is to have a complex directory structure storing files with the same name in different directories. Serving files through file.php also preserves the original filename, the original filename is restored when it is served. If you you right click to save an image it has the same name as the one used for upload.

Files are served through file.php to control access to them. For example only the recipient and sender of an attachment in a PM can download that file, with an out of the box install of phpBB even an administrator cannot view that file through phpBB software. Same thing applies to files uploaded to forums, if you post a link here from a forum that only has Admin/moderator access a registered user will not be able to download it. Note that permissions can be set to deny access to viewing a forum but allow downloading' of files. I'm sure you are aware phpBB permissions can be complicated but that allows for granular permissions.

Another reason they are named that way is file.php cannot control direct requests for the file. In the folder used to store attachments is an .htaccess file that should prevent any direct access through a browser. If that fails which is possible depending on the server configuration they still cannot request the file because they don't know the file name. Additionally a server can be configured to list files in a directory when a directory is requested if no default index file is present, there is an index.htm file to help prevent this. In the highly unlikely event all of this were to fail they are going to get a list of randomly named files with no extensions.

In any event the file naming is not related to why they are missing.
Last edited by thecoalman on Sat Feb 12, 2022 7:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by thecoalman »

Just a heads up. If there is files missing from your past posts please do not try and replace them by editing the post as this may complicate things.

Thanks.
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Richard Hull
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Richard Hull »

Understood. Is the work still ongoing? I hope that those in charge in this effort will let us know when they are done and any missing images can be re-uploaded. Until then, I will hold off any image restoration. Thanks.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
thecoalman
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by thecoalman »

Richard Hull wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 4:36 pm Understood. Is the work still ongoing?
I have not been able to fully assess the situation. Mostly because of time constraints and lack of credentials for SFTP which I now have. it's going to take a while but I finish things I start.

I hope that those in charge in this effort will let us know when they are done and any missing images can be re-uploaded.
If it comes to that I can automate this instead of having to click through each post but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. This is one of the reasons I'm asking that attachments in past posts not be added or removed at this time. If the post date is after the 6th of January file attachments for them can safely be added or removed. Editing the text on any post is not an issue either.
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Richard Hull
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Re: Report any problems with site.

Post by Richard Hull »

This clarification is appreciated. Thanks.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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