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FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Some frequently asked questions with answers. Feel free to add questions or answers here yourself (it's wiki!)

For newcommers

Q: How do I sign up for an account at Blinkenshell?

See: Info/Signup

Q: Why doesn't my password work for SSH?

Blinkenshell has several different accounts. Many newcommers confuse the signup account with SSH accounts. You can not log in via SSH if you have not reached step 10 (finished) in the signup process.

This image might help explain the relations between the different accounts: Blinkenshell Accounts

Q: Why am I required to use IRC?

Because I want to create an active community with users, something more than just a place to run your screens. You can share experiences and get help or just talk about anything you like. I've choosen IRC because it's the superior chat protocol ofcourse ;-)

Q: Why are you doing this for free?

See: Info/About

Q: I need help with a question in the signup quiz, can you help me?

No, you have to find the answers on your own. The answers to all questions can be found either on this webpage/wiki or by some simple searches on Google.

Q: Why are you not allowing IRC bots?

Because they are boring. I would like my shell to be populated with active users, not bots.

Q: The shell/signup feels laggy, what can I do about this?

If you are on a wireless connection, try moving to a place with good signal quality. Try connecting with a cable if it's still bad. If you are downloading/uploading something, try pausing that or limit the bandwidth to something like 80% of your maximum bandwidth. You can also try `ping blinkenshell.org' in a terminal, if the round trip time is much above 100 ms the shell will feel laggy for most users.

For members

Q: My localized characters (é, å, ä, ö, ï etc) looks like garbage/questionmarks/something else, how can I fix this?

See: FAQ/Unicode

Q: links or elinks segfaults, why?

This is usually because of color settings, for example if you try to run links in screen it will segfault if you have not done some extra configuration to get 256 colors to work inside screens. Some terminals also can't handle many colors. You can also disable colors within links to get it to work.

Q: How do I enable Email or MySQL for my Blinkenshell account?

When your reach step 10 in the signup process (when your system account is created) some new options appear when you log in to the signup program, enable Email and MySQL for example. Just log in to the signup program again (ssh signup@blinkenshell.org -p 2222 or using the command signup-start in the shell) and log in with your signup account.

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