Using 'trn' for Reading Newsgroups

[Nagarjuna]

So, I keep hearing about these mysterious 'newsgroups' and the knowledge in which they hold. Finally, I've decided I want to see what they are all about.

I heard of the news-reader utility 'trn' and would like to give it a shot. However, I'm running into a issue.

I understand that for 'trn' to work, it simply requires a .newsrc file with a list of newsgroups to download from. So, I created a .newsrc file in my home directory and inserted 'comp.os.linux' into the .newsrc file. I then start up trn and it complains that it can't open '/usr/lib/news/active'. I notice the directory doesn't exist, and create it.

I try again, and this time it gets past the previous error, but says I have '0' groups. Am I missing something? Perhaps I'm putting my .newsrc in the wrong location. I have a feeling it's something right in front of me that I'm not noticing.

Unfortunately I could find hardly any documentation on setting up trn. The man page says it should create my .newsrc automatically, but it never did.

So, I come to you my friends! Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[reed9]

I don't have the answer to your question, but you might try a different newsreader client.

List of Usenet newsreaders - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Nagarjuna]

Thanks, reed!

I'm trying out Sylpheed right now. It was really easy to setup, but I still think I'm going to try a few other news-readers just for kicks. I'll probably return to trn eventually.. I just hate it when things don't work!