Well, a link to your blog would help. Without it I'll simply guess that your skins are for a different generation than your blog is. Like, 1.* skins for a 2.* installation (or the other way around).

Ah. the blog is at www.tennisvagabond/blog

The version is 1.10.2

Perhaps I need to figure out how to upgrade this

Actually the version I see is 2.4.2 so all you need to do is make sure your skins are for version 2.* - http://skins.b2evolution.net/ is the link, and don't go to the link for "1.x skins".

hmmm... make sure on your server that the path structure is "skins/yourskin/various_files.php". Oh plus "skins/various_files.php" and sometimes the files have the same name as each other. What I'm thinking is maybe unzipping on your server is the problem. I always unzip on my computer so I can make sure the skin's files are in one (and only one) folder, then upload the actual skin folder.

If your version is 1.10 you are probably trying to install an 2.x skin. They are not compatible. Upgrading to B2evolution v 2.4.2 is a good idea.

Good luck

Hi Ed

I just upgraded it to 2.4.2, as you saw. And now it can find the skins, as you predicted. Except I have 2 new problems:

The blog which used to contain all blogs, and is used as the homepage, now contains nothing and I can't figure out how to "fill it" with the other blogs.

All the sidebars and menus (eg listing the blogs) have disappeared in the skin on the homepage blog and on the other blogs.

Thanks for all the help

Dashboard -> Blog settings -> CHOOSE THE FIRST BLOG -> Advanced ->
Aggregation [Admin] Blogs to aggregate: -> Add at least 3,4

Good luck

Yeah that's the ticket. Afwas is really smart :)

So aggregation used to be automatic - and unstoppable. Upgrading from 1.* to 2.* means having to make your own aggregator blog, so those of us who enjoyed that feature now have to suck eggs when we upgrade. (Note to self since I have one 1.* installation to upgrade...)

Now I can't even login! When I go to the dashboard and put in my password, the password field "fills" itself so the password doesnt work. What the??

The password APPEARS to fill itself. Very VERY stupid in my humble opinion because people think like you do. If you enter the accurate password of, let's say, 7 characters it will look like it is seeing a password that is almost as long as the field is, but it really is using your entered password.

Are you using Firefox? If so you might have told it to remember your password? The thing is if you upgraded your password should not have changed. Either way, simply tell it you lost your password and have it email you a link to your back office so you can change it to what you like.

Hope it helps!

Oh and stuff like title and tagline are all widgets in containers. I'm surprised your blog doesn't have them because they should just automagically happen for your upgraded installation. But perhaps after you get back into your back office you will need to go to "Blog settings -> pick a blog -> widgets" then on the right hand side see a link for "add a widget" to each of the various containers.

Your whole blog is basically broken into containers that you can add or remove widgets. So like you don't have to edit skin files to add or remove stuff from your sidebar.

hmmm... You might also want to go (once you get back in of course) to your "Global settings -> skins" subtab and reload the containers for your skin first.

Seems kinda strange though that your containers are totally empty. Very strange indeed...

Thanks for all your help. We're rolling now. I still can't get my password to work properly. For some reason, I can get into the admin by requesting a new password, which sends a direct link, but even when I get in to admin and make a new password it doesn't work as a blog login. Sometimes, I get the option to login to backoffice, and then the password works.
Any idea why I can't do the regular login but I can do the backoffice login?

thanks again
David

And is there any easy way to change the container size, like say enlarge the sidebar?

Or put some static image in the white space outside the containers and blog main space?

Hmm. I thought maybe the login problem might be with group permissions, and when I went in in the dashboard, I got this error:

MySQL error!

Unknown column 'bloggroup_perm_edit' in 'field list'(Errno=1054)

Your query: Results::Query()

SELECT grp_ID, grp_name, bloggroup_perm_poststatuses, bloggroup_perm_edit, bloggroup_ismember,
bloggroup_perm_comments, bloggroup_perm_delpost, bloggroup_perm_cats,
bloggroup_perm_properties, bloggroup_perm_admin, bloggroup_perm_media_upload,
bloggroup_perm_media_browse, bloggroup_perm_media_change

FROM evo_groups LEFT JOIN evo_bloggroups ON (
grp_ID = bloggroup_group_ID

AND bloggroup_blog_ID = 1 )

WHERE 1

ORDER BY bloggroup_ismember DESC, grp_name ASC, grp_name, grp_ID

LIMIT 0, 20

Damn! Now I'm getting this error when I log in as a different user:

Notice: Undefined index: bloggroup_perm_edit in /home/jsdsdcom/public_html/blog/inc/users/model/_group.class.php on line 459

Notice: Undefined index: bloggroup_perm_admin in /home/jsdsdcom/public_html/blog/inc/users/model/_group.class.php on line 464

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/jsdsdcom/public_html/blog/inc/users/model/_group.class.php:459) in /home/jsdsdcom/public_html/blog/inc/_core/_template.funcs.php on line 133

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/jsdsdcom/public_html/blog/inc/users/model/_group.class.php:459) in /home/jsdsdcom/public_html/blog/inc/_core/_template.funcs.php on line 136

At this point I would suggest, for no reason other than "things are mighty strange over there", that you download the .zip package again, unzip it on your computer, then delete the /inc/ folder from your server and upload the fresh copy in it's place. The idea being IF you have a file that got messed up somehow then wholesale replacement of the /inc/ folder will probably take care of it.

Also in your conf/_advanced.php file you can change your "$instance_name" value from 'b2evo' to something creative like 'edb' or whatever. I'm not sure why but it seems to be good advice for certain login problems.