# Newsboat FAQ

## 1. I get errors like "`color01' is not a valid color"

Numbers that start with zero are treated as octal; starting with Newsboat 2.10, these are not allowed since they only add confusion.

Convert octal numbers to decimal, and drop the leading zero. For example, `color01` should be replaced with `color1`, `color016` with `color14` etc.

## 2. I want to have a feed that contains all unread articles of all feeds

This is supported since Newsbeuter 0.7. All you need to do is add the following line to your urls file:

    "query:Unread Articles:unread = \"yes\""

For details, refer to the documentation on query feeds.

## 3. After I open a link in the browser, Newsboat stays unresponsive until the browser is closed

Newsboat has to behave like that in order to accomodate users of text-based browsers like lynx and w3m. It has to relinquish the terminal and stay out of the way, otherwise people won’t be able to see their browsers.

If you’re using a GUI browser like Firefox, you can do one of two things:

1. Start your browser beforehand. This way, Newsboat will only wait a fraction of a second (while a new tab is being opened).

2. Wrap your browser in a script and use the script as Newsboat’s browser.

   Put this in `~/bin/newsboat-browser.sh`:

       #/bin/sh
       /usr/bin/firefox "$@" &

   Make it executable:

       $ chmod +x ~/bin/newsboat-browser.sh

   Then add the following line to your Newsboat’s config:

       browser "~/bin/newsboat-browser.sh"

## 4. I can’t connect to TT-RSS, Newsboat says: "Loading URLs from Tiny Tiny RSS…​Authentication failed."

There are multiple reasons for this:

1. wrong URL in `ttrss-url` setting, or wrong credentials. Typos happen. Copy-and-paste the URL into the browser, then copy-and-paste the login and the password, and verify that they work;

2. `ttrss-url` redirects somewhere. Please use a URL that points directly at your TT-RSS instance, without any kind of HTTP redirects;

3. double quotes not escaped in login and/or password. Use `\"` instead of `"`;

4. external API is disabled in TT-RSS. You can enable it in user preferences;

5. self-signed (or otherwise un-verifiable) SSL certificate. If your TT-RSS instance is accessible from the Internet, consider Let’s Encrypt. It’s a free and completely automated way to get a valid SSL certificate.

   If you want to be your own CA, put your root certificate into a bundle understood by cURL, save it somewhere, and set the `CURL_CA_BUNDLE` environment variable with the path to the bundle.

   Finally, if you understand what a "MITM attack" is, and are certain that it can’t happen in your setup, check out a list of Newsboat’s configuration options for ways to entirely disable SSL verification.

## 5. Newsboat 2.18 complains that "Browser returned error code <some number>"

That Newsboat version misinterprets the browser’s exit code. Please upgrade to Newsboat 2.19 or newer.

If upgrading is not an option, wrap the browser in a script to hide its exit code from Newsboat:

1. Put this in `~/bin/newsboat-browser.sh`:

       #/bin/sh
       /usr/bin/firefox "$@"
       exit 0

   Replace `/usr/bin/firefox` with the path to your browser. The last line is the important bit.

2. Make it executable:

       $ chmod +x ~/bin/newsboat-browser.sh

3. Add the following to your Newsboat’s config:

       browser "~/bin/newsboat-browser.sh"