OK - I had to curtail usage for a couple of days and not pursue any more troubleshooting (interpretation: gave up in frustration).  Had a moment to return to the problem and found a bunch of log entries:
   Database problem: ( 2006 ) mysqli error: [2006: MySQL server has gone away] in EXECUTE("SELECT "value" FROM preferences WHERE "option" = 'urdd_startup' AND "userID" = 0 LIMIT 1")

I can log into mySql just fine as root and as the admin account I created for setting up the urd_user account...

So, anyway, here is the complete set of error messages when I click on the Start URDD button:

Feb 08 2012    02:58:13    INFO    Database problem: 2013 - mysqli error: [2013: Lost connection to MySQL server during query] in EXECUTE("SELECT "value" FROM preferences WHERE "option" = 'urdd_startup' AND "userID" = 0 LIMIT 1")
Feb 08 2012    02:58:13    DEBUG    fn:set_group() pid:7055 (18612224 18612224)
Feb 08 2012    02:58:13    WARNING    Warning on line 122 in file /usr/share/urd/urdd/urdd_config.php: mkdir(): No such file or directory (2)
Feb 08 2012    02:58:13    INFO    
Feb 08 2012    02:58:13    NOTICE    Notice on line 123 in file /usr/share/urd/urdd/urdd_config.php: Undefined variable: db (
Feb 08 2012    02:58:13    DEBUG    Connecting to mysqli @ localhost
Feb 08 2012    02:58:13    WARNING    
Feb 08 2012    02:58:13    WARNING    Database problem: ( 2013 ) mysqli error: [2013: Lost connection to MySQL server during query] in EXECUTE("SELECT "value" FROM preferences WHERE "option" = 'urdd_startup' AND "userID" = 0 LIMIT 1")
Feb 08 2012    02:58:10    INFO    Opening log file: /tmp/urdd.log
Feb 08 2012    02:58:10    NOTICE    Starting urdd
Feb 08 2012    02:58:10    WARNING    Warning on line 212 in file /usr/share/urd/urdd/urdd_config.php: pcntl_getpriority(): Error 3: No process was located using the given parameters (2)

Seems that the first entry is a warning of a pcntl_getpriority() function not being located followed by a lost connection error to MySQL.  I ran a MySQLAdmin command to see timeout settings and they're :
connect_timeout                   43200
shutdown_timeout                  3600

Where should I look to dig into this further? 

-- da Lizard

Hey, I'm back... ran into another problem.  And can't seem to figure out what's the issue.  Apparently the URDD is not running, I have a red light.  Clicking on start URDD does nothing, going into the admin functions and trying to start URDD does nothing.  My syslog is not showing me why I have no joy, mysql shows no problems, apache is not having a hissy...

So what now...  I have a server setup with a green light and I should be getting a newsgroup listing or something...


*sigh*

-- da Lizard

That did it!  Restarting Apache apparently was required since I suppose I initially got the error with the PHP GD module was not installed.  Even though I installed it before it got to that screen, it had already needed something or Apache2 needed to re-read it's init file to incorporate the GD stuff.  I didn't think of that...

I will have to admit - again - this was not a user-friendly experience.  It seriously required a lot of knowledge and especially since I didn't want to use the MySQL root account to create the URDDB and the 'urd_user', I had to pull out my user manual (since I don't do MySQL user management all that often).

But, hey, I got 'er done!  It's up and running, now if I can just find a "good" free news server...

I have one beef - there were a lot of news providers predefined and I had to delete them all one at a time.  What a PITA that was.  I would have rather not had to go through that exercise!

So, it does seem I sure am complaining a lot for a "free" product!  Don't let my apparent insensitivity bother you too much.  I was just trying to give an accounting of my experience and my impression at first glance in trying to get this product operational.  I do appreciate it a lot - the Browser-based GUI looks awfully nice (would be nicer if we can skin it to other themes - red and black aren't my favourite colours).  I haven't worked with it much yet, so I'll defer on the review for now - though my first impression after getting the GUI up is quite favourable.

da Lizard

Update...  reviewing another post I noted that the author mentioned placing an "M" (for Mb) after the CLI edit - I done that.  And ba-da-bing, now I have only ONE red FAIL - the GD module is indicating as not present.  So, once again, I know my GUI stuff shows nothing missing in PHP5 - so I just go to pull an 'apt-get install php5-gd' and imagine that - it's installing!!  OMG!!!

Now, I reload - but I get no joy - I still have the big red FAIL on the GD module, yet it is installed and at the latest version.  So...  here I am, asking once again...

now what, kimosabe?

- da Lizard

Running Ubuntu - and you would think installing something would be a no-brainer.  I had to go the GetDeb route just to get past the crazy "yydecode" dependency crap.  Once URD installed (having to 'sudo apt-get install urd') rather than using any of the GUI stuff - I re-opened the browser and went to ' 'localhost/urd' - only to have a failure right off the bat.  The screen complained about not having permissions to write to '/html/smarty/c_template/default' - so I traverse the file structure and find there's a /usr/share/urd/html/smarty directory which contains a 'templates' dir, but there's no 'c_templates' dir.  So, I say WTF - and makedir c_templates wondering what else didn't get installed correctly.  Then, when refreshing the page I get the same error and realised I didn't create the default dir - done that and now I get to the infamous 1/6 page of errors.  Before I even got there, though, during a cursory google expedition, I found somewhere a guide letting me know to edit the /etc/php5/cli/php.ini file to change the 'memory_limit' parameter from -1 (my default setting) to 128; and also to edit the /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini file to uncomment the "include_path" attribute.

So, now I'm at page 1/6 - staring at a whole slew of failures for pcntl, sockets, posix, openssl, GD, and SPL modules of PHP5.  I pop up the Synaptic and check for pcntl matches - nothing there.  I do a sudo apt-get install php5-cli and get a message I'm already at the latest version.  So now what???  I'm stuck...

This is really frustrating!  I'm feeling like a noob...  I write php pages and cgi web-apps, fer criminy.  I can't say as I have ever had such a crazy user experience.  This is definitely not a product ready for the faint-of-heart and is not ready for prime-time.

So, again - where to now?  Do I throw all this away and forget about it?  I'm at that point - time is not something I have a lot of and I've already wasted a couple of hours to get to this point and am at a wall.  I don't feel there's anything wrong with my PHP5 and I definitely have stuff your interface is saying I don't have and even the cli max memory issue is flagged red when I definitely have the file set up with that parameter set to 128!

-- da Lizard