Newbie Guide?

**jaguar36** · 02-21-2008, 12:59 PM

So I recently got a Q1 Ultra Mobile PC, and since it fits perfectly in my car I thought it would nice to use it as a Car PC. So I looked around for some finger friendly programs that would work well while I'm driving, mostly just for MP3 playing and GPS stuff. Came across Streetdeck, which worked well, but $200 is flat out crazy. Finally I found Road Runner, which at first glance seems perfect.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a nice website for it that I could find (not counting Guino's own rather sparce site), only this forum. So after a good deal of hunting I looked in the FAQ section and found buried in the middle a "Install guide" sadly it basicly comes down to, download it, and install it. No talk of configuration or what you need to run it, or what it can do or anything. I figure it just must be so simple that any idiot can figure it out, but I guess I'm an idiot, as I couldn't figure it out.

I went, and installed winamp, and then roadrunner, and then did a version check. Found a nice looking skin (the BMW one), and figured I was all set to go. Fired up the configurator, and set the path to my skins, look at the other settings, set the ones I understand, ignore the rest. Close the window, and then head over to RR. Sept nothing works, no skin, no gps, no music. Turns out none of my settings got saved.

I try again, finally get the skin loaded, but alas its not the right size. Back to the forum, where I find that all I need to do is change the ini file in the skin folder (ahh, how obvious). Do that and now my skin is centered, but still not taking up the whole screen. I take a break from that and then head over to the music screen, where I click a bunch of various cryptic buttons, but can't seem to get any of my music to show up. Then my battery dies and I give up.

Now here I am looking harder for a first time users guide, some sort of explanation about how what works, and really I can't find anything. I realize that RR is incredibly customizable, but that isn't an excuse for its lack of user friendlyness. And its lack of new user support. Forums are great and all, but questions get buried and even with searching it can still be incredibly hard to find the basic answers.

So is there a Newbie guide that I just somehow missed? If not I'd be happy to make up a nice little webpage home for it if someone else would be kind enough to write one.

**BlazingBird** · 05-16-2008, 04:27 PM

Have you got your RR problem taken care of ? If you need to save the settings, the menu list on the left side of the RR config program, you scroll down and see config I believe its last on the list, click it and then you should see where you can save settings.

**treetop777** · 05-16-2008, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by jaguar36

Came across Streetdeck, which worked well, but [HL]$200 [/HL]is flat out crazy. Finally I found Road Runner, which at first glance seems perfect.

don't mean to be disrespectful but these type of post appear pretty often; the bottom line is this: RR isn't free! It will cost you TIME! to dig-in and get the answers you need - and it's all worth it.

There is no need for a website to host a guide, this site has a wiki that can be populated; the problem is everybody who beg for a guide want someone else to write it.

Who better than yourself to keep a journal of your frustrations and successes, format it as a guide, and share it with us..

(where's a spellchecker when you need one!)

**monkeyracer** · 05-16-2008, 07:26 PM

As treetop said, instead of investing money into it, your time is the cost.

This thread:

Road Runner Installer and Updater (** Out Dated **)

Has the installer and a skin installer. The typical standard skin is the BMV2 skin.

You have a Q1, which has a different resolution than most skins are created in. For the majority of skins the resolution is 800x600. Some skins are 800x480 for widescreen support, and there are other resolutions as well. From within the .ini you can resize the skin (Original width and height, show width and height, etc.) but when you resize it this way, you will lose some image quality, and some labels and indicators will not show in the right spot etc.

A quick search using the search "Q1" brings up these results:

Anyone own a UMPC

UMPC Q1 Skin

I made a skin in 800x480 resolution, and as long as your screen is set for that resolution you won't need to resize it.

As far as future questions and issues, and your suggestion for a user guide...

It would be impossible to have a user guide for this program. Maybe for getting the thing initially set up (in the FAQ's) but each skin has different features, and pressing different buttons perform different functions. Guino has included a "skincommands" and other supporting files. It's best to read through the thread where the skin is located at, and post your specific question in the respective thread.

After you get winamp to organize your songs, and everything else set up using RRConfig.exe, you should be pretty much ready to go. It took me a whole 20 minutes to get the BMV2 skin to work right.
Most [complete] skins are pretty much ready to use right after download. Some require minimal set up, like mine requires the user to copy a font or two over, and that's pretty much it.
What is better than having a FAQ section? Having a conversation with the people who created the program. That's what this forum is, and there are a lot of members here who really want to help new people out. If you have a question, they will get you to the right information.

I welcome you to this forum, and wish you great luck in your education here.

**kpjuk** · 05-17-2008, 12:52 PM

Hi jaguar36,

have a look at RRHelp v07-11-02 which is the latest help file version. If you r a beginner, then you should also use the installer from W3bMa5t3r which is at http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/road...r-updater.html

If this is beyond your skill levels, and for many it is, have a look at freeice here http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/soft...9-release.html.

This is a free front end written in flash by CdRsKuLL, and is an install and go front end. You won't get the same flexibility that RoadRunner offers, but you still get a lot of out of the box functionality.

There is a lot of info on freeice at the Digital-Car forum here http://www.digital-car.co.uk/forum/f...splay.php?f=58

Good Luck
KPJUK