Drupal 6.x

The default Garland THEME will not work if I change the default coloring configuration -- if i choose another color combination -- all i end up is a site with links on a blank page

I deleted my database while doing some housecleaning on my server. No problem. The site was getting old. I upoladed V6 to my site, but when I go to the site, I'm presented with the following:

Warning: Unknown column 'serialized' in 'field list' query: SELECT data, created, headers, expire, serialized FROM cache WHERE cid = 'variables' in /homepages/29/d182458118/htdocs/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 128

Warning: Unknown column 'serialized' in 'field list' query: UPDATE cache SET data = 'a:123:{s:13:\"theme_default\";s:4:\"meta\";s:13:\"filter_html_1\";i:1;s:18:\"node_options_forum\";a:1:{i:0;s:6:\"status\";}s:17:\"menu_primary_menu\";i:2;s:19:\"menu_secondary_menu\";i:2;s:19:\"file_directory_temp\";s:4:\"/tmp\";s:9:\"site_name\";s:19:\"Icenrye Productions\";s:9:\"site_mail\";s:22:\"geoicenrye@icenrye.com\";s:11:\"site_footer\";s:0:\"\";s:9:\"anonymous\";s:9:\"Anonymous\";s:14:\"site_frontpage\";s:4:\"node\";s:9:\"clean_url\";i:0;s:8:\"site_403\";s:0:\"\";s:8:\"site_404\";s:0:\"\";s:11:\"error_level\";s:1:\"1\";s:14:\"watchdog_clear\";s:6:\"604800\";s:5:\"cache\";s:1:\"0\";s:14:\"cache_lifetime in /homepages/29/d182458118/htdocs/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 128

Hi,
I tried searching for this, but I wasn't able to find anything relevant, so I'm sorry if this has been addressed before. First off, I have a Drupal 5.x site that will get the upgrade to Drupal 6, and I have book pages for different categories of audio lectures that are updated daily once new lectures are out. On the front/home page, I have a status page that I edit to show which classes/lectures have been uploaded that day. After I upload a lecture to a separate file server, I go to the drupal site and add the link, lecture title, file size, etc., to that lecture's home page. For example, say the class is "Anatomy 101", and today's lecture is on the lower limb. This is how I would format the Anatomy 101 page:

Monday, Feb. 11: Upper Limb (download), 32.9MB.
Tuesday, Feb. 12: The Brainstem (download), 58.1MB.
Wednesday, Feb. 13: Heart & Circulation (download), 27.3MB.
Thursday, Feb. 14: The Lower Limb (download), 27.3MB.

I want something that will monitor that "Anatomy 101" page and sense any updates/changes, and notify a display box that shows which lecture(s) (sometimes there are two) is/are uploaded and available for download.

Well, I guess that headline will get some attention.

But seriously, DO NOT attempt to update to 6.0 unless you are working on a cloned test server because you will almost certainly have issues. In fact I wouldn't even attempt an upgrade until V6 has been around for a while and gone through at least one upgrade itself, to iron out the major upgrade headaches. The system is just too complex to expect it to go smoothly at the outset.

I've always been able to upgrade easily and seamlessly within 5.X but this time even though I followed the new instructions perfectly it failed with unrecoverable errors, and I was not able to restore the old version and DB for unknown reasons (I had never attempted a DB restore before) - I got a really weird error.

See my previous post which so far has no replies - not surprising - it's a cryptic error problem which few can really decipher, and that's the whole problem here.

We are using Drupal because it supposedly obviates the need to know a lot about code and system administration crap. But the update process needs to be much more automated. It's really an extraordinary pain in the neck and fraught with difficulties - not for the faint of heart. Great strides have been made to simplify site admin and theming, for example, but this is the next big hurdle.

Just for example:

I've upgraded my site to Drupal 6 and the pager seems to be busted:

http://ckdake.com/node

Not the links at the bottom have html like:

<ul class="pager"><li class="pager-first first"><a href="/node" title="Go to first page" class="active">« first</a></li>

<li class="pager-previous"><a href="/node" title="Go to previous page" class="active">‹ previous</a></li>
<li class="pager-item"><a href="/node" title="Go to page 1" class="active">1</a></li>
<li class="pager-item"><a href="/node" title="Go to page 2" class="active">2</a></li>
<li class="pager-current">3</li>
<li class="pager-item"><a href="/node" title="Go to page 4" class="active">4</a></li>
<li class="pager-item"><a href="/node" title="Go to page 5" class="active">5</a></li>
<li class="pager-item"><a href="/node" title="Go to page 6" class="active">6</a></li>
<li class="pager-item"><a href="/node" title="Go to page 7" class="active">7</a></li>

<li class="pager-item"><a href="/node" title="Go to page 8" class="active">8</a></li>
<li class="pager-item"><a href="/node" title="Go to page 9" class="active">9</a></li>
<li class="pager-ellipsis">…</li>
<li class="pager-next"><a href="/node" title="Go to next page" class="active">next ›</a></li>
<li class="pager-last last"><a href="/node" title="Go to last page" class="active">last »</a></li>
</ul>

I want to be able to append custom classes to menu items eg