pear/Console_Getopt requires PEAR Installer (version >= 1.9.1), installed version is 1.7.1 

Is the error message states the 1.4.2 requires a new version of pear then the one included in the download package.. go figure. In order to force an update of pear do the following via ssh

1. Initialise PEAR registry…

./pear mage-setup

2.

./pear channel-update pear.php.net
./pear upgrade --force PEAR

repeat again if you get any errors.

Then run the upgrade (via ssh or the online installer)

./pear install magento-core/Mage_All_Latest-stable

All you need to do to put magento into maintainance mode is to create a new file called

maintenance.flag

in the root.. and err that’s it

If you dont want to freeze yourself out you can edit index.php

around line 57 add

$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

$allowed = array('xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx','xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx');

( where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is your ip addresses. )

then change the line

if (file_exists($maintenanceFile)) {
to
if (file_exists($maintenanceFile) && !in_array($ip, $allowed)) {

you can see the site and anyone else will get maintenance.

To give you an idea of how responsive our setup is take a look at this. Free Speed test test the page load time of sites from various locations around the world.  The results here show the page load time of our demo site.  As you can see we are returning sub-half second load time in the UK and sub-second time for EU and Eastern USA. With sub 2 seconds as far out as Australia. Our customers are hosted in exactly the same data centre with the same setup and equipment as our demo store. No reverse proxies or jiggery pokery to make the demo site artificially faster,

edit your themes

template/reports/product_viewed.phtml

Add this at a suitable locations

<div class="block-content">
        <ol id="recently-viewed-items" class="mini-products-list">
        <?php foreach ($_products as $_item): ?>
            <li class="item">
                <a href="<?php echo $this->getProductUrl($_item) ?>" class="product-image"><img src="<?php echo $this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_item, 'small_image')->resize(50, 50) ?>" width="50" height="50" alt="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_item->getName()) ?>" /> </a>
                <div class="product-details"><p class="product-name"><a href="<?php echo $this->getProductUrl($_item) ?>"><?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_item->getName()) ?></a></p></div>
            </li>
        <?php endforeach; ?>
        </ol>
        <script type="text/javascript">decorateList('recently-viewed-items');</script>
    </div>

reference and credit to Germán W on the Magento Boards : http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/24838/

{{block type="catalog/product_list" category_id="12" template="catalog/product/list.phtml"}}

on your home page which works fine.. however, if you want these products to be randomly selected you hit problems.

The obvious thing to try is

{{block type="catalog/product_list_random" category_id="12" template="catalog/product/list.phtml"}}

however, this displays random products from EVERY category!!

The reason for this is that the file random.php does not work as advertised so we need to create a new version that does. We do not want to break upgrade compatibility so create the following directory structure.

in app/code/local create Mage/Catalog/Block/Product/List

eg mkdir -p Mage/Catalog/Block/Product/List

In your new List directory create the following file called Random.php

<?php
class Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_List_Random extends Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_List
{
    protected function _getProductCollection()
    {
        if (is_null($this->_productCollection)) {
            $categoryID = $this->getCategoryId();
            if($categoryID)
            {
              $category = new Mage_Catalog_Model_Category();
              $category->load($categoryID); // this is category id
              $collection = $category->getProductCollection();
            } else
            {
              $collection = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/product_collection');
            }
            Mage::getModel('catalog/layer')->prepareProductCollection($collection);
            $collection->getSelect()->order('rand()');
            $collection->addStoreFilter();
            $numProducts = $this->getNumProducts() ? $this->getNumProducts() : 3;
            $collection->setPage(1, $numProducts)->load();

            $this->_productCollection = $collection;
        }
        return $this->_productCollection;
    }
}

To call this on your home page open your Home page in CMS > Static Pages

and in Content add

{{block type="catalog/product_list_random" category_id="YOUR_CATEGORY_ID" template="catalog/product/list.phtml" column_count="4" num_products="12"}}

Create a new hidden category and add the products you wish to randomly select from. Find the category ID of this category and enter this number in the above place marker.

You will find that although you are seeing the Category display tool bar (drid view / list view / show.. etc) it has no effect on the layout. the default layout is 3 x 3 grid which is where column_count=”4″ comes into play. Alter this to meet your themes needs. Same goes for num_products=”12″.

And that is that.

Don’t want to be looking at the grid.. hide it. (evil hack alert)

Add

<style type="text/css">
.toolbar {display:none;}
</style>

at the top of your Content area on the homepage CMS. this will hide the tool bar for just the homepage.
References:
Thanks to mac75a here : http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/72319/ and andytm here: http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/72319/

1) Magento Social Bookmarking Services

This is a very flexible means of adding a range of social networking buttons to your site or individual product pages. You can even change the way in which information is posted to different sites and comes with a good range of social sites pre-made. You can alter the buttons associated with the links via a simple addition to your Magento backend. It also allows the use of URL shortening services for use with twitter.

Installation is a little tricky.

You can call it in CMS pages with

{{block type="socialbookmarking/bookmarks" template="bookmarks/bookmarks.phtml"}}

however, to have the links appear on your Product page you will need to add the following to your :
app/design/frontend/xxxxx/xxxxx/layout/catalog.xml

      <!-- ... -->
      <reference name="content">
            <block type="catalog/product_view" name="product.info" template="catalog/product/view.phtml">
            <!-- ... -->
                  <block type="socialbookmarking/bookmarks" name="bookmarks" template="bookmarks/bookmarks.phtml"/>
            <!-- ... -->
            </block>
      <!-- ... -->
      </reference>
 </catalog_product_view>

then in your:
app/design/frontend/xxxxx/xxxxx/template/catalog/product/view.phtml

locate a suitable place where you wish the buttons to appear and add.

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('bookmarks') ?>

If you are looking for a great set of icons to go with this extension (the provided ones are a bit naff) take a look here : http://www.wpzoom.com/design/21-sets-of-free-social-bookmarking-icons-for-your-blog/

2) Multi-Flat Shipping module

If you wish have 2 flat rate eg a UK postage charge and a EU postage charge Magento can’t do this our of the box… we don’t know why either. However, this simple but effective extension will allow you to install up to 5 flat rate shipping costs. Make sure to enable all the countries from which you are prepared to accept customers (system > config > general). Then in the Flat rate backend select which countries can use which flat rate (and selecting “Show Method if Not Applicable” to No) Your customers will only see the shipping rate that is applicable to their country.

3) Admin Custom Shipping Rate
If you wish to take manual orders in the backend it is often because the customer is actually in front of you. For this reason it is useful if you can specify an exact postage cost eg zero. This module will allow you to set any postage rate as you complete the manual order in the backend. Very simple to install.

4) Meanbee Royal Mail Domestic and International Shipping
All hail Meanbee! Meanbee’s Royal Mail shipping extension was an essential module for OSCommerce and his work has continued into Magento. This allows UK businesses to accurately charge the required postage for each product. With a slight hack you can also tell it to remove options when a certain price level is reached eg to force customers to select an insured option.

5) Magento Easy Lightbox
The default behaviour for Magento is to open a popup window when clicking on additional images. This is one aspect of Magento that seems like it is out of the ark. However, this incredibly easy to install extension turns the additional images into a lightbox effect.

Invalid method Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_List_Toolbar::isLastPage(Array
(
)
)

Trace:
#0 [internal function]: Varien_Object->__call(\'isLastPage\', Array)

Copy this

public function isLastPage()
    {
        return $this->getCollection()->getCurPage() >= $this->getLastPageNum();
    }

and paste in app/code/core/Mage/Core/Block/Template.php after this:

public function getCacheKeyInfo()
    {
        return array(
            'BLOCK_TPL',
            Mage::app()->getStore()->getCode(),
            $this->getTemplateFile(),
            'template' => $this->getTemplate()
        );
    }

To avoid having it get overwritten during next update create the following folders:

app/code/local/Mage/Core/Block/

and add your new Template.php in there.

source:

http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/201998/#t259715

http://www.magentocommerce.com

Varien, a Los Angeles web development firm is the brainchild behindMagento, and my what a fantastic job they have done on this product. It’s by far one of the more exciting e-commerce platforms available for free on the market today. Dripping with features, they really have thought of everything. Wishlists, shop by price and category, item comparison – all the things we’ve come to expect from professional web stores. Its software as good as this that really keeps licensed software on their toes..

Just some of the features, for a full list download the pdf

Notable Features

• Integrated with Google Analytics
• Multiple Images with Zoom
• Add to Wishlist
• Send to a Friend
• Batch Import and Export of Catalog
• One Page Checkout
• Multi Lingual

Read what they have to say about the other 9 solutions here

From Smashing Magazine

Today we are glad to release a yet another freebie: Polaroid Magento Theme, a professional design skin for the shops powered by the popular open-source ecommerce web application Magento. The theme was designed by eCommerce-Themes and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers. As usual, the theme is absolutely free to use in private and commerical projects.

• live demo
• large preview (.png)
• installation guide and documentation
• download the .zip-package (zip, 1.1 Mb)
• release on the developer’s site

We love our readers. We respect the hard work of designers and developers across the globe. And we do our best to make the web design community stronger and the Web a little bit prettier. Therefore we work with talented artists and creative professionals to showcase their skills and release something unique and beautiful as a gift to the community. And in the end truly impressive works see the light of day.

Today we are glad to release Sigyn SM — a free high-quality Magento theme created by Silverthemes.com especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The theme has a unique grungy design that stands out and can serve as a good baseline for your Magento-powered online shops.

• large preview 1
• large preview 2
• large preview 3
• installation and configuration guide
• download the theme (0.2 Mb)