I tried to use the hotkeys from less/more/vim so that it would be somewhat familiar. I think people are frequently tripped up if files are not recognized as a log and just treated as text. Files treated as plain text are separated from log files, so it can be a bit confusing. Not entirely sure how to improve the experience there.
> lnav not recognizing log types I think it should have (Apache/Tomcat)
There are quite a few log formats builtin. But, since log output formats can be customized by admins, it's possible they deviate from the builtin ones and things won't "just work".
> not correctly loading custom log parsers
I've tried to improve error messages a bunch[1] and make it easier to trouble shoot configuration issues[2]. I'm sure more could be done, I just don't quite know what folks are tripping over without feedback.
> If you don't mind next time I try it I can give you more concrete info.
Feel free to file github issues or email support@lnav.org