Can not get bots to work on a fresh install

[SCROFT]

I wanted to get a server up again after many years of being away.

I used the Linux auto install.sh script on a Ubuntu 16.04 box. Then I used the script to setp_bots. WOW this is so much easier than a few years ago. got into my server with a client everything works except ^botcreate bob 1 1 1 tells me invalid username A-Z... Etc. So I try to use the install script to dump the bot tables then use the update bots db option... same issue. So I figure I did something wrong and reinstalled everything (after deleting folder and dropping the DB). Still same issue. I search the forums and see that some people have had issues with upgrading bots and instructed to manually instal the bot tables. So I again delete and drop... fresh install but did NOT do setup_bots right away. I manually sourced in all the bot sql files then I did the setup_bots. Same issue.

So I am at a loss as to why a fresh install doesn't work or any other way I have tried.

Any ideas from any of you?

-Scroft