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Netscape 4.61 (X11)
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**********************************************
IMPORTANT! Before going any further, please
read and accept the terms in the file LICENSE.
**********************************************
The Netscape Client products now come only in gzip format. Though gzip is
available on many Unix systems, some (for whatever reason) may not have it.
If this is the case on your system, you can download a pre-built gzip binary
(and/or source) from the URL
ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/unsupported/gnu/
* To unpack a gzip-compressed tar file into the current directory, use some
variation of the following command:
gzip -dc the-file.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
Release notes for this version of Netscape are available on-line. After
starting the program, select "Release Notes" from the "Help" menu. This
will take you to the URL
http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/4.6/relnotes/unix-4.6.html
which lists new features and known problems of this release.
To submit bugs or other feedback, use the following URL
http://help.netscape.com/forms/bug-client.html
If for some reason you cannot submit feedback using that form, you may send
email to
[email protected]. Please be as specific as possible about the
version of Netscape you are using, and the hardware and version of the OS.
If possible, include a test case for the problem, including a URL.
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Configuration Notes
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Configuration Files from Version 1.12 or earlier:
If you are migrating from Netscape Navigator Version 1.12 or
earlier, a new directory is created in which configuration files
are placed. This directory is called `$HOME/.netscape'. Existing
1.12 or earlier configuration information is copied into this
directory upon first execution of Netscape. A dialog is presented
asking whether or not you would like to automatically delete your
1.12 files.
If you do not choose to delete the old files, then they will
continue to be used by older versions of Netscape, but versions
newer than 1.12 will never touch them.
If you have a file or directory in $HOME called .netscape, it is
highly recommended that you rename it prior to running this
version. If you don't, there is a possibility that you could
lose data contained in this directory (e.g., old preferences,
bookmarks, cookies, and so on).
General Notes:
Starting with 4.0, we strongly suggest setting the MOZILLA_HOME
environment variable to point to the Communicator installation
directory. Many Netscape Client components now look at MOZILLA_HOME
as a fallback or default mechanism in addition to the existing
mechanisms from previous releases.
csh, tcsh:
setenv MOZILLA_HOME /path/to/install-directory
sh, bash, ksh:
MOZILLA_HOME=/path/to/install-directory
export MOZILLA_HOME
Mail:
This section applies only to Netscape Communicator.
Please see the Release Notes for important information on
configuring and using Netscape Mail. Also, particularly if you
use procmail, see:
http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/relnotes/demo/movemail.html
for important system-dependent issues about file locking. Knowing
how to configure and use Netscape Mail will prevent you from losing
mail messages.
Java Applet Support:
Java Applet support is available for all Unix platforms.
To run Java applets with the Java-enabled version, Communicator
needs to be able to load Java class files from a file called
java40.jar. This file is included in the distribution, and is
searched for using the following algorithm:
if($CLASSPATH environment variable is set)
Look at $CLASSPATH, where $CLASSPATH is a
colon-delimited list of <path>/<jar-file> entries.
else
Search in order:
<program directory>
$MOZILLA_HOME/java/classes
$HOME/.netscape
/usr/local/netscape/java/classes
/usr/local/lib/netscape
If you were running Java with an earlier version of the Netscape
Navigator, you need to replace your old moz2_0.car file, moz*.zip
file, or java_3* file with the new java40.jar file supplied in this
distribution.
Netscape Plug-in Support:
Netscape Plug-in support is available on AIX, HP-UX, IRIX,
Linux 2.0.x, NCR Unix, OSF/1 (Digital Unix), SINIX, SCO OpenServer,
SunOS 4.1.3, and Solaris.
A default plug-in (libnullplugin.so) is included in the distribution.
The plugin list is generated using the following algorithm:
if($NPX_PLUGIN_PATH environment variable is set)
Look at $NPX_PLUGIN_PATH, where $NPX_PLUGIN_PATH is
a colon-delimited list of directories.
else
Look at all the following directories in order, overriding
previous entries in case of duplicates:
/usr/local/lib/netscape/plugins
$MOZILLA_HOME/plugins
$HOME/.netscape/plugins
More information about Unix plug-ins is available at:
http://cgi.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/extensions/info.cgi
Netscape Dynamic Font Support:
Netscape Dynamic Font support is available on Solaris 2.4 and IRIX.
The TrueDoc dynamic font displayer (libTrueDoc.so) from Bitstream
Inc. is included in the distribution. Font displayers are searched
for in the following order, and will use the first one found in
case of duplicates:
$HOME/.netscape/dynfonts
$MOZILLA_HOME/dynfonts
<program directory>/dynfonts
/usr/local/lib/netscape/dynfonts
Nethelp Support:
To load Nethelp topics, Communicator needs to be able to find the
Nethelp directory that contains the Nethelp documents. The Nethelp
documents are found under the directory "nethelp/" included with
the distribution. The directory is searched for using the following
algorithm:
Search in this order until found:
$HOME/.netscape/nethelp
$NS_NETHELP_PATH/nethelp
$MOZILLA_HOME/nethelp
<program directory>/nethelp
/usr/local/lib/netscape/nethelp
SmartUpdate:
This only applies if you have install privileges for Communicator.
Communicator now can update its own components. To do this, a
version registry mechanism has been created. SmartUpdate will
support more than one version registry. At install time a global
registry is created in the install directory and populated with
version information of various installed components.
A local registry is created as needed for each user and placed in
$HOME/.netscape. Information regarding updates is stored in
the local registry unless the MOZILLA_SHARED_REGISTRY environment
variable is set. In this case ONLY the global registry is
consulted and updated (assuming the user has write permission for
the registry file).
Asynchronous DNS host lookup
Netscape Communicator 4.5 has the ability to do asynchronous DNS
host lookups. This feature is on by default and nothing needs to
be done to configure it. If you experience DNS lookup problems,
you can turn this feature off by setting the environment variable
MOZILLA_NO_ASYNC_DNS to True:
csh, tcsh:
setenv MOZILLA_NO_ASYNC_DNS True
sh, bash, ksh:
MOZILLA_NO_ASYNC_DNS=True
export MOZILLA_NO_ASYNC_DNS
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Installation Troubleshooting
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AIX:
Netscape requires AIX 4.1 with the X11R5 and Motif 1.2 libraries.
If you are running an older version of the operating system, you
will get undefined symbols at run-time; unfortunately, the only
solution is to upgrade to a more recent version of the OS.
Under AIX, the MOZILLA_HOME environment variable must be set, and
the Communicator binary (called 'netscape_aix4') cannot be run
directly. See the 'netscape' script for more information on
running Communicator on AIX.
HP-UX:
In order to take full advantage of netscape's Drag and Drop
features, it is highly recommended that you upgrade your Motif
libraries to the latest version available from HP. At the time of
this writing, the latest Motif library is available from HP as patch
PHSS_11626 (for HP-UX 9.0x), or PHSS_14449 (for HP-UX 10.x).
This patch will fix many bugs in Motif Drag and Drop that caused
several problems with symptoms such as system hangs and core dumps.
HP-UX 9.0x only:
The HP Aserver might introduce a lag to the audio. Patches are
available from HP to help correct this problem. The patch numbers
are PHSS_5073 and PHKL_5059.
IRIX 5.3:
Initializing Input Method support in the Composer and HTML Message
Compose applications (e.g., for Japanese input) can halt netscape.
Because of this, the IRIX 5.3 version is shipped with this feature
disabled. To enable Input Method support you need to install SGI
Motif patch 1701, and add the following line to your .Xdefaults
file:
*editorImInputEnabled: true
Linux:
Incompatibilities with Netscape are known to exist in some
versions of libc. If you think you are experiencing a libc-related
problem, try downloading a different version of libc from:
http://www.caldera.com/tech-ref/col-1.0/updates.html
or
http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/
If possible, please see the Release Notes for more details.
NetBSD, FreeBSD:
We have been told (but have not verified) that the BSD/386 binaries
will work on x86 systems running NetBSD 1.0 or FreeBSD 2.0 (but
not FreeBSD 1.1.5.1.) A native FreeBSD version of Communicator
is now available for FreeBSD 2.2.
Solaris 2.4, 2.5, 2.5.1, and 2.6:
The Solaris 2.4 Communicator is dynamically linked with the X and
Motif libraries. If the Motif dynamic libraries are not properly
installed, Communicator will exit with this error:
ld.so.1: netscape: fatal: libXm.so.3: can't open file: errno=2
Installing Motif dynamic libraries will get Communicator working.
If Communicator exits on Solaris 2.5.1 with a message similar to the
above saying that it can't open libresolv.so.2, you will need to
install Sun patch 103663 (for SPARC) or 103664 (for x86).
If you have problems running the Solaris 2.4 (SPARC) executable on
Solaris 2.5.1, a native Solaris 2.5.1 version is available which
may solve the problems.
On Solaris 2.6, you may experience problems with fonts not
rendering properly. To fix this, add the following lines to your
$HOME/.xinitrc file:
xset +fp /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/
xset fp rehash
CDE users on 2.6 will need to add the first of the two lines above
to their $HOME/.dt/sessions/sessionetc (be sure the permissions on
this file are 755), then exit and restart.
SunOS 4.1.3:
The SunOS 4.1.3 package comes with two executables: netscape and
netscape_dns. This is because SunOS uses two different,
incompatible methods of resolving host names (Domain Name Service,
and Network Information Service, formerly known as Yellow Pages.)
Only one of these executables needs to be installed on an
individual site.
It is usually possible to configure your YP/NIS server to consult
a DNS server for resolution of hosts not in the YP maps. Consult
your system administrator for details.
If netscape is crashing under OpenWindows 3.0, make sure you
have all of the relevant patches, including patch 100444.
SunOS 4.1.3 and BSD/386:
These distributions also includes a directory called "nls". This
directory is a standard part of the MIT X11R5 distribution, but
is not included with X11R4- or X11R6-based systems (such as
OpenWindows 3.0 or earlier, and XFree86 3.1 or later.)
On these systems, Netscape has been linked against X11R5 (because
Motif 1.2.4 has some bad bugs in conjunction with X11R6.)
Unfortunately, X11R5 has one rather serious bug, which is that if
this "nls" directory does not exist, the program will dump core
any time you try to copy, or paste to or from a text field!
So, if you don't have the "nls" directory on your system, you will
need to install it first. Here is where Netscape looks for it
(these default pathnames are hardcoded into the executable):
SunOS 4.1.3: /usr/lib/X11/nls/
BSD/386: /usr/X11/lib/X11/nls/
If you choose not to create the directory there, then you must
set the XNLSPATH environment variable to the directory where you
did install it.
* Included with all distributions is a file called XKeysymDB. Without this
file, many warnings about "unknown keysyms" will be generated when the
program starts up, and most keyboard equivalents won't work. This is a
general problem with running Motif programs on systems not configured for
Motif, and so will be necessary on most Sun systems.
This file is included with all packages because some systems have an older
version of this file, so you may still get some warnings. The XKeysymDB
file normally goes in /usr/lib/X11/XKeysymDB or /usr/openwin/lib/XKeysymDB,
but you can override that with XKEYSYMDB environment variable.
* Also included with all distributions is a file called Netscape.ad, which
lists the default resources which are built in to the program. It is
not necessary to install this; it is provided for informational purposes.
See the comment at the top of Netscape.ad for more information.
* If you get a "Cannot locate host" dialog at startup, this is a sign of
problems related to name resolution. If you're on a Sun, see the comments
above about the two executables.
* If you get a "Cannot connect to host" dialog at startup, it could mean that
you are behind a firewall, and need to tell Netscape about your SOCKS or
proxy server. See Edit Menu -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies, or
consult your system administrator.
* Please read the release notes under "Help -> Release Notes". This
document is updated as problems are found, so please check it before
reporting a bug.
* And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."
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