================================================================================
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = Mozilla Read Me = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
================================================================================
Mozilla is subject to the terms detailed in the license agreement accompanying
it.
This Read Me file contains information about system requirements and
installation instructions for the OS/2 build of Mozilla.
For more info on Mozilla, see http://www.mozilla.org. For more info on the OS/2
port see http://www.mozilla.org/ports/os2. To submit bugs or other feedback
check out Bugzilla at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org for links to known bugs,
bug-writing guidelines, and more. You can also get help with Bugzilla by
pointing your IRC client to #mozillazine at irc.mozilla.org, OS/2 specific
problems are discussed in #warpzilla and in the newsgroup
netscape.public.mozilla.os2 on news.mozilla.org and other newsservers.
================================================================================
Getting Mozilla
================================================================================
Official Milestone builds of Mozilla are published on the release page at
http://www.mozilla.org/releases
OS/2 releases are not created by Mozilla.org staff and may appear on the page
http://www.mozilla.org/ports/os2 before the releases page. Be sure to read the
Mozilla release notes linked on the releases page for information on known
problems and installation issues with Mozilla.
================================================================================
System Requirements
================================================================================
*All Platforms
To view and use the "Modern" theme, your display monitor should be set to
display thousands of colors. For users who cannot set their displays to use
more than 256 colors, Mozilla.org recommends using the "Classic" theme for
Mozilla.
To select the Modern theme after you have installed Mozilla, from the
Navigator browser, open the View menu, and then open then open the Apply
Theme submenu and choose Modern.
*OS/2
- This release requires updated C runtime DLLs (libc-0.5.1) from
http://www.innotek.de/products/gccos2/download/gccos2download_e.html
in order to run. By default the installation routine places them in
\OS2\DLL on your bootdrive, but you can put them in the same directory as
Mozilla's executable, or somewhere else in your LIBPATH. The Mozilla
installer will not install the C runtime DLLs for you but requires them to
run.
- Minimum hardware requirements
+ Pentium class processor
+ 64 MiB RAM plus 64 MiB free swap space
+ 35 MiB free harddisk space for installation
plus storage space for disk cache and mail
- Recommended hardware for acceptable performance
+ 500 MHz processor
+ 256 MiB RAM plus 64 MiB free swap space
NOTE: Mozilla's performance and stability increases the more physical RAM
is available. Especially for long browsing and IRC sessions 512 MiB of
memory is recommended.
- Software requirements
+ Installation on a file system supporting long file names
(i.e. HPFS or JFS but not FAT)
+ OS/2 Warp 4 with Fixpack 15 or later
+ MPTS version 5.3
+ TCP/IP version 4.1
+ INETVER: SOCKETS.SYS=5.3007, AFOS2.SYS=5.3001, AFINET.SYS=5.3006
NOTE: Do not attempt to use MPTS & TCP/IP versions below these INETVER
levels. Although Mozilla may seem to start and run normally with older
stacks, some features Mozilla needs are not implemented correctly in
older MPTS versions, which may result in crashes and data loss.
+ Convenience Pack 2 or eComStation 1.0 or later meet these requirements
out of the box.
================================================================================
Installation Instructions
================================================================================
For all platforms, install into a clean (new) directory. Installing on top of
previously released builds may cause problems if a ZIP package is used instead
of an installer EXE.
Note: These instructions do not tell you how to build Mozilla.
For info on building the Mozilla source, see
http://www.mozilla.org/build/
OS/2 Installation Instructions
------------------------------
To install Mozilla by downloading the Mozilla installer, follow these steps:
1. Click the "Installer" link on the site you're downloading Mozilla
from to download the installer file to your machine. This file is typically
called mozilla-os2-*-installer.exe where the "*" is replaced by the Mozilla
version.
2. Navigate to where you downloaded the file, make sure that the C library
DLLs are copied to the same directory or installed in the LIBPATH, and
double-click on the the Mozilla installer object to start the Setup
program.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions in the setup program. The program
automatically ends any running Mozilla sessions and creates a Mozilla
folder on the Desktop. To start Mozilla the first time, again make sure
that the C library DLLs are copied to the installation directory or
installed in the LIBPATH and then double-click the Mozilla program object
inside this folder.
To install Mozilla by downloading the .zip file and installing manually,
follow these steps:
1. Click the "Zip" link on the site you're downloading Mozilla from to
download the ZIP package to your machine. This file is typically called
mozilla-os2-*.zip where the "*" is replaced by the Mozilla version.
2. Navigate to where you downloaded the file and unpack it using your
favorite unzip tool.
3. Keep in mind that the unzip process creates a directory "mozilla" below
the location you point it to, i.e.
unzip mozilla-os2-1.7.5.zip -d c:\mozilla-1.7.5
will unpack Mozilla into c:\mozilla-1.7.5\mozilla.
4. Make sure that you are _not_ unpacking over an old installation. This is
known to cause problems.
5. To start Mozilla, navigate to the directory you extracted Mozilla to,
make sure that the C library DLLs are copied to the installation directory
or installed in the LIBPATH, and then double-click the Mozilla.exe object.
Running multiple versions of Mozilla concurrently
-------------------------------------------------
Because various members of the Mozilla family (i.e. Mozilla, Firefox,
Thunderbird, IBM Web Browser) may use different, incompatible versions of the
same DLL, some extra steps may be required to run them concurrently.
One workaround is the LIBPATHSTRICT variable. To run Mozilla based applications
one can create a CMD script like the following example (where an installation of
Mozilla exists in the directory d:\internet\mozilla is assumed):
set LIBPATHSTRICT=T
rem The next line may be needed when a different Mozilla program is listed in LIBPATH
rem set BEGINLIBPATH=d:\internet\mozilla
rem The next line is only needed to run two versions of the same program
rem set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1
d:
cd d:\internet\mozilla
mozilla.exe %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
Similarly, one can create a program object to start Mozilla using the following
settings:
Path and file name: *
Parameters: /c set LIBPATHSTRICT=T & .\mozilla.exe "%*"
Working directory: d:\internet\mozilla
(One might need to add MOZ_NO_REMOTE and/or BEGINLIBPATH as in the CMD script
above depending on the system configuration.)
Finally, the simplest method is to use the Run! utility by Rich Walsh that can
be found in the Hobbes Software Archive:
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=Run!
Read its documentation for more information.
Separating profiles from installation directory
-----------------------------------------------
To separate the locations of the user profile(s) (containing the bookmarks and
all customizations) from the installation directory to keep your preferences in
the case of an update even when using ZIP packages, set the variable
MOZILLA_HOME to a directory of your choice. You can do this either in
Config.sys or in a script or using a program object as listed above. If you add
set MOZILLA_HOME=f:\Data
the user profile(s) will be created in "f:\Data\Mozilla\Profiles".
Other important environment variables
-------------------------------------
There are a few enviroment variables that can be used to control special
behavior of Mozilla on OS/2:
- set NSPR_OS2_NO_HIRES_TIMER=1
This causes Mozilla not to use OS/2's high resolution timer. Set this if other
applications using the high resolution timer (multimedia apps) act strangely.
- set MOZILLA_USE_EXTENDED_FT2LIB=T
If you have the Innotek Font Engine installed this variable enables special
functions in Mozilla to handle unicode characters.
- set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1
Use this to run two instances of Mozilla simultaneously (e.g. debug and
optimized version).
Find more information on this topic and other tips on
http://www.os2bbs.com/os2news/Warpzilla.html
Known Problems of the OS/2 version
----------------------------------
Cross-platform problems are usually listed in the release notes of each
milestone release.
- Bug 167884, "100% CPU load when viewing site [tiling transparent PNG]":
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=167884
On OS/2, Mozilla is known to have very slow performance on websites that use
small, repeated images with transparency for their layout.
Other known problems can be found by following the link "Current Open Warpzilla
Bugs" on the OS/2 Mozilla page <http://www.mozilla.org/ports/os2/>.
4d0067b7d2