gecko-dev/README/mozilla/README.os2

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= = = = = = = = = = = = = =   Mozilla Read Me    = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

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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.


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                            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.


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                           System Requirements

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*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.


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                          Installation Instructions

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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/>.