How to replace Mozilla 1.8x beta with stable Mozilla 1.7x?

Booting, installing, newbie
Message
Author
Glitchman

How to replace Mozilla 1.8x beta with stable Mozilla 1.7x?

#1 Post by Glitchman »

Is it easy to uninstall the beta Mozilla that comes with Puppy? Do I just need to delete some directories? The main reason I prefer to go back to Mozilla 1.7x (or Firefox) is that the image manager actually works, which is essential on dial-up. Thanks.

User avatar
Lobster
Official Crustacean
Posts: 15522
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 06:06
Location: Paradox Realm
Contact:

#2 Post by Lobster »

The quick answer to that is no it is not easy. Use Firefox.
The reason is to do with dependency. To keep Puppy small, Barry makes use of code for several purposes. So you may need Mozilla for bits of Puppy when you least expect it.

I would use Firefox.

:)
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

User avatar
klhrevolutionist
Posts: 1121
Joined: Wed 08 Jun 2005, 10:09

current

#3 Post by klhrevolutionist »

What seems to be wrong with the beta of mozilla???

edit= okay, thanks for telling me. Also, thanks to the guest with the installer links.
I uninstalled my mozilla and replaced it with the installer one and it seems to be quicker
than BK's no offense. It also has a couple other things I personally like so thanks!!!
Last edited by klhrevolutionist on Sun 21 Aug 2005, 22:24, edited 1 time in total.
Heaven is on the way, until then let's get the truth out!

Guest

#4 Post by Guest »

you can install Mozilla 1.7 and/or Firefox and/or Thunderbird and/or Opera without uninstalling Puppy's Mozilla

just download the tar.gz package, unzip it, and run
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/ ... .11.tar.gz

or the installer
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/ ... lla1.7.11/

Glitchman

Getting rid of the broken beta Mozilla permanently

#5 Post by Glitchman »

I appreciate the replies so far. The main reason I hadn't yet tried downloading another version is because I had heard of issues with sharing the same Netscape / Mozilla / Firefox profile across multiple versions (if the versions are similar enough.) Personally, I'd rather not have a browser installed that I never use (beta Mozilla), which is the same reason why I uninstall IE from Windows with LitePC.com.
klhrevolutionist wrote:What seems to be wrong with the beta of mozilla???
Everything. For starters, the beta version completely ignores my image preferences. Try disabling images altogether. Everything still loads. For me, this is unacceptable on dial-up, as loading ads (especially shockwave flash) are a waste of time. I prefer having complete control over my browser.

Previous versions of Puppy bundled a stable release of Mozilla, which was fine with me, as all the features worked as expected. I am determined to delete all traces of the beta Mozilla, even if it breaks other apps, considering that the beta Mozilla is already a broken app....

User avatar
BarryK
Puppy Master
Posts: 9392
Joined: Mon 09 May 2005, 09:23
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Contact:

Re: Getting rid of the broken beta Mozilla permanently

#6 Post by BarryK »

Glitchman wrote: For me, this is unacceptable on dial-up, as loading ads (especially shockwave flash) are a waste of time.
Well that's easy to fix in Mozilla, just remove the Flash plugin file from /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins directory.

To screen out other images, there is a external image blocker, I forget its name.

Bruce B

#7 Post by Bruce B »

Here is a rough outline of how I replace it.

delete the directory mozilla-1.8b1.4

delete ~./.mozilla (if nothing you need is there)

install the other mozilla

locate the various symlinks used by the old mozilla. modify or delete them as need be. you have to see where they point and what they do in order to determine how to handle each one

modify etc/profile and have the MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME point to the mozilla you installed.

note: there might be some lib file used by the orginal mozilla that is no longer availabe for some app like gaim. i don't know any specifics and I've not had problems, but then again there are many apps I don't use.

Bruce B

Re: current

#8 Post by Bruce B »

klhrevolutionist wrote:What seems to be wrong with the beta of mozilla???
Not much but enough for me to replace it.

* The option to not load remote images doesn't work.

* There is no spell checker in the composer

FWIW: When I install the other Mozilla I do a custom install and don't install the email client, because I use Thunderbird for email.

Glitchman

#9 Post by Glitchman »

Thanks for the info. I will give this a try.

Glitchman

No dice yet

#10 Post by Glitchman »

Well, this has proven to be quite an adventure. In short, it does not work... yet. Here is what I did:

1. I deleted the directory mozilla-1.8b1.4. This also appeared to remove the symbolic link "mozilla" which pointed to mozilla-1.8b1.4.
2. I deleted the directory ~/.mozilla .
3. I downloaded and installed Opera via PupGet since I want to have this browser around anyway.
4. I downloaded the Mozilla 1.7.11 installer file with Opera.

(Fast forward at least an hour of the two big browser downloads):
5. Opening the installer from ROX only gave the following error:
No run action specified for files of this type (application/x-compressed-tar)
and so on.
6. After a few minutes I eventually figured out that I needed to open TkZip first (since it rhymes with PKZip.) ;-)
7. After decompressing, I opened the README, then launched the mozilla-installer. Simple enough so far...
8. I chose Custom install, noting that it would install to /usr/local/mozilla/ by default.
9. Now the fun begins. I notice that Opera changed the symbolic links of mozilla, firefox, and netscape inside /usr/local/bin/ to launch Opera. So I renamed mozilla to something else temporarily.
10. Launching mozilla from /usr/local/mozilla now does nothing, rather than launching Opera. I even tried copying /usr/local/mozilla/mozilla to /usr/local/bin/mozilla. No dice. Even running it from a console window gives the following, despite the fact that mozilla is in the directory:
mozilla: No such file or directory
At this point I am stumped. How do I get Mozilla to launch?

Bruce B

#11 Post by Bruce B »

> 1. I deleted the directory mozilla-1.8b1.4. This also appeared to remove the symbolic link "mozilla" which pointed to mozilla-1.8b1.4.

The symlink is on the same level as mozilla-1.8b1.4 therefore it should not have deleted it, but depends on how you deleted it.

In any event that links goes dead when mozilla-1.8b1.4, so you make a new link pointing to where you installed the other mozilla.

> 2. I deleted the directory ~/.mozilla .

Okay

> 3. I downloaded and installed Opera via PupGet since I want to have this browser around anyway.

Okay

> 4. I downloaded the Mozilla 1.7.11 installer file with Opera.

Okay

(Fast forward at least an hour of the two big browser downloads):
> 5. Opening the installer from ROX only gave the following error:
Quote:
No run action specified for files of this type (application/x-compressed-tar)and so on.

Okay

> 6. After a few minutes I eventually figured out that I needed to open TkZip first (since it rhymes with PKZip.) Wink

What I do is: tar xzvf nameof.tar.gz in a temporary directory

> 7. After decompressing, I opened the README, then launched the mozilla-installer. Simple enough so far...

> 8. I chose Custom install, noting that it would install to /usr/local/mozilla/ by default.

/usr may not be the best place but that's another story.

> 9. Now the fun begins. I notice that Opera changed the symbolic links of mozilla, firefox, and netscape inside /usr/local/bin/ to launch Opera. So I renamed mozilla to something else temporarily.

Opera did that? That's why I didn't suggest what how to fix-up the symlinks - use yer best judgment I guess.

10. Launching mozilla from /usr/local/mozilla now does nothing, rather than launching Opera. I even tried copying /usr/local/mozilla/mozilla to /usr/local/bin/mozilla. No dice. Even running it from a console window gives the following, despite the fact that mozilla is in the directory:

That won't work. The file mozilla has to be in the same directory as it was in order to work.

There are dozens of ways to fix this. A lot depends on what you want to happen when those particular symlinks in /usr/bin are called.

Some suggestions:

Go to the mozilla directory in ROX, with the mouse drag and drop the PROPER mozilla file to the desktop, not the one you copied. Its probably a gear with the word mozilla under it. You can give it your own icon by right clicking on it and select the change icon. Drag and drop an icon on it from ROX. Mozilla has icons in a subdirectory of the parent directory.

You can edit your window manager menu and have it point directly to the /mozilla/mozilla file. (not the best way and not necessary if you symlinks are in order)

I make an alias in bash like this: alias moz='/mnt/hda6/shared/mozilla/mozilla &'

This way I just type moz on the command line and it runs.

What I suggested in the parent post was this: "locate the various symlinks used by the old mozilla. modify or delete them as need be. you have to see where they point and what they do in order to determine how to handle each one"

That's what I do. I can't tell you specifically what to do because the orginal symlinks have been changed and I don't know what they were. Also, they can change by installing other browsers link Links and as I've just learned Opera.

I just checked my /usr/bin/mozilla symlink and this is what it does:

mozilla -> /mnt/hda6/shared/mozilla/mozilla

I guess that is what I wanted it to do.

> Quote:
> mozilla: No such file or directory


> At this point I am stumped. How do I get Mozilla to launch?

I hope the above helps you.

User avatar
klhrevolutionist
Posts: 1121
Joined: Wed 08 Jun 2005, 10:09

reply

#12 Post by klhrevolutionist »

When I installed the installer one, from the link given from post above I did this.
Of course if you have deleted the old mozilla with bruce b. instructions, we will move right along
You have installed the mozilla from links above let's say the installer.
It created a folder in /usr/local named mozilla
okay, now go to root/my-applications/bin/
and right click and create new script, inside of script it will
have #!/bin/sh
now go below that and simply put these lines in there

cd /usr/local/mozilla/
sh run-mozilla.sh


then file->save as whatever you want to name it???
now drag to the desktop and enjoy!!!
now if you want your flash plugins and such they go into the plugins folder in /usr/local/mozilla/

and yes this will remember your settings and all!!!
Heaven is on the way, until then let's get the truth out!

Bruce B

Re: reply

#13 Post by Bruce B »

klhrevolutionist wrote: have #!/bin/sh
now go below that and simply put these lines in there

cd /usr/local/mozilla/
sh run-mozilla.sh
One should be able to run mozilla from any directory on the system, by symlinking directly to mozilla. Your script the failsafe way of doing it.

---------------------

It might be best if he did it your way, if he didn't change MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME. I said to do it. Maybe he didn't, and maybe that is part of the problem.

If you run the executable file mozilla like it was intended, it will look for the variable MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME and honor it if it is there without additional error checking. And if MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME is not changed it is pointing to an incorrect location.

--------------

So by changing directories to where mozilla is and bypassing mozilla altogether and running run-mozilla.sh from the current directory it will work.

---------------

Edit addition:

The technique you described works, the reason it works is because by by passing mozilla, the MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME check is bypassed.

For those wishing to replace the default Mozilla, I think I should also mentiond that, the file 'mozilla' does more than this one check and decision. Among other things, it sets up the enviroment its programmers think is needed to make the mozilla-bin binary work.

Simply stated: In bypassing mozilla, mozilla-bin is running without the variables mozilla would have otherwise exported to the environment.

Glitchman

More strangeness

#14 Post by Glitchman »

I think I have fixed it... sort of.

1. I deleted the /usr/local/mozilla/ directory that the Mozilla installer defaulted to.
2. This time, I re-installed to /usr/lib/mozilla-1.7.11/ instead, with a symbolic link pointing to that at /usr/lib/mozilla (since that's where the beta Mozilla is initially linked on the live-CD.)
3. Now I can launch Mozilla, but only from /usr/lib/mozilla-1.7.11/mozilla. The original file that launched the beta Mozilla was /usr/local/bin/mozstart, not mozilla, which I should have noticed before. Ordinarily I would be content with this, but...

This workaround isn't without its glitches:

1. The icon in the upper left just has a generic red X, rather than the Mozilla icon. Fine with me, or so I thought. This leads to...
2. Full-screen mode is no longer full-screen at all. Basically, the main title bar of the window remains intact, rather than going out of bounds above the top of the screen, like it should. The window remains the same size. Something definitely isn't right, since previous versions of Puppy correctly displayed full-screen mode back when Mozilla 1.7x was bundled.
3. Launching a second copy of Mozilla causes the profile manager to come up. This is definitely not the expected behavior, so I must be doing something out of the ordinary.
4. Fonts are rather weird. I cannot seem to find the same fonts that used to be bundled by default (back when previous versions of Puppy included the stable Mozilla 1.7x.)

Aside from all this strangeness going on, Mozilla 1.7x runs circles around the 1.8 beta in terms of speed, now that I have control over images once again. I think if I can get the mozstart launcher fixed, this might take care of some issues. If I launch mozstart from a console, I get the following error:
# mozstart
/usr/lib/mozilla/mozilla-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libmozjs.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
That file, libmozjs.so, is there. Thanks again to anyone who can point me in the right direction.

P.S. Is there anything I need to change in ~/.etc/profile, now that I changed the install path of Mozilla?

Bruce B

#15 Post by Bruce B »

Yes you must edit ~/.etc/profile's variable MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME, I thought you did, it was in the orginal outline.

When you deleted the first Mozilla directory, the variable became false and the symlinks went dead. The procedure is delete the directory, install the other Mozilla, make the varible MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME true and fix the symlinks.

There is only one variable and a few symlinks you got to fix.

The symlinks you have to work out yourself.

About mozstart. It is something Barry probably wrote, a short script. It seems the purpose of mozstart is to prevent two instances of Mozilla. If something happens that would call a new instance, mozstart will run the -remote command and execute the command within the the existing instance.

You have to determine what your symlinks are doing. Make them do what you want. If you want to use mozstart then open mozstart with your editor and see what it is doing.

Hint: it is executing /usr/lib/mozilla/mozilla-bin

The old symlink is at /usr/lib went dead or maybe you deleted it. It doesn't matter because it went bad the instant the first Mozilla was deleteted.

On the command line I would

# cd /usr/lib
# ln -s mozilla-1.7.11 mozilla

This will fix the link. It it reports that it didn't because there is already a file or directory then investigate what it is and delete in accordingly. It is probably the dead link.

# ln -sf mozilla-1.7.11 mozilla (would force an overwrite of an existing file or link)

Now mozstart will find what it is looking for because it has a true link.

Then make profile's variable true.

PS I don't use mozstart, I just direct link to mozilla. But it would probably be better to use it.

Bruce B

#16 Post by Bruce B »

For me I just put mozilla in another partition where any Linux OS could use it.

The more I think about it. If a person wants to install Mozilla inside pup001, it might be easiest to install it in the old mozilla-1.8b1.4 directory.

So what if the directory name doesn't match the actual version, everything else will.

---------

If you still have problems with it not finding libraries check the lib path.

echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Make sure the LD_LIBRARY_PATH is properly symlinked. This probably won't be a problem when the other symlink is fixed. In any event that's one thing to look for if it complains about not finding a lib file you know is there.

Or of course you could edit the path itself with a direct location. Frankly, I think Mozilla can find its own files without the library path. Probably it is in the path for the apps that depend on its library files.

The main thing is getting Mozilla to find itself. From there it can run on its own relative paths.

Glitchman

mozstart now works, but with same glitches

#17 Post by Glitchman »

After several deletions, re-installs, and back and forth, Puppy was beginning to act rather strangely. It would completely hang on deleting the mozilla directory, and all the desktop icons would vanish. Exiting to a prompt would temporarily fix things, but then ROX would freeze if I would attempt to browse the /usr/lib/ directory. So to play it safe, I deleted pup001 inside of Windows 95 and started over.

Disregarding the Mozilla team's suggestions about installing over an existing installation, I decided to take this approach this time, since I was doing everything to the T last time (including checking the environment variables MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME & LD_LIBRARY_PATH.) So I installed Mozilla 1.7.11 to /usr/lib/mozilla1.8b1.4/ this time to avoid some hassles. It prompted me to remove the existing Mozilla installation, so I allowed it to do so.

Now I can launch Mozilla from the same mozstart icon on the desktop, but it still maintains its weird glitches that I pointed out last time. That is, it still has the generic red X icon in the upper left corner, full-screen mode still does not function properly, and the fonts are still weird.

Can it really be this difficult to make a stable version of Mozilla work, like it used to in Puppy 1.01 (or whenever it last bundled a stable Mozilla)? Does anyone else notice the same glitches that I encounter, or is there still something that I am missing?

Guest

#18 Post by Guest »

Here is what I just did. Seeing how much trouble you were having with symlinks and etc.

I decided to test the overwrite theory about putting it in /usr/lib/mozilla-1.8b1.4

Steps involved.

* Downloaded and extracted Mozilla (the same version you are using).

* Installed a fresh brandnew Puppy.

* deleted /root/.mozilla

* ran mozilla's install program and directed it to install in /usr/lib/mozilla

note: /usr/lib/mozilla is not a directory rather a symlink to /usr/lib/mozilla-1.8b1.4, but the install program liked it better when installed via the symlink, bossy thing that it is. It warned me of an existing version and gave me a choice to delete the files and I let it delete the files. It then installed Mozilla 1.7.11 without a hitch.

Doing it this way the symlinks don't need to be revisited or reworked. The enviromnent variable is true.

The menu items work as well as the command line.

> Can it really be this difficult to make a stable version of Mozilla work, like it used to in Puppy 1.01 (or whenever it last bundled a stable Mozilla)? Does anyone else notice the same glitches that I encounter, or is there still something that I am missing?

I think your computer came down with a severe case of tinkeritus.

The symlinking process seems to be a tough one for you, I consider it your obstaclel. You otherwise have everything it takes to make this go right.

I've just done the actual testing for you and it works fine. You don't have to fix a single symlink.

Start from scratch, forget the Opera install, follow the procedure I outlined and please report back success. The procedure I just did is too simple to mess up. You will not need to do any more or less that what I've outlined.

Bruce B

#19 Post by Bruce B »

The above post was written by me with the new Mozilla I freshly installed. I forgot to remember that because it is a fresh install it doesn't automatically log me in :)

Glitchman

Same glitches

#20 Post by Glitchman »

I started over again, and followed what you said. Like last time, I can launch Mozilla 1.7.11 from mozstart on the desktop, but it still has the same glitches: red X in the upper-left corner, no full-screen capability, and weird fonts.

I decided to shut down, but received a nice segmentation fault. My computer is still trying to unmount hdb as we speak. I will re-burn Puppy from scratch, just to be safe.

I take it that you do not get the same glitches? (red X, no full-screen, weird fonts.)

Post Reply