Firefox v. 45.9.0 (Optimized version for Pentium M, 8/11/2020, Dave Yeo) |
Readme/What's new |
===============================================================================
-- M o z i l l a R e a d M e ----------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* This Read Me file contains information about installing and using
the OS/2 builds of Firefox, Seamonkey, and Thunderbird.
* These applications are subject to the terms detailed in the license
agreement accompanying them.
* OS/2-specific changes to the product are listed in the CHANGES.OS2 file.
* The Mozilla for OS/2 project home page is now located at
https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/wiki. There you will find
most recent news, binary downloads and the issue system to report
OS/2-specific bugs.
* Currently development in the form of bug fixes and backporting security
fixes continues at https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/mozilla-os2/wiki/Home
for Firefox and at https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/dry-comm-esr31/wiki/Home
ports of SeaMonkey and Thunderbird may be found.
Note that most of this document that refers to Firefox 45.9, equally
refers to SeaMonkey 2.49ESR and Thunderbird 45.8ESR.
* Community support for the Mozilla applications is available through
the newsgroups 'mozilla.dev.ports.os2' or 'comp.os.os2.apps'.
Messages posted to other forums may not be seen by the developers.
For additional resources, see the "Links" section below.
===============================================================================
-- Contents -------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* Installation
* Compatibility Warning
* Starting the App
* OS/2 Add-ons
* Environment Variables
* Fonts
* Printing
* Video
* Audio
* Troubleshooting
* Known Problems
* Links
* System Requirements
* Acknowledgements
===============================================================================
-- Installation ---------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
Mozilla is a complex product that uses a huge number of 3rd party libraries
such as Cairo, FreeType, NSPR and many others. In order to provide better OS/2
support for both Mozilla and these libraries we build them as dynamically
loadable modules (DLLs), which are maintained and distributed separately and
which Mozilla executables are simply linked with. This approach also allows
other applications to use the same library modules which, among other benefits,
reduces the overall memory footprint and saves other vital system resources.
As a side effect of this approach, Mozilla applications got so many external
dependencies that it is nearly impossible for the end user to install all of
them from the ZIP files manually - and even naming them all in this file
would be a very hard task. For this reason, starting from the release of
Firefox version 38.8.0 (Beta 7), manual installation of Mozilla requirements
is no longer supported. The only supported way of installing all the
requirements now is the YUM command line tool or the Arca Noae Package Manager
application (ANPM), which is part of ArcaOS (an OS/2 and eComstation successor
distribution by Arca Noae which you can obtain from http://arcanoae.com).
While the Mozilla apps continue to be distributed as zip files, it is best
to follow the following instructions on installing the prerequisites.
The following instruction describe the steps necessary.
1. Install the RPM/YUM environment. The simplest way to do so is to download
and install ANPM as described here:
https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/anpm/.
If you prefer command line, you may install only the RPM/YUM environment
and tools as described here:
http://trac.netlabs.org/rpm/wiki/RpmInstall.
Note that you should skip this step if you already have ArcaOS installed,
because it already includes the RPM/YUM environment and the ANPM tool.
2. Using a ZIP archive, you may unpack its contents to a directory of your
choice. Numerous Firefox dependencies are not installed in this case, so
you will have to install them manually using ANPM or `yum install PACKAGES`
followed by a `yum update`. The list of RPM packages required by Firefox is
contained in a file named RPM_REQUIREMENTS inside the ZIP archive.
3. Optional. Choose a directory where the Mozilla applications will store their
profile data, then add a line like this to CONFIG.SYS:
SET MOZILLA_HOME=D:\Home
The first time you run any Mozilla application, it will create a `Mozilla`
subdirectory in `D:\Home` where your customized settings are saved.
By default, the `Mozilla` subdirectory is created in a directory specified
in the HOME environment variable.
WARNING!!! Without `MOZILLA_HOME` or `HOME` environment variables, the
`Mozilla` subdirectory will be created in the same directory as the program
itself. This can make it very hard to upgrade to new versions without
deleting your customized settings.
4. Optional. You may want to install some of the items listed in the "OS/2
Add-ons" section below to improve the application's performance.
===============================================================================
-- Compatibility Warning ------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
After using Firefox v4.0, Seamonkey v2.1, or Thunderbird v3.4 (or any later
version) your History and Cookies databases (places.sqlite & cookies.sqlite)
will NOT be compatible with earlier versions (i.e. FF3.6, SM2.0, or TB3.1).
A REXX script is available to restore compatibility.
* To preserve compatibility BEFORE running the new version:
- download 'dbrestore.zip' from
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/incoming/mozilla/dbrestore.zip
or
http://e-vertise.com/warpzilla/dbrestore.zip
- unzip it into your profile directory
- make backups of places.sqlite and cookies.sqlite
* To restore compatibility BEFORE running an earlier version:
- run the script from your profile directory.
* To restore compatibility AFTER running an earlier version
(i.e. you forgot to run the script before):
- look for 'places.sqlite.corrupt' and 'cookies.sqlite.corrupt' in your
profile directory, If they appear to be the right size, remove the
'.corrupt' extension after deleting the newly-created versions.
- run the script
- if your history and cookies aren't restored, use your backup copies.
===============================================================================
-- Starting Firefox / Seamonkey / Thunderbird ---------------------------------
===============================================================================
If this is the only Mozilla application you use, then all you need is a
simple program object.
However, if you run two or more of these apps at the same time, you may
encounter dll conflicts. If you can open any one of these apps by itself,
but can't open a second one while the first is still running, this is the
likely cause. An entry in popuplog.os2 reporting a 'SYS2070' error for
the program that failed to start will confirm the problem.
The solution for dll conflicts is "SET LIBPATHSTRICT=T". There are several
ways to set this:
* modify your program object:
Path and filename: *
Parameters: /c set LIBPATHSTRICT=T & seamonkey.exe "%*"
Working directory: x:\mozilla.org\seamonkey
* create a .cmd file:
x:
cd mozilla.org\thunderbird
SET LIBPATHSTRICT=T
start thunderbird
* use Run! <http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?key=run!>:
Copy 'run!.exe' into the program's directory, then rename it as:
'firefox!L.exe', or 'seamonkey!L.exe', or 'thunderbird!L.exe'
Now, change your program object start it rather than the original exe.
(Use 'LK' instead of 'L' if you want the icon to show it's "in-use".)
Note: Starting with Firefox 45.9.0 GA, it is not necessary to set LIBPATHSTRICT
manually or using the Run! utility for it as this is done automatically
by firefox.exe when loading XUL.DLL and other Mozilla DLLs.
===============================================================================
-- OS/2 Add-ons ---------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* MP4 Video
Starting from version 38.8.0, Firefox can play MP4 (H264/AAC) video files
in HTML5 content but this requires the recent FFmpeg runtime libraries to
be installed. To do so, run `yum install ffmpeg-libs` on the command line
or install the 'ffmpeg-libs' package using ANPM.
* Workplace Sans - TrueType Font
Mozilla no longer supports bitmap fonts like WarpSans, so its menus
and dialogs may not look very "OS/2-like'. To fix this, you may want
to install Alex Taylor's 'Workplace Sans', a TrueType font inspired
by WarpSans. The app will use it by default if it's available.
Many users prefer the bitmapped version as it looks cleaner at small
point sizes.
http://www.altsan.org/creative/fonts/workplace/#wpsu
* RWS - WPS Integration
With RWS, you can open downloads using their default WPS association
and have the app display the correct icon in file listings & dialogs.
For example, when you download a WPI file, the download dialog will
display WarpIn's icon, and offer to open it using WarpIn so you can
install it directly from the browser.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?key=rws08dll
* Exceptq - Crash Reporting
If the app crashes, Exceptq will beep and then create an exception
report containing details of the crash. You can send these reports
to the developers via Issue Tracker reports (see the Links section).
Install with ANPM or YUM or go to
http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/
* ConfigApps & Internet Application Integration - Set Default Browser
These two utilities make it easier to set your default browser,
email program, newsreader, etc.
- ConfigApps
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu//h-search.php?key=configapps
- Internet Application Integration
http://7cities.net/~mckinnis/os2/
* Doodle ScreenSaver - Intelligent Timing for Internal Cleanups
When Doodle's Screen Saver (DSSaver) v1.8 or later is installed,
the app can determine how long the user has been inactive. This
allows it to suspend reloads of "Live Bookmarks" and perform cleanup
operations during idle periods rather than while you're browsing.
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/dssaver/
* Highmem - A program to mark DLLs to load into high (above 1GB) memory.
Yum install highmem or use ANPM to install.
Run like highmem.exe -c *dll in your program directory. Some DLLs may
need the readonly attribute removed.
* Mozturbo - A dll preloader, including a script to automate running
highmem.exe.
As the OS/2 kernel has a bug where DLLs memory when loaded high is
not released when the program is closed, the turbo programs keep
the DLLs loaded in memory, making the system much more stable.
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/mozturbo/downloads/
===============================================================================
-- Environment Variables ------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
These can go in config.sys or the .cmd file you use to start the program.
* MOZILLA_HOME=[path] (recommended)
As noted above, this controls where the 'mozilla' subdirectory
containing your profile (personal settings and data) is located.
For example: if you specify "SET MOZILLA_HOME=x:\mozilla.org",
then your profiles will be stored in 'x:\mozilla.org\mozilla'.
* MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=[path]
This lets you specify a global directory for plugins like Flash
and Acrobat Reader so that all Mozilla apps can access them.
For example: "SET MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=x:\mozilla.org\plugins"
Note that _you_ will have to create the 'plugins' subdirectory
and install your plugins into it.
Without this environment variable %MOZILLA_HOME%\Mozilla\Plugins
can be used.
The following are intended to fix problems, not enhance performance.
Very few users have any need for any of these:
* NSPR_OS2_NO_HIRES_TIMER=1
This tells the app not to use OS/2's high resolution timer. Don't
set this unless other applications using the high resolution timer
(e.g. multimedia apps) act strangely.
* MOZ_ACCELERATED=0
Disable DIVE (accelerated video) support. Try this if the app fails
to start or the display is corrupted.
* MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1
This permits you to run multiple copies of the same app at the same
time (provided you have separate profiles for each copy).
Also works as a parameter, eg Firefox -no-remote
* MOZ_NO_RWS=1
This disables the WPS-integration features provided by RWS.
Signs that this is needed include hangs or crashes when viewing or
saving attachments or using a default WPS application as a helper
application.
* MOZ_DISABLE_PLUGIN_OOP=1
This disables OOP (out-of-process) mode for binary NP plugins. Note that this
is only intended to be used for testing purposes as having plugins run in the
browser process is insecure because a crash or a hang in a defective plugin
will crash and hang the whole browser session in such a case.
The following enable additional logging:
* MOZ_CONSOLE_LOG=1
Print browser console messages to the standard output stream (which
may be redirected to a file when the browser is run as e.g.
`firefox.exe 2>&1 >console.log` from the command line).
===============================================================================
-- Fonts ----------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* Mozilla apps use an internal font engine that offers antialiasing
and the ability to search multiple fonts for the correct glyph.
However, it only supports TrueType & Type1 fonts. OS/2 bitmap fonts
like WarpSans, System Proportional, etc, are NOT supported. Users
are encouraged to install Alex Taylor's "Workplace Sans" TrueType
font to restore the native OS/2 look-and-feel for menus and dialogs.
* Starting with Firefox 38, Mozilla apps use the complete version of the
fontconfig library recently ported to OS/2 to manage fonts. This library
requires UNIXROOT environment. If you have RPM/YUM installed, nothing
needs to be done except `yum install fontconfig`. If you prefer manual
installation then you have to unpack the entire contents of the fontconfig
package to your UNIXROOT tree (omitting `@unixroot` from the extracted path)
and make sure the UNIXROOT environment variable points to this tree.
All font settings (and many aspects of the FreeType font engine) are now
controlled through the '%UNIXROOT%\etc\fonts\fonts.conf' and
'%UNIXROOT%\etc\fonts\conf.d\*' files. Please refer to:
http://www.freedesktop.org/software/fontconfig/fontconfig-user.html
for more information on how to configure fonts using fonts.conf.
Note: You may need to restart the application to see your changes.
===============================================================================
-- Printing -------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
This version offers printing support using the application's built-in PDF and
Postscript generators. Native printing using the GPI subsystem is disabled in
this version due to incompatible changes in the underlying graphical library.
Taking into account generally poor quality of native printing compared to built-
in generators and the fact that modern printers don't have (and will never have)
native OS/2 drivers, there are no plans to add support for native printing back
in the near future.
* Built-in Postscript Support
There are two supported methods to print to a physical printer: use a native
Postscript driver for this printer, if it's available, or set up the printer as
a CUPS printer and create a native printer object for it. Both methods will
involve the built-in Postscript generator to produce output that is then sent
directly to the connected printer. No special setup is required in the
application itself for either of these methods because the built-in Postscript
generator is now always active when printing to a physical device and cannot be
turned off.
Note that all printers using non-Postscript drivers (e.g. LASERJET, OMNI,
IBMPCL5, etc.) are hidden from the application's Print dialog to avoid the
confusion of always getting "An error occurred while printing" message when
attempting to print to such a device. If there are no Postscript printers on
your system (or no configured printers at all), you will see "No printers
available" in the printer selection drop-down box in the Print dialog.
It is recommended to set up your printer as a CUPS printer rather than use the
native Postscript driver, even when it's available, because in most cases using
CUPS will result in better print-out quality. Note that by default any printer-
specific features specified in the native printer job properties dialog are
stripped out because CUPS may not recognize them. If you use a printer with the
native Postscript driver without CUPS, you may wish to disable such stripping.
This can be done by setting the `print.os2.postscript.use_ibmnull` preference to
`false` in the preference editor which can be opened by typing `about:config`
in the browser's address bar (or with the 'Config Editor' in the Options dialog
in Thunderbird).
Note that the `print.os2.postscript.use_builtin` preference used to enable
built-in Postscript support in earlier versions does no longer have any effect
as this support is always on now.
* Built-in PDF Support
PDF files can be created by selecting any printer, then checking "Print to
file". When the file dialog appears, give the file's name a ".pdf" extension
and the application will generate a PDF file with the printed contents. Note
that providing any other extension (including ".ps") will cause raw Postscript
data to be saved to the given file.
Note that if you don't have any Postscript printer supported by OS/2 or simply
don't have any printer at all but still want to print to PDF using the described
method, you will need to install a generic PostScript printer (drivers for this
printer are shipped with any OS/2 distribution including ArcaOS). Just go to the
printer installation program and select "Generic PostScript Printer" from the
list when installing a new printer driver (make sure that PSCRIPT is the driver
used for this printer). Then select this newly installed driver and an output
port for the new printer object and you are done. Note that you may select any
output port for it (or simply check "Output to File") since you are not going
to actually print to a physical device anyway. The only printer job properties
that will be used by the PDF generator are paper size and margins.
===============================================================================
-- Video ----------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
Users of the SNAP and GenGradd video drivers running in full-color mode
will automatically experience improved video performance thanks to the
applications' use of DIVE. Currently, the Panorama video driver is not
supported if its "shadow buffer" option is enabled.
* DIVE Support
DIVE lets an app bypass PM's graphics subsystem and write directly to
your video card's memory. This improves display speed but can cause
problems on some systems.
Use any one of the following to disable DIVE:
- uncheck "Use hardware acceleration when available" on the Options
dialog's 'Advanced->General' tab.
- start the app in "safe mode" (use "/safe-mode" on the command line)
- add "SET MOZ_ACCELERATED=0" to config.sys.
* Mouse Pointer Issues
If the mouse pointer disappears when starting the app, you can use
"SET MOZ_ACCELERATED=1" to override automatic detection of how your
video driver displays the pointer. If it flickers when scrolling a
page, you may want to try "SET MOZ_ACCELERATED=2".
===============================================================================
-- Audio ----------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
Starting from version 31, Firefox uses the K Audio Interface library (libkai)
to play sounds in HTML5/JS content and in Firefox widgets. Currently, this
library supports the standard OS/2 MMPM/DART sound subsystem as well as the
UNIAUD driver directly. By default, libkai prefers UNIAUD to DART but it may
be forced to use either of them using the KAI_AUTOMODE environment variable:
- "SET KAI_AUTOMODE=UNIAUD" will activate UNIAUD mode.
- "SET KAI_AUTOMODE=DART" will activate MMPM/DART mode.
===============================================================================
-- Troubleshooting ------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
The following may help resolve problems that were known at the time this
ReadMe was written. Additional community support is available through
the newsgroups 'mozilla.dev.ports.os2' or 'comp.os.os2.apps'. Messages
posted to other forums may not be seen by the developers.
* Program won't start
If other Mozilla apps are open, close them, then retry. If it can
now start, see the "Starting Firefox/Seamonkey/Thunderbird" section.
* Program crashes when the first window appears
If you see the outline of the window, then it crashes, see the
"Video" section for info on disabling DIVE.
* Program crashes or hangs when downloading files, viewing file listings,
loading message attachments or dragging with the mouse.
Try adding "SET MOZ_NO_RWS=1" to the environment.
* Program crashes randomly
Restart the app in "safe mode" (use "/safe-mode" on the command line).
If it appears to be stable in safe-mode, a plugin may be the cause.
Disable all plugins, then restart normally. If it remains stable,
re-enable one plugin at a time until the problem returns.
* Program beeps several times then crashes
The beeps simply indicate that Exceptq is installed and is creating
a trap report to help identify the cause of the crash. Since Exceptq
isn't activated until a crash occurs, it isn't the cause of the crash.
* Continuous 100% CPU usage
If you use OS/2's "Comet Cursor" feature, try turning it off.
Try adding "SET NSPR_OS2_NO_HIRES_TIMER=1" to the environment.
* User-interface (buttons, address bar, etc.) is missing or corrupted
Shutdown the program, then open the directory containing its profile.
Delete 'XUL.mfl' and the directory named 'startupCache, then restart.
Note: To find your profile, select Help->Troubleshooting Information
from the main menu. On the page that appears, find the line labelled
"Profile Directory" then press the button next to it. After the folder
opens, be sure to close the app before changing or deleting anything.
* Other problems
First, try the solution for "User-interface is missing or corrupted"
above. If that doesn't work, try creating a new profile. The easiest
way is change the path in your "MOZILLA_HOME" environment variable when
the app isn't running, then restart it. If this fixes the problem, try
copying files from your original profile to the new one until the issue
reappears. The first file to try is "prefs.js".
If you can identify which file is the cause, restore your original
"MOZILLA_HOME" path. Rename the problem file so Mozilla can't find
it, then restart the app. Mozilla should create a new version of the
file you've hidden, and with any luck, the problem should be solved.
===============================================================================
-- Known Problems -------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* Minimizing Firefox windows may sometimes cause 100% CPU load depending on
the hardware configuration. As a workaround, you may try to use an
alternative Firefox theme, e.g. "LavaFox V2" which is avaliable through the
Firefox Add-ons repositories and is known to restore CPU load back to normal
when Firefox is minimized.
* If you experience unresponsive UI on web-pages with intensive JavaScript
usage, you may try to improve the UI response by fine-tuning the
"layout.frame_rate" preference (availabie through "about:config") which is
set to 0 by default. Chagne it to some high value (like 6000 or 10000) and
restart Firefox. You will get a slightly better response time by the cost of
losing some smoothness in graphical animation and video playback. You will
also get the minimize problem (described above) fixed in this case.
* Printing of complex web pages using the native LASERJET and OMNI printer
drivers is known to crash the browser in PMMERGE.DLL in some cases.
As a workaround, please install and use the CUPS printer (based on the
POSTSCRIPT driver) that always works. CUPS is part of the modern
eComStation installations. In order to install it on older systems please
refer to:
http://trac.netlabs.org/ecups.
* Mozilla apps will beep when copying more than 64 kB of text to the clipboard.
This is to alert users that many applications (most notably the system
editor, EPM, and applications running in VIO windows) cannot paste more
than this.
* Cross-platform problems are usually listed in the release notes of each
milestone release.
* Other known problems can be found by following these links:
https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/issues
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/mozilla-os2/issues?status=new&status=open
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/dry-comm-esr31/issues?status=new&status=open
* The old list of bugs (for historical purposes, as it is mostly outdated)
can be found by following the link "Current Open Warpzilla Bugs" on the
OS/2 Mozilla page:
http://www.mozilla.org/ports/os2
===============================================================================
-- Links ----------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
Main resources:
* Legacy add-ons are now maintainted by the Thunderbird project,
https://addons.thunderbird.net/
* Mozilla for OS/2 Home Page
https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/wiki
* Mozilla for OS/2 Binary Releases
https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases
* Mozilla for OS/2 Issue Tracker & Bug Reports
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/mozilla-os2/issues?status=new&status=open
https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/issues
Seamonkey and Thunderbird builds:
* Comm-Central (SeaMonkey and Thunderbird) for OS/2
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/dry-comm-esr31/wiki/Home
* Issue tracker,
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/dry-comm-esr31/issues?status=new&status=open
Additional information:
* Official Releases (Firefox 10.0.12 and earlier versions)
http://www.mozilla.org/ports/os2/
* Older Official and Experimental Releases (Upto Firefox 10.0.12ESR)
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/mozilla/
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/incoming/mozilla/
* Beta Versions (Firefox 10ESR and earlier versions)
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/incoming/mozilla/
* General Information About the Mozilla Apps
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
* Steve Wendt's Tips for Warpzilla
http://os2news.warpstock.org/Warpzilla.html
* Mozilla for OS/2 Newsgroup
mozilla.dev.ports.os2 on server news.mozilla.org
* Mailing list gateway to mozilla.dev.ports.os2
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-ports-os2
* Mozilla for OS/2 IRC Channel
#warpzilla on server irc.mozilla.org
* Submit Bug Reports (all platforms)
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org
* Building Mozilla Apps on OS/2
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/OS/2_Build_Prerequisites
===============================================================================
-- System Requirements --------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* Minimum hardware requirements for acceptable performance
- 1.0 GHz processor
- 256 MiB RAM plus 128 MiB free swap space
- 40 MiB free harddisk space for installation
plus storage space for disk cache
- Graphics card and driver capable of displaying 64k or 16m colors
Note: Installing more RAM than the minimum required may produce
significant improvements in performance and stability.
* 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 (Warp 3 may work but is unsupported)
- Kernel with build level 14.104a is recommended.
(http://www.os2site.com/sw/upgrades/kernel/w420050811.zip)
- 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 the app may seem to start and run normally,
some features it needs are not implemented correctly in older
MPTS versions and may cause crashes and data loss.
ArcaOS, Convenience Pack 2 or eComStation 1.0 or later meet these
requirements out of the box.
* Java
Java versions earlier than 1.5 are *not* supported. Neither the IBM
nor Innotek versions of Java will work with this release.
Note all Java is currently not working and if a plugin is installed
the browser will not start.
* Innotek Font Engine
This is no longer needed or used by any of the Mozilla apps and it is
recommended to remove browser related entries from the registry.
The mozinst.zip package includes a utility to do this and is
automatically invoked when using mozinst.cmd.
* Plugins
Do not use the "OS/2 Multimedia Plugin for Netscape". It does not
support any MM formats currently in use and is known to cause crashes.
===============================================================================
-- Acknowledgements -----------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
The Mozilla for OS/2 and OS/2 based systems project has been supported and
maintained by the staff of bww bitwise works GmbH:
- Dmitriy Kuminov (developer)
- Silvan Scherrer (project manager)
bww bitwise works GmbH would like to thank the following people for their
prior work on Mozilla for OS/2 and OS/2 based systems. We might not share all
your opinions, however we still appreciate your work, contributions and input
(and will do so in the future):
- Mensys BV
- Mike Kaply
- Peter Weilbacher
- Rich Walsh
- Walter Meinl
- Dave Yeo
- Steve Wendt
- all we missed here!
=============================================================================== |
hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/webbrowser/Firefox_45-9-0_Pentium-m_2020-11-08_en-US.zip |
|
Firefox v. 45.9.0 (8/11/2020, Dave Yeo) |
Readme/What's new |
===============================================================================
-- M o z i l l a R e a d M e ----------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* This Read Me file contains information about installing and using
the OS/2 builds of Firefox, Seamonkey, and Thunderbird.
* These applications are subject to the terms detailed in the license
agreement accompanying them.
* OS/2-specific changes to the product are listed in the CHANGES.OS2 file.
* The Mozilla for OS/2 project home page is now located at
https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/wiki. There you will find
most recent news, binary downloads and the issue system to report
OS/2-specific bugs.
* Currently development in the form of bug fixes and backporting security
fixes continues at https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/mozilla-os2/wiki/Home
for Firefox and at https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/dry-comm-esr31/wiki/Home
ports of SeaMonkey and Thunderbird may be found.
Note that most of this document that refers to Firefox 45.9, equally
refers to SeaMonkey 2.49ESR and Thunderbird 45.8ESR.
* Community support for the Mozilla applications is available through
the newsgroups 'mozilla.dev.ports.os2' or 'comp.os.os2.apps'.
Messages posted to other forums may not be seen by the developers.
For additional resources, see the "Links" section below.
===============================================================================
-- Contents -------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* Installation
* Compatibility Warning
* Starting the App
* OS/2 Add-ons
* Environment Variables
* Fonts
* Printing
* Video
* Audio
* Troubleshooting
* Known Problems
* Links
* System Requirements
* Acknowledgements
===============================================================================
-- Installation ---------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
Mozilla is a complex product that uses a huge number of 3rd party libraries
such as Cairo, FreeType, NSPR and many others. In order to provide better OS/2
support for both Mozilla and these libraries we build them as dynamically
loadable modules (DLLs), which are maintained and distributed separately and
which Mozilla executables are simply linked with. This approach also allows
other applications to use the same library modules which, among other benefits,
reduces the overall memory footprint and saves other vital system resources.
As a side effect of this approach, Mozilla applications got so many external
dependencies that it is nearly impossible for the end user to install all of
them from the ZIP files manually - and even naming them all in this file
would be a very hard task. For this reason, starting from the release of
Firefox version 38.8.0 (Beta 7), manual installation of Mozilla requirements
is no longer supported. The only supported way of installing all the
requirements now is the YUM command line tool or the Arca Noae Package Manager
application (ANPM), which is part of ArcaOS (an OS/2 and eComstation successor
distribution by Arca Noae which you can obtain from http://arcanoae.com).
While the Mozilla apps continue to be distributed as zip files, it is best
to follow the following instructions on installing the prerequisites.
The following instruction describe the steps necessary.
1. Install the RPM/YUM environment. The simplest way to do so is to download
and install ANPM as described here:
https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/anpm/.
If you prefer command line, you may install only the RPM/YUM environment
and tools as described here:
http://trac.netlabs.org/rpm/wiki/RpmInstall.
Note that you should skip this step if you already have ArcaOS installed,
because it already includes the RPM/YUM environment and the ANPM tool.
2. Using a ZIP archive, you may unpack its contents to a directory of your
choice. Numerous Firefox dependencies are not installed in this case, so
you will have to install them manually using ANPM or `yum install PACKAGES`
followed by a `yum update`. The list of RPM packages required by Firefox is
contained in a file named RPM_REQUIREMENTS inside the ZIP archive.
3. Optional. Choose a directory where the Mozilla applications will store their
profile data, then add a line like this to CONFIG.SYS:
SET MOZILLA_HOME=D:\Home
The first time you run any Mozilla application, it will create a `Mozilla`
subdirectory in `D:\Home` where your customized settings are saved.
By default, the `Mozilla` subdirectory is created in a directory specified
in the HOME environment variable.
WARNING!!! Without `MOZILLA_HOME` or `HOME` environment variables, the
`Mozilla` subdirectory will be created in the same directory as the program
itself. This can make it very hard to upgrade to new versions without
deleting your customized settings.
4. Optional. You may want to install some of the items listed in the "OS/2
Add-ons" section below to improve the application's performance.
===============================================================================
-- Compatibility Warning ------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
After using Firefox v4.0, Seamonkey v2.1, or Thunderbird v3.4 (or any later
version) your History and Cookies databases (places.sqlite & cookies.sqlite)
will NOT be compatible with earlier versions (i.e. FF3.6, SM2.0, or TB3.1).
A REXX script is available to restore compatibility.
* To preserve compatibility BEFORE running the new version:
- download 'dbrestore.zip' from
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/incoming/mozilla/dbrestore.zip
or
http://e-vertise.com/warpzilla/dbrestore.zip
- unzip it into your profile directory
- make backups of places.sqlite and cookies.sqlite
* To restore compatibility BEFORE running an earlier version:
- run the script from your profile directory.
* To restore compatibility AFTER running an earlier version
(i.e. you forgot to run the script before):
- look for 'places.sqlite.corrupt' and 'cookies.sqlite.corrupt' in your
profile directory, If they appear to be the right size, remove the
'.corrupt' extension after deleting the newly-created versions.
- run the script
- if your history and cookies aren't restored, use your backup copies.
===============================================================================
-- Starting Firefox / Seamonkey / Thunderbird ---------------------------------
===============================================================================
If this is the only Mozilla application you use, then all you need is a
simple program object.
However, if you run two or more of these apps at the same time, you may
encounter dll conflicts. If you can open any one of these apps by itself,
but can't open a second one while the first is still running, this is the
likely cause. An entry in popuplog.os2 reporting a 'SYS2070' error for
the program that failed to start will confirm the problem.
The solution for dll conflicts is "SET LIBPATHSTRICT=T". There are several
ways to set this:
* modify your program object:
Path and filename: *
Parameters: /c set LIBPATHSTRICT=T & seamonkey.exe "%*"
Working directory: x:\mozilla.org\seamonkey
* create a .cmd file:
x:
cd mozilla.org\thunderbird
SET LIBPATHSTRICT=T
start thunderbird
* use Run! <http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?key=run!>:
Copy 'run!.exe' into the program's directory, then rename it as:
'firefox!L.exe', or 'seamonkey!L.exe', or 'thunderbird!L.exe'
Now, change your program object start it rather than the original exe.
(Use 'LK' instead of 'L' if you want the icon to show it's "in-use".)
Note: Starting with Firefox 45.9.0 GA, it is not necessary to set LIBPATHSTRICT
manually or using the Run! utility for it as this is done automatically
by firefox.exe when loading XUL.DLL and other Mozilla DLLs.
===============================================================================
-- OS/2 Add-ons ---------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* MP4 Video
Starting from version 38.8.0, Firefox can play MP4 (H264/AAC) video files
in HTML5 content but this requires the recent FFmpeg runtime libraries to
be installed. To do so, run `yum install ffmpeg-libs` on the command line
or install the 'ffmpeg-libs' package using ANPM.
* Workplace Sans - TrueType Font
Mozilla no longer supports bitmap fonts like WarpSans, so its menus
and dialogs may not look very "OS/2-like'. To fix this, you may want
to install Alex Taylor's 'Workplace Sans', a TrueType font inspired
by WarpSans. The app will use it by default if it's available.
Many users prefer the bitmapped version as it looks cleaner at small
point sizes.
http://www.altsan.org/creative/fonts/workplace/#wpsu
* RWS - WPS Integration
With RWS, you can open downloads using their default WPS association
and have the app display the correct icon in file listings & dialogs.
For example, when you download a WPI file, the download dialog will
display WarpIn's icon, and offer to open it using WarpIn so you can
install it directly from the browser.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?key=rws08dll
* Exceptq - Crash Reporting
If the app crashes, Exceptq will beep and then create an exception
report containing details of the crash. You can send these reports
to the developers via Issue Tracker reports (see the Links section).
Install with ANPM or YUM or go to
http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/
* ConfigApps & Internet Application Integration - Set Default Browser
These two utilities make it easier to set your default browser,
email program, newsreader, etc.
- ConfigApps
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu//h-search.php?key=configapps
- Internet Application Integration
http://7cities.net/~mckinnis/os2/
* Doodle ScreenSaver - Intelligent Timing for Internal Cleanups
When Doodle's Screen Saver (DSSaver) v1.8 or later is installed,
the app can determine how long the user has been inactive. This
allows it to suspend reloads of "Live Bookmarks" and perform cleanup
operations during idle periods rather than while you're browsing.
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/dssaver/
* Highmem - A program to mark DLLs to load into high (above 1GB) memory.
Yum install highmem or use ANPM to install.
Run like highmem.exe -c *dll in your program directory. Some DLLs may
need the readonly attribute removed.
* Mozturbo - A dll preloader, including a script to automate running
highmem.exe.
As the OS/2 kernel has a bug where DLLs memory when loaded high is
not released when the program is closed, the turbo programs keep
the DLLs loaded in memory, making the system much more stable.
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/mozturbo/downloads/
===============================================================================
-- Environment Variables ------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
These can go in config.sys or the .cmd file you use to start the program.
* MOZILLA_HOME=[path] (recommended)
As noted above, this controls where the 'mozilla' subdirectory
containing your profile (personal settings and data) is located.
For example: if you specify "SET MOZILLA_HOME=x:\mozilla.org",
then your profiles will be stored in 'x:\mozilla.org\mozilla'.
* MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=[path]
This lets you specify a global directory for plugins like Flash
and Acrobat Reader so that all Mozilla apps can access them.
For example: "SET MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=x:\mozilla.org\plugins"
Note that _you_ will have to create the 'plugins' subdirectory
and install your plugins into it.
Without this environment variable %MOZILLA_HOME%\Mozilla\Plugins
can be used.
The following are intended to fix problems, not enhance performance.
Very few users have any need for any of these:
* NSPR_OS2_NO_HIRES_TIMER=1
This tells the app not to use OS/2's high resolution timer. Don't
set this unless other applications using the high resolution timer
(e.g. multimedia apps) act strangely.
* MOZ_ACCELERATED=0
Disable DIVE (accelerated video) support. Try this if the app fails
to start or the display is corrupted.
* MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1
This permits you to run multiple copies of the same app at the same
time (provided you have separate profiles for each copy).
Also works as a parameter, eg Firefox -no-remote
* MOZ_NO_RWS=1
This disables the WPS-integration features provided by RWS.
Signs that this is needed include hangs or crashes when viewing or
saving attachments or using a default WPS application as a helper
application.
* MOZ_DISABLE_PLUGIN_OOP=1
This disables OOP (out-of-process) mode for binary NP plugins. Note that this
is only intended to be used for testing purposes as having plugins run in the
browser process is insecure because a crash or a hang in a defective plugin
will crash and hang the whole browser session in such a case.
The following enable additional logging:
* MOZ_CONSOLE_LOG=1
Print browser console messages to the standard output stream (which
may be redirected to a file when the browser is run as e.g.
`firefox.exe 2>&1 >console.log` from the command line).
===============================================================================
-- Fonts ----------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* Mozilla apps use an internal font engine that offers antialiasing
and the ability to search multiple fonts for the correct glyph.
However, it only supports TrueType & Type1 fonts. OS/2 bitmap fonts
like WarpSans, System Proportional, etc, are NOT supported. Users
are encouraged to install Alex Taylor's "Workplace Sans" TrueType
font to restore the native OS/2 look-and-feel for menus and dialogs.
* Starting with Firefox 38, Mozilla apps use the complete version of the
fontconfig library recently ported to OS/2 to manage fonts. This library
requires UNIXROOT environment. If you have RPM/YUM installed, nothing
needs to be done except `yum install fontconfig`. If you prefer manual
installation then you have to unpack the entire contents of the fontconfig
package to your UNIXROOT tree (omitting `@unixroot` from the extracted path)
and make sure the UNIXROOT environment variable points to this tree.
All font settings (and many aspects of the FreeType font engine) are now
controlled through the '%UNIXROOT%\etc\fonts\fonts.conf' and
'%UNIXROOT%\etc\fonts\conf.d\*' files. Please refer to:
http://www.freedesktop.org/software/fontconfig/fontconfig-user.html
for more information on how to configure fonts using fonts.conf.
Note: You may need to restart the application to see your changes.
===============================================================================
-- Printing -------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
This version offers printing support using the application's built-in PDF and
Postscript generators. Native printing using the GPI subsystem is disabled in
this version due to incompatible changes in the underlying graphical library.
Taking into account generally poor quality of native printing compared to built-
in generators and the fact that modern printers don't have (and will never have)
native OS/2 drivers, there are no plans to add support for native printing back
in the near future.
* Built-in Postscript Support
There are two supported methods to print to a physical printer: use a native
Postscript driver for this printer, if it's available, or set up the printer as
a CUPS printer and create a native printer object for it. Both methods will
involve the built-in Postscript generator to produce output that is then sent
directly to the connected printer. No special setup is required in the
application itself for either of these methods because the built-in Postscript
generator is now always active when printing to a physical device and cannot be
turned off.
Note that all printers using non-Postscript drivers (e.g. LASERJET, OMNI,
IBMPCL5, etc.) are hidden from the application's Print dialog to avoid the
confusion of always getting "An error occurred while printing" message when
attempting to print to such a device. If there are no Postscript printers on
your system (or no configured printers at all), you will see "No printers
available" in the printer selection drop-down box in the Print dialog.
It is recommended to set up your printer as a CUPS printer rather than use the
native Postscript driver, even when it's available, because in most cases using
CUPS will result in better print-out quality. Note that by default any printer-
specific features specified in the native printer job properties dialog are
stripped out because CUPS may not recognize them. If you use a printer with the
native Postscript driver without CUPS, you may wish to disable such stripping.
This can be done by setting the `print.os2.postscript.use_ibmnull` preference to
`false` in the preference editor which can be opened by typing `about:config`
in the browser's address bar (or with the 'Config Editor' in the Options dialog
in Thunderbird).
Note that the `print.os2.postscript.use_builtin` preference used to enable
built-in Postscript support in earlier versions does no longer have any effect
as this support is always on now.
* Built-in PDF Support
PDF files can be created by selecting any printer, then checking "Print to
file". When the file dialog appears, give the file's name a ".pdf" extension
and the application will generate a PDF file with the printed contents. Note
that providing any other extension (including ".ps") will cause raw Postscript
data to be saved to the given file.
Note that if you don't have any Postscript printer supported by OS/2 or simply
don't have any printer at all but still want to print to PDF using the described
method, you will need to install a generic PostScript printer (drivers for this
printer are shipped with any OS/2 distribution including ArcaOS). Just go to the
printer installation program and select "Generic PostScript Printer" from the
list when installing a new printer driver (make sure that PSCRIPT is the driver
used for this printer). Then select this newly installed driver and an output
port for the new printer object and you are done. Note that you may select any
output port for it (or simply check "Output to File") since you are not going
to actually print to a physical device anyway. The only printer job properties
that will be used by the PDF generator are paper size and margins.
===============================================================================
-- Video ----------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
Users of the SNAP and GenGradd video drivers running in full-color mode
will automatically experience improved video performance thanks to the
applications' use of DIVE. Currently, the Panorama video driver is not
supported if its "shadow buffer" option is enabled.
* DIVE Support
DIVE lets an app bypass PM's graphics subsystem and write directly to
your video card's memory. This improves display speed but can cause
problems on some systems.
Use any one of the following to disable DIVE:
- uncheck "Use hardware acceleration when available" on the Options
dialog's 'Advanced->General' tab.
- start the app in "safe mode" (use "/safe-mode" on the command line)
- add "SET MOZ_ACCELERATED=0" to config.sys.
* Mouse Pointer Issues
If the mouse pointer disappears when starting the app, you can use
"SET MOZ_ACCELERATED=1" to override automatic detection of how your
video driver displays the pointer. If it flickers when scrolling a
page, you may want to try "SET MOZ_ACCELERATED=2".
===============================================================================
-- Audio ----------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
Starting from version 31, Firefox uses the K Audio Interface library (libkai)
to play sounds in HTML5/JS content and in Firefox widgets. Currently, this
library supports the standard OS/2 MMPM/DART sound subsystem as well as the
UNIAUD driver directly. By default, libkai prefers UNIAUD to DART but it may
be forced to use either of them using the KAI_AUTOMODE environment variable:
- "SET KAI_AUTOMODE=UNIAUD" will activate UNIAUD mode.
- "SET KAI_AUTOMODE=DART" will activate MMPM/DART mode.
===============================================================================
-- Troubleshooting ------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
The following may help resolve problems that were known at the time this
ReadMe was written. Additional community support is available through
the newsgroups 'mozilla.dev.ports.os2' or 'comp.os.os2.apps'. Messages
posted to other forums may not be seen by the developers.
* Program won't start
If other Mozilla apps are open, close them, then retry. If it can
now start, see the "Starting Firefox/Seamonkey/Thunderbird" section.
* Program crashes when the first window appears
If you see the outline of the window, then it crashes, see the
"Video" section for info on disabling DIVE.
* Program crashes or hangs when downloading files, viewing file listings,
loading message attachments or dragging with the mouse.
Try adding "SET MOZ_NO_RWS=1" to the environment.
* Program crashes randomly
Restart the app in "safe mode" (use "/safe-mode" on the command line).
If it appears to be stable in safe-mode, a plugin may be the cause.
Disable all plugins, then restart normally. If it remains stable,
re-enable one plugin at a time until the problem returns.
* Program beeps several times then crashes
The beeps simply indicate that Exceptq is installed and is creating
a trap report to help identify the cause of the crash. Since Exceptq
isn't activated until a crash occurs, it isn't the cause of the crash.
* Continuous 100% CPU usage
If you use OS/2's "Comet Cursor" feature, try turning it off.
Try adding "SET NSPR_OS2_NO_HIRES_TIMER=1" to the environment.
* User-interface (buttons, address bar, etc.) is missing or corrupted
Shutdown the program, then open the directory containing its profile.
Delete 'XUL.mfl' and the directory named 'startupCache, then restart.
Note: To find your profile, select Help->Troubleshooting Information
from the main menu. On the page that appears, find the line labelled
"Profile Directory" then press the button next to it. After the folder
opens, be sure to close the app before changing or deleting anything.
* Other problems
First, try the solution for "User-interface is missing or corrupted"
above. If that doesn't work, try creating a new profile. The easiest
way is change the path in your "MOZILLA_HOME" environment variable when
the app isn't running, then restart it. If this fixes the problem, try
copying files from your original profile to the new one until the issue
reappears. The first file to try is "prefs.js".
If you can identify which file is the cause, restore your original
"MOZILLA_HOME" path. Rename the problem file so Mozilla can't find
it, then restart the app. Mozilla should create a new version of the
file you've hidden, and with any luck, the problem should be solved.
===============================================================================
-- Known Problems -------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* Minimizing Firefox windows may sometimes cause 100% CPU load depending on
the hardware configuration. As a workaround, you may try to use an
alternative Firefox theme, e.g. "LavaFox V2" which is avaliable through the
Firefox Add-ons repositories and is known to restore CPU load back to normal
when Firefox is minimized.
* If you experience unresponsive UI on web-pages with intensive JavaScript
usage, you may try to improve the UI response by fine-tuning the
"layout.frame_rate" preference (availabie through "about:config") which is
set to 0 by default. Chagne it to some high value (like 6000 or 10000) and
restart Firefox. You will get a slightly better response time by the cost of
losing some smoothness in graphical animation and video playback. You will
also get the minimize problem (described above) fixed in this case.
* Printing of complex web pages using the native LASERJET and OMNI printer
drivers is known to crash the browser in PMMERGE.DLL in some cases.
As a workaround, please install and use the CUPS printer (based on the
POSTSCRIPT driver) that always works. CUPS is part of the modern
eComStation installations. In order to install it on older systems please
refer to:
http://trac.netlabs.org/ecups.
* Mozilla apps will beep when copying more than 64 kB of text to the clipboard.
This is to alert users that many applications (most notably the system
editor, EPM, and applications running in VIO windows) cannot paste more
than this.
* Cross-platform problems are usually listed in the release notes of each
milestone release.
* Other known problems can be found by following these links:
https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/issues
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/mozilla-os2/issues?status=new&status=open
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/dry-comm-esr31/issues?status=new&status=open
* The old list of bugs (for historical purposes, as it is mostly outdated)
can be found by following the link "Current Open Warpzilla Bugs" on the
OS/2 Mozilla page:
http://www.mozilla.org/ports/os2
===============================================================================
-- Links ----------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
Main resources:
* Legacy add-ons are now maintainted by the Thunderbird project,
https://addons.thunderbird.net/
* Mozilla for OS/2 Home Page
https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/wiki
* Mozilla for OS/2 Binary Releases
https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases
* Mozilla for OS/2 Issue Tracker & Bug Reports
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/mozilla-os2/issues?status=new&status=open
https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/issues
Seamonkey and Thunderbird builds:
* Comm-Central (SeaMonkey and Thunderbird) for OS/2
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/dry-comm-esr31/wiki/Home
* Issue tracker,
https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/dry-comm-esr31/issues?status=new&status=open
Additional information:
* Official Releases (Firefox 10.0.12 and earlier versions)
http://www.mozilla.org/ports/os2/
* Older Official and Experimental Releases (Upto Firefox 10.0.12ESR)
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/mozilla/
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/incoming/mozilla/
* Beta Versions (Firefox 10ESR and earlier versions)
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/incoming/mozilla/
* General Information About the Mozilla Apps
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
* Steve Wendt's Tips for Warpzilla
http://os2news.warpstock.org/Warpzilla.html
* Mozilla for OS/2 Newsgroup
mozilla.dev.ports.os2 on server news.mozilla.org
* Mailing list gateway to mozilla.dev.ports.os2
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-ports-os2
* Mozilla for OS/2 IRC Channel
#warpzilla on server irc.mozilla.org
* Submit Bug Reports (all platforms)
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org
* Building Mozilla Apps on OS/2
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/OS/2_Build_Prerequisites
===============================================================================
-- System Requirements --------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
* Minimum hardware requirements for acceptable performance
- 1.0 GHz processor
- 256 MiB RAM plus 128 MiB free swap space
- 40 MiB free harddisk space for installation
plus storage space for disk cache
- Graphics card and driver capable of displaying 64k or 16m colors
Note: Installing more RAM than the minimum required may produce
significant improvements in performance and stability.
* 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 (Warp 3 may work but is unsupported)
- Kernel with build level 14.104a is recommended.
(http://www.os2site.com/sw/upgrades/kernel/w420050811.zip)
- 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 the app may seem to start and run normally,
some features it needs are not implemented correctly in older
MPTS versions and may cause crashes and data loss.
ArcaOS, Convenience Pack 2 or eComStation 1.0 or later meet these
requirements out of the box.
* Java
Java versions earlier than 1.5 are *not* supported. Neither the IBM
nor Innotek versions of Java will work with this release.
Note all Java is currently not working and if a plugin is installed
the browser will not start.
* Innotek Font Engine
This is no longer needed or used by any of the Mozilla apps and it is
recommended to remove browser related entries from the registry.
The mozinst.zip package includes a utility to do this and is
automatically invoked when using mozinst.cmd.
* Plugins
Do not use the "OS/2 Multimedia Plugin for Netscape". It does not
support any MM formats currently in use and is known to cause crashes.
===============================================================================
-- Acknowledgements -----------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
The Mozilla for OS/2 and OS/2 based systems project has been supported and
maintained by the staff of bww bitwise works GmbH:
- Dmitriy Kuminov (developer)
- Silvan Scherrer (project manager)
bww bitwise works GmbH would like to thank the following people for their
prior work on Mozilla for OS/2 and OS/2 based systems. We might not share all
your opinions, however we still appreciate your work, contributions and input
(and will do so in the future):
- Mensys BV
- Mike Kaply
- Peter Weilbacher
- Rich Walsh
- Walter Meinl
- Dave Yeo
- Steve Wendt
- all we missed here!
=============================================================================== |
hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/webbrowser/Firefox_45-9-0_i686_2020-08-11_en-US.zip |
|
Firefox v. 45.9.0 (Optimized version for Pentium M, 26/5/2019, Dave Yeo) |
|
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hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/downloads/firefox-45.9.0.en-US.os2-Pentium-m-SUa2.zip |
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Firefox v. 45.9.0 (15/4/2019, Dave Yeo) |
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hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/firefox-45.9.0.en-US.os2-i686-SUa1.zip |
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Firefox v. 45.9.0 (Optimized version for Pentium M, 13/4/2019, Dave Yeo) |
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hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/firefox-45.9.0.en-US.os2-Pentium-m-SUa1.zip |
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Firefox v. 45.9.0 (Optimized version for AVX instructions, 4/4/2019, Dave Yeo) |
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hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/firefox-45.9.0.en-US.os2.SandyBridge.zip |
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Firefox v. 45.9.0 (4/4/2019, Dave Yeo) |
|
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hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/firefox-45.9.0.en-US.os2.i686.zip |
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Firefox v. 45.9.0 (Optimized version for Pentium M, 4/4/2019, Dave Yeo) |
|
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hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/firefox-45.9.0.en-US.os2-Pentium-m.zip |
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Firefox v. 45.9.0 (Optimized version for Phenom II, 16/1/2019, Dave Yeo) |
|
|
hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/firefox-45.9.0.en.US.os2.PhenomII.zip |
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Firefox v. 45.9.0 (Optimized version for Phenom II, 29/12/2018, Dave Yeo) |
|
|
hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/firefox-45.9.0.en-US.os2.PhenomII.zip |
|
Firefox v. 45.9.0 (22/5/2018, bww bitwise works GmbH) |
Readme/What's new |
CHANGES
Firefox 45.9.0 GA2 (2018-05-20)
- Fix Japanese text display (regression of 38.x builds).
- Fine tune compiler optimization to produce faster JavaScript code and at
the same time make XUL.DLL more compact (its size is now 25% less).
- Prevent possible race conditions that could lead to UI freezes when
entering system-provided modal event loops.
- Restore the maximum time to process native UI events to what it was in
version 38.x (20 ms) which improves the overall UI responsiveness on
web-pages involving intensive use of JavaScript.
- Add information about workarounds for unresponsive UI to README.OS2
("Known Problems" section). |
github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases/download/FIREFOX_45_9_0esr_RELEASE_OS2_GA2/firefox-45.9.0-4.oc00.pentium4.7z |
|
Firefox v. 45.9.0 (23/4/2018, Dave Yeo) |
|
|
hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/firefox-45.9.0.en-US.os2.zip |
|
Firefox v. 45.9.0 (6/10/2017, A. Doff) |
Readme/What's new |
Firefox 45 for OS/2 and eCS 1.x. Repackaged, without Unix directory structures and without implied eCS 2.x or ArcaOS 5.x requirements, like 7Z, of the main Firefox 45 for eCS 2.x DE/EN and ArcaOS 5.x EN distribution. As good and bad as it gets, so probably still with a 100% CPU load for most Pentium CPUs. |
hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/firefox-45.9.0-2.en-US.os2.zip |
|
Firefox v. 45.9.0 (4/10/2017, bww bitwise works GmbH) |
Readme/What's new |
This document contains a brief list of the most important OS/2-specific changes
in the Mozilla product series from release to release.
CHANGES
Firefox 45.9.0 GA (2017-10-04)
- Update Firefox to latest version 45.9.0 ESR (including many upstream and
OS/2 fixes and improvements) and switch project status to GA (general
availability) due to reaching application stability suitable for use by
general public. About 40 distinct bugs were fixed for this release.
- Switch to RPM distribution and discontinue a separate ZIP distribution
(ZIP packages automatically generated from RPM packages are still
available).
- Make FFmpeg DLLs loadable again (45.5.0 Beta 8 regression).
- Fix crashes when changing mouse cursor shape.
- Fix delayed response/choppy window scrolling (45.5.0 Beta 8 regression).
- Fix command line parsing errors when handling path separators
(38.8.0 Beta 7 regression).
- Fix crashes when copy-pasting rich text from OpenOffice.
- Fix 100% CPU load from plugin-container.exe.
- Make binary NP plugins requiring proper process environment (e.g. Awget)
work.
- Make binary NP plugins that do custom painting (e.g. Flash) work in OOP
mode (for Flash this also requires a fixed Odin and a fresh Flash wrapper
build). Note that OOP (out-of-process) mode for plugins is always on
since version 45.
- Read binary NP plugin DLL properties w/o loading it for execution, which
improves security as of the main Firefox process by disallowing execution
of arbitrary code.
- Prevent possible doubled paint operations in browser windows.
- Make full-screen mode activated by F11 work (45.5.0 Beta 8 regression).
- Fix garbled national characters when using Firefox Sync with Windows,
Linux and macOS machines.
- Make printing from the internal PDF viewer work.
- Replace too generic "An error occurred while printing" error with "No
printers available" in the Print dialog when no printers are configured in
the system.
- Use the built-in PostScript generator when printing. This provides better
printing quality and also restricts the printer list in the Print dialog to
only PostScript printers, as other types of printers are not supported
by Firefox anyway.
- Support the HOME environment variable as a profile directory (used when
MOZILLA_HOME is absent).
- Support forward slashes and UNIXROOT paths (starting with `/@`) everywhere
in Firefox (including the values of HOME and MOZILLA_HOME environment
variables).
- Load binary NP plugins from a `/@unixroot/usr/mozilla/plugins` directory
(intended for installing plugins using RPM/YUM) in addition to
MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH. |
github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases/download/FIREFOX_45_9_0esr_RELEASE_OS2_GA/firefox-45.9.0-2.oc00.pentium4.7z |
|
Firefox v. 45.9.0 (1/10/2017, Bill Sorenson) |
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|
www.os2site.com/sw/new/firefox-45.9.0.en-us.os2-os-oct-1-2017.zip |
local copy
|
Firefox v. 45.5.0 (beta 8, package by Doug Bissett, 20/5/2017, Doug Bissett) |
Readme/What's new |
WarpIN installer for firefox |
hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/firefox-45.5.0.en-us.os2-wpi.wpi |
|
Firefox v. 45.5.0 (beta 8, 19/5/2017, bww bitwise works GmbH) |
Readme/What's new |
CHANGES
Firefox 45.5.0 Beta 8 (2017-05-19)
- Update Firefox to latest version 45.5.0 ESR (including many fixes to
the OS/2 code to adapt it to the ongoing Firefox evolution).
- Make firefox.exe set BEGINLIBPATH/LIBPATHSTRICT so that a run! or
script wrapper is no more necessary to start different versions of
Firefox in parallel or to launch firefox.exe from an arbitrary directory.
- Link against external LIBJPEG, LIBPNG, ZLIB, BZIP2 and HUNSPELL DLLs.
- Use kLIBC 0.6.6 DLL directly in JS code.
- Link against LIBCx DLL for automatic EXCEPTQ trap report creation
everywhere. |
github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases/download/FIREFOX_45_5_0esr_RELEASE_OS2_Beta_8/firefox-45.5.0.en-US.os2.zip |
|
Firefox v. 38.8.0 (beta7, 27/5/2016, bww bitwise works GmbH) |
Readme/What's new |
Firefox 38.8.0 Beta 7 (2016-05-27)
- Update Firefox to latest version 38.8.0 ESR.
- Fix saved passwords not shown on the Options->Security page.
- Fix broken Open in New Tab and Restore Session functionality.
This also fixes opening URLs from command line in new tabs
instead of creating a new window.
- Add support for dynamic FFmpeg DLL discovery and enable MP4 video support
by default. This allows to play H264/AAC video files in HTML5 if supported
FFmpeg DLLs are present on the system (see README.OS2).
- Set default font families to generic "serif", "sans-serif" and "monospace"
instead of fixed familiy names. This allows Firefox to automatically pick
up system-global defaults set (or changed) in FontConfig (see README.OS2).
- Report the OS/2 error code and faluty module name in a PM message box and
to the standard output if Mozilla runime (XUL.DLL) cannot be loaded at
startup. |
github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases/download/FIREFOX_38_8_0esr_RELEASE_OS2_Beta_7/firefox-38.8.0.en-US.os2.zip |
|
Firefox v. 38.2.1 (beta 6, 21/2/2016, bww bitwise works GmbH) |
Readme/What's new |
Firefox 38.2.1 Beta 6 (2016-02-21)
- Update Firefox to version 38.2.1 ESR.
- Switch to original fontconfig for much better font substitution.
- Switch from GPI to Pango for better text layout and rendering. This
obsoletes 'gfx.os2.font.*' properties and also brings long-awaited
support for @font-face (loadable Web fonts).
- Temporarily disable native print driver spport which is currently
broken. |
github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases/download/FIREFOX_38_2_1esr_RELEASE_OS2_Beta_6/firefox-38.2.1.en-US.os2.zip |
|
Firefox v. 31.8.0 (beta 5, 24/7/2015, bww bitwise works GmbH) |
Readme/What's new |
Firefox 31.8.0 Beta 5 (2015-07-24)
- Update Firefox to version 31.8.0 ESR.
- Put back all OS/2 code that was removed by the Mozilla team between
versions 24 and 31 to bring Firefox back to life.
- Review JavsScript support to fix infamous crashes under heavy JS usage and
greatly improve overal JS performance on OS/2.
- Enable audio in HTML5 content and in JS using libkai.
- Temporarily disable out-of-process mode for all plugins to fix 100% CPU
load.
- Make File->Quit shortcut (Ctrl+Q) work again. |
github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases/download/FIREFOX_31_8_0esr_RELEASE_OS2_Beta_5/firefox-31.8.0.en-US.os2.beta_5.zip |
|
Firefox v. 24.8.1 (15/3/2015, Dave Yeo) |
|
|
hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/www/browser/firefox-dev-24.8.1b4.en-US.os2.7 |
|
Firefox v. 24.8.1 (beta 4, 10/3/2015, bww bitwise works GmbH) |
Readme/What's new |
Firefox 24.8.1 Beta 4 (2015-03-10)
- Clean up temporary files (mozilla-temp-XXX) in %TEMP% directory.
- Fix check boxes in "Clear Recent History" dialog.
- Make most visited sites' thumbnails on new tab canvas work again.
- Set correct defaults for "gfx.os2.font.*" preferences.
- Finally allow loading XUL.DLL into high memory.
- Get rid of MOZJS.DLL (it's now part of XUL.DLL).
- Use universal builds of FreeType and FontConfig (see README).
- Use newer GCC 4.9.2 compiler (requires a new GCC runtime, see README).
- Use newer LIBC 0.6.6 library (requires a new LIBC runtime, see README). |
github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases/download/FIREFOX_24_8_1esr_RELEASE_OS2_Beta_4/firefox-24.8.1.en-US.os2.beta_4.zip |
|
Firefox v. 45.9.0 (debuginfo, , bww bitwise works GmbH) |
Readme/What's new |
CHANGES
Firefox 45.9.0 GA2 (2018-05-20)
- Fix Japanese text display (regression of 38.x builds).
- Fine tune compiler optimization to produce faster JavaScript code and at
the same time make XUL.DLL more compact (its size is now 25% less).
- Prevent possible race conditions that could lead to UI freezes when
entering system-provided modal event loops.
- Restore the maximum time to process native UI events to what it was in
version 38.x (20 ms) which improves the overall UI responsiveness on
web-pages involving intensive use of JavaScript.
- Add information about workarounds for unresponsive UI to README.OS2
("Known Problems" section). |
github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases/download/FIREFOX_45_9_0esr_RELEASE_OS2_GA2/firefox-debuginfo-45.9.0-4.oc00.pentium4.7z |
|
Comments
gabriele
Wed, 13/07/2016 - 20:22
Permalink
To get rid of the annoying
gabriele
Tue, 13/09/2016 - 17:48
Permalink
to load in high memory, run:
Joe Martins
Fri, 23/09/2016 - 17:55
Permalink
Not sure whether this is teh
gabriele
Sun, 18/06/2017 - 14:23
Permalink
Delayed response or choppy
ivan
Mon, 15/10/2018 - 23:35
Permalink
I think there is a little
Martin Iturbide
Tue, 22/11/2022 - 20:23
Permalink
Please update the links:
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