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Netscape Navigator Version 3 at CERN

  Chris Jones CN/DCI

and

Miguel Marquina, Raul Ramos (UNIX)
David Foster (NICE)
Frank Ovett (MACs)


In response to requests from many users, including CERNSP users who are unable to run Java applications with Navigator 2, we are making available Netscape version 3 simultaneously on all platforms (UNIX, NICE and Macintoshes) for testing. The default version will remain, for the time being, Netscape 2.

As it is known that Netscape 3 uses of the order of 50% more resources (CPU and memory) - although the difference is much smaller if people use several plug-ins - we would appreciate hearing from users who have difficulties to run this version. This information could be passed to your "Divisional Representative for the Desktop Forum" (see list below), where the issue of the default Navigator version will be discussed.

Representatives for the Desktop Forum

Paul Faugeras AC Paul Heymans EST Manfred Hoefert TIS
Paolo Ciriani ST Frank Ovett AS Ken Peach PPE
Michel Rabany (secretary) LHC Hartmut Wahl SL Dorothee Duret PE
Carmelo Saitta FI Brian Allardyce PS Helmut Wendler ECP
Paolo Nason & Wolfgang Lerche TH Chris Jones CN Mike Price PPE

As a final general remark on this matter, Netscape hopes to release version 4 for beta testing before the end of 1996, and to provide a full release arround Easter. This version will probably contain an IMAP4 client to work with the Mail Server.

Chris Jones


Netscape News on UNIX

New version for testing

Following our policy of making available the latest versions of Netscape, the new Netscape Navigator Gold 3.01 is available for testing on all UNIX machines accessing the ASIS server. This version can be accessed in the usual way, by typing "netscape -version beta". New features of this version can be reached from the "Help | Release Notes" menu option.

Please note that this is not the official version of Navigator deployed at CERN, which is 2.02. This will be updated as soon as a deployment policy is defined. For regular usage, you should use the default version (by simply typing "netscape").

Netscape Wrapper

We have made some changes to the Netscape wrapper at CERN so as to improve the application behaviour. These changes are:

Java bug in 3.0 versions

Besides all this, we have found a Java bug in all 3.0x versions (including beta versions) preventing any Java applet from running under some special circumstances.

Symptoms

When running Netscape Navigator you may encounter one of the following problems:

If this is your case, the following solution might solve your problem.

Solution

First check that in the "Option|Network Preferences|Languages" menu option you have Java enabled. If this is correct, execute the following command:

xset -q
this will show you some properties of your X server. At the end of the information you'll find a comma-separated list of paths labelled "Font Path". If you find in the list something like tcp/xtsoft1:7100 or tcp/xtsoft2:7100 or anything similar we may be able to solve the problem. Just type:
xset -fp tcp/xtsoft1:7100 
or (in place of tcp/xtsoft1:7100) whatever you found in the "Font Path" section similar to it.

Now, you should be able to run java within Netscape Navigator 3.0x. What you've done is basically to remove such a font path from your X server, which is confusing Netscape Navigator somehow.

If you have any problem running any other application, or you want to set the path back just type:

xset +fp tcp/xtsoft1:7100 
Please take note that this is a temporary solution to a problem found at CERN on non-supported versions of Netscape Navigator, and it is intented as an interim patch and not as an official recipe.

Finally, as always, we encourage you to check the URL:

http://wwwinfo.cern.ch/uco/netscape

where all the information about Netscape Navigator/UNIX at CERN is always placed.

Miguel Marquina, Raul Ramos


Netscape 3 at NICE

NICE currently has Netscape 2 installed as the production browser. In synchronization with the UNIX versions, Netscape 3 has also been made available in "test" mode.

You may find two "shortcuts" called
 "Netscape Navigator 3 (tests only)" 
and
 "Netscape Navigator 3 Gold (tests only)" 
at the  "World Wide Web"  subgroup of the  "More Applications"  group.

Netscape 3 is installed with a wide range of plug-ins, supporting many of the "active" Web sites including VRML.

David Foster


Netscape 3 on Macintoshes

Netscape Navigator version 3 has been made available for testing on the same server volume as version 2, namely SRV0_NICE/MACPGM. Version 2 remains available as the default version.

Frank Ovett


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