You are currently viewing a snapshot of www.mozilla.org taken on April 21, 2008. Most of this content is highly out of date (some pages haven't been updated since the project began in 1998) and exists for historical purposes only. If there are any pages on this archive site that you think should be added back to www.mozilla.org, please file a bug.



Mozilla Release Notes

These release notes describe system requirements, installation instructions, and known issues for the Mozilla 0.6 release. These notes are updated as we receive feedback, so please check back for new information.

Download the latest versions of Mozilla from the mozilla.org FTP site at the mozilla.org FTP site at ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/nightly/

Note: To learn how to build Mozilla yourself from the source, see http://www.mozilla.org/source.html

Contents

Mozilla Features
System Requirements
Compatibility Information
Installation Notes
Known Problems
General
Setting Profiles
Navigator
Mail and News
ChatZilla IRC Client
Composer
Security
Preferences
Plugins
Java
International Release Notes
Uninstalling Mozilla 0.6
Quality Feedback Agent
Note for Web Developers

Mozilla Features

  • Themes
  • My Sidebar
  • Convenient and flexible search
  • Multiple mail accounts and identities
  • ChatZilla IRC client
  • Privacy tools
  • Fast installation and updates
  • Autotranslation

For details on how to use these features, see What's New in Netscape 6?, bearing in mind that Netscape 6 supports features that Mozilla does not, including Netscape Instant Messenger and access to AOL mail and Netscape WebMail, and so any information about any of these Netscape 6-specific features won't do you any good in Mozilla. Also, Netscape 6 does not include ChatZilla as Mozilla does, and so you won't find any information on it in the What's New in Netscape 6 guide. For more information on ChatZilla, see the ChatZilla section below.

System Requirements

Mac OS

  • Mac OS 8.6 or later
  • PowerPC 604e 266 MHz or faster processor, or G3/G4
  • 64 MB RAM
  • 36 MB of free hard disk space

Windows

  • Windows 9x/ME, Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000
  • Intel Pentium-class 233 MHz (or faster) processor
  • 64 MB RAM
  • 26 MB of free hard disk space

Linux

  • Red Hat Linux 6.x and 7 with X11 R6 [Note: Mozilla is certified and fully supported on Red Hat Linux, but will run on other Linux distributions, such as Debian 2.1 (or later) or SuSE 6.2 (or later). The library glibc 2.1 (or higher) is required.]
  • Intel Pentium-class 233 MHz (or faster) processor
  • 64 MB of RAM
  • 26 MB of free hard disk space

Compatibility Information

If you have the Crescendo 5.01 plug-in, you must update to the latest version of Crescendo. Otherwise, Mozilla may crash at startup. (Bug 48110)

If you are using an ATI Rage video card, images are correctly displayed initially, but may not be properly re-drawn when you minimize and maximize or resize the window. (Bug MISSING)

Problems have been reported running Outlook 2000 (not Outlook Express) with Mozilla. If you experience problems, be sure you have any recent updates to Outlook 2000. If problems persist, quit Outlook 2000 before starting Mozilla. (Bug 42997)

If you use True Type fonts with Mozilla, some characters are displayed as squares. (Bug 51920)

Mac OS

QuickTime is required before installing Mozilla. (Bug 59059) If QuickTime is disabled, Mozilla will not start. (Bug 2569)

If you have version 5.5 (or earlier) of Stuffit Expander may see an error message stating that the archive is corrupted. You can ignore the message and continue with the installation. To get a newer version of Stuffit Expander, go to http://www.aladdinsys.com/expander/expander_mac_login.html

If you attempt to run Mozilla on Mac OS using a language pack (such as the Japanese Language Pack) and a Language Kit, all menu bar items will be incorrectly displayed. To resolve this problem, register Mozilla using the Language Register. For instance, if you're using the Japanese Language Pack and the Japanese Language Kit, register Mozilla as a JA application.

If you use the SmoothType control panel instead of Apple's "Smooth all fonts on screen" option in the Appearance control panel, you need SmoothType version 2.1.1 for Mozilla. Mozilla is not compatible with earlier versions of SmoothType, and some pages may be improperly drawn. To get an update, go to http://www.kaleidoscope.net/greg/smoothtype.html.

In Mozilla Mail, the import utility supports only Eudora and text files. (Bug 54265)

Linux

Mozilla requires glibc 2.1 or later. (Bug 44787)

If you have Red Hat Linux 6.0, you can't launch Mozilla if Java 2 is installed. The problem doesn't occur with Red Hat 6.1 or higher. (Bug 58259)

For Red Hat Linux 7, you must install the Standard C++ libraries for Red Hat 6.x compatibility. You can find the package on the Red Hat 7 installation CD here. (Bug 59012)

Mozilla does not work with Microsoft Proxy server version 2.0. (Bug 45747)

Installation Notes

Install into a clean (new) directory. Installing on top of previously released builds may cause problems.

If you are installing Mozilla on a multi-user operating system such as Linux, Unix, or Windows 2000, you should install it separately in the user directory of each user who plans to use Mozilla. (Bug 42184) If you install Mozilla in a shared write-protected directory, it may not run properly. (Bugs 42184, 41057)

When you install language packs (.xpi files), downloading pauses until you click the browser's Stop button.

If you are updating from an older version of Mozilla, and you used a third-party theme in Mozilla back then, Mozilla may crash or freeze on startup. Deleting old profiles should fix the problem. (Bug 53670)

Windows and Mac OS: It is strongly recommended that you exit all programs before running the setup program. Also, you should temporarily disable virus-detection software.

Java

Windows and Linux: To run Java applets, you must install the Java Run Time Environment (JRE) v1.3 plug-in.

Mac OS: You must have Mac OS Runtime for Java (MRJ) version 2.2 to run Java applets with Mozilla. If you have Mac OS version 8.5 through 8.6, you may need to upgrade your version of MRJ. For an upgrade, go to the Apple software download pages.

Security

Windows and Linux: Netscape Personal Security Manager (PSM) provides security (cryptographic) features for Mozilla. For Mozilla to support secure SSL connections, PSM must be installed installed separately.

Mac OS: PSM is not yet available for Mac OS (Bug 60911).

Installing on Windows

If you have previously installed Mozilla and/or Netscape Personal Security Manager, search your drives for psm.exe, and delete the folder that it resides in and all its subfolders before installing Mozilla. (Bug 54637)

Installing Java with low disk space may cause the Installer to hang. (Bug 45067) Before you begin installing Mozilla with Java, be sure to check your disk space (see System Requirements.)

Note: For Windows 2000 and some Windows NT installations, you must have Administrator privileges to install Mozilla. If you see an "Error 5" message during installation, log on with Administrator privileges and try installing again. (Bug 56538)

To install Mozilla by downloading the Mozilla installer, follow these steps:

  1. Click the the mozilla-win32-installer.exe link to download the file to your machine.
  2. Navigate to where you downloaded the file and double-click the Mozilla program icon on your machine to begin the Setup program.
  3. Follow the on-screen instructions in the setup program. The program starts automatically the first time.

To install Mozilla by downloading the .zip file and installing manually, follow these steps:

  1. Click the mozilla-win32-talkback.zip link or the mozilla-win32.zip link to download the .zip file to your machine.
  2. Navigate to where you downloaded the file and double-click the compressed file. Note: This step assumes you already have a recent version of WinZip installed, and that you know how to use it. If not, you can get WinZip and information about the program at www.winzip.com.
  3. Extract the .zip file to a directory such as C:/Program Files/ Mozilla.
  4. To start Mozilla, navigate to the directory you extracted Mozilla to and double-click the Mozilla.exe icon.

Installing on Mac OS

You may experience a crash during the first attempt to install Mozilla. Subsequent installs will be successful. (Bug 2304)

Note: If the downloaded file does not expand automatically you must expand the file using a program such as StuffIt Expander. Expander ships with all new Macs and comes with the default system install, so you may want to do a find in Sherlock for "StuffIt" to make sure that you don't already have it installed.

If you don't have Expander, you can click here to get a copy.

If you do already have Expander, you need to set it to start by default. See the immediately preceding URL for info on using Expander.

To install Mozilla by downloading the Mozilla installer, (recommended) follow these steps:

  1. Click the MacMozillaInstaller.sea.bin link to download it to your machine. By default, the download file is downloaded to your desktop compressed in .bin format. A MozillaInstaller folder is created.
  2. Double-click the MozillaInstaller folder in the Finder.
  3. Double-click the Mozilla Installer icon.
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process.
  5. To start Mozilla, open the folder where you installed Mozilla and double-click the Mozilla icon.

To install Mozilla by downloading the .zip file and installing manually, follow these steps:

  1. Click the mozilla-mac-*.sea.bin link to download the Mozilla binary to your machine. By default, the download file is downloaded to your desktop compressed in .sit.bin format.
  2. Double-click the mozilla-mac-*.sea.sit.bin icon on your desktop.
  3. Choose the directory where you want to install Mozilla.
  4. To start Mozilla, open the folder where you installed Mozilla and double-click the Mozilla icon.

Installing on Linux

Before installing on Linux, you must have write permission for the target installation directory. (Bug 46588)

You must run Mozilla at least once to complete autoregistration and for the component.reg file to be written to the installation directory. If a different user (other than the person who installed the product) runs the program first, a core dump will occur. (Bug 49345)

Note: To run Java applets, you must install the Java Run Time Environment (JRE) v1.3 plug-in.

Note: These instructions use the bash shell. If you're not using bash, adjust the commands accordingly.

To install Mozilla by downloading the Mozilla installer, follow these steps:

  1. Create a directory named mozilla (mkdir mozilla) and change to that directory (cd mozilla).
  2. Click the link to download the installer file (called mozilla-1686-pc-linux-gnu-installer.tar.gz).
  3. Change to the mozilla directory (cd mozilla) and decompress the archive with the following command:

      gunzip -dc moz*.tar.gz    | tar -xvf -
      (This places the installer in a subdirectory of Mozilla named mozilla-installer.)
  4. Change to the mozilla-installer directory (cd mozilla-installer) and run the installer with the ./mozilla-installer command.
  5. Follow the instructions in the install wizard for installing Mozilla.

    Note: If you have a slower machine, be aware that the installation may take some time. In this case, the installation progress may appear to hang indefinitely, even though the installation is still in process.
  6. To start Mozilla, change to the directory where you installed it and run the ./mozilla command.

To install Mozilla by downloading the tar.gz file:

  1. Create a directory named "mozilla" (mkdir mozilla) and change to that directory (cd mozilla).
  2. Click the link to download the non-installer mozilla*.tar.gz file into the mozilla directory.
  3. Change to the mozilla directory (cd mozilla) and decompress the file with the following command:

      gunzip -dc moz*.tar.gz    | tar -xvf -
      (This creates a "package" directory under your mozilla directory.)
  4. Change to the package directory (cd package).
  5. Run Mozilla with the ./mozilla run script.

To hook up Mozilla complete with icon to the GNOME Panel, follow these steps:

  1. Click the GNOME Main Menu button, open the Panel menu, and then open the Add to Panel submenu and choose Launcher.
  2. Right-click the icon for Mozilla on the Panel and enter the following command:

        directory_name./mozilla

    where directory_name is the name of the directory you downloaded Mozilla to. For example, the default directory that Mozilla suggests is /usr/local/mozilla.
  3. Type in a name for the icon, and type in a comment if you wish.
  4. Click the icon button and type in the following as the icon's location:

        directory_name/icons/mozicon50.xpm

    where directory_name is the directory where you installed Mozilla. For example, the default directory is /usr/local/mozilla/icons/mozicon50.xpm.

Known Problems

General

If you change the bit depth (number of colors) in your monitor settings, Mozilla may not adjust to the new setting. (Bug 6061)

Alt+click (Option+click on Mac OS) on a link does not cause the linked file to be saved. Some Web sites may prompt you to do this, but it won't work with Mozilla. Instead, go to the linked page and save it directly. (Bug 55686)

Windows: Launching Mozilla a second time, while Mozilla is already running, does not cause a new Mozilla window to open. Workaround: click on an open Mozilla window and press Ctrl+1. If Mozilla is still running but has no windows open, press Ctrl+Alt+Del first. (Bug 50424)

Keyboard and Mouse

Keyboard shortcuts are not fully implemented. Some shortcuts for for editing (for instance, for cutting or copying text) do not work in certain dialog boxes. Several keyboard shortcuts for menu items do not work. (Bug 49909)

Linux: Keyboard shortcuts on Linux now use Ctrl instead of Alt as the modifier key, while Alt is used for menu shortcuts. If you wish to modify these shortcut keys, edit your prefs.js file as follows:

  user_pref("ui.key.accelKey", 18);
  (This changes the accelerator key from Ctrl (17) to Alt (18).)

  user_pref("ui.key.menuAccessKey", 0);
  (This changes the menu access key from Alt (18) to none.)

Mousewheel scrolling

Linux: You must have your X server properly configured to enable mousewheel scrolling. For XFree86, add a line to the Pointer section of your XF86Config files such as "ZAxisMapping 4 5". Also be sure that the Protocol line is set up correctly for your mouse.

Windows: Mousewheel scrolling does not work with all drivers. If you have problems, try updating your driver or disabling any "helper" programs that your mouse uses. Also, mousewheel scrolling will not work if you have the scrolling set to "full-page mode" in the Control Panel.

Mac OS: Mousewheel scrolling is not yet implemented for Mac.

Dialog Boxes and Windows

If Mozilla is locked up but doesn't seem to have crashed, make sure there are no dialog boxes still open. Close each window on your desktop one at a time and if you uncover a dialog window, dismiss it. If you have multiple desktops, repeat these steps for each desktop. (Bug 55261)

This problem may affect Linux users downloading plugins. Follow these steps to resolve the problem:

  1. Minimize the plugin download window.
  2. Click "Cancel" to dismiss the dialog box.
  3. Re-open the download window and continue downloading the plugin.

Form Manager

Form Manager is not fully implemented in the Japanese version of Mozilla.

Fonts

Many Linux systems (in particular, Red Hat Linux systems) have bad Arial fonts. (Bug 46415) If many Web pages, especially those using the Arial font, look unclear, small, or hard to read, the following links explain two ways you can change your font server to get better Arial fonts:

  http://home.online.no/~rut-aane/linux.html#ttf
  http://home.online.no/~rut-aane/linux.html#fuzzy

If that doesn't work, you may be able to fix the problem by renaming or removing /usr/share/fonts/ISO8859-2. For instance, enter the following command:

  mv /usr/share/fonts/ISO8859-2 /usr/share/fonts.ISO8859-2

and then log out of Linux and log back in again. You can always undo this, if necessary, by entering the following command:

  mv /usr/share/fonts.ISO8859-2 /usr/share/fonts/ISO8859-2 

Proxies

Mozilla needs to be configured to work properly with proxies such as Junkbuster that do not support the most recent HTTP specification. By default, Mozilla tries to use HTTP 1.1. To use with Mozilla with a proxy that only supports HTTP 1.0, edit the HTTP Version from 1.1 to 1.0 in Edit | Preferences | Debug | Networking. (Bug 38488)

Setting Profiles

If you have a single profile from Communicator version 4.5 or later, that profile is automatically copied and converted for use with Mozilla. Profiles from earlier Netscape versions cannot be converted.

If you have multiple profiles to copy and convert, the profile manager dialog box appears. Click the profile you want to use and then click Start.

If problems occur during installation and your Communicator profile was not copied and converted, you can still use your profile. Launch Mozilla from the command line, adding the "-installer" option (that is, type "mozilla.exe-installer" on the command line.) Or re-install Mozilla to see the profile manager dialog again.

Linux: If you are unable to migrate a Communicator profile, check the /tmp directory and remove any prefs.js file that you find. (Bug 58371)

Navigator

The "View Frame Source" feature is not available from the View menu; however, it is available in the context menu. To see the context menu, click the left mouse button to put the mouse pointer in the frame and then click the right mouse button (Control-click on the Mac OS). (Bug 47139)

Several features of Page Information are not yet available, including: the File MIME Type, Source, Local cache file, Content length, Expires, Charset, and Security. Also, you cannot view information on frames, XML pages, or FTP pages. (Bug 52730)

Accessing Pages

Some secure (https) Web sites are not TLS compatible. (Bug 54031) TLS is the new version of SSL. If you are having trouble reaching a particular secure Web site, try turning off TLS for that site (Bug 56865):

  1. Open the Tasks menu, choose Privacy and Security, and then choose Security Manager.
  2. Click the Advanced tab.
  3. Click Options.
  4. Turn off TLS.

Mozilla may not be able to connect to some secure (https) IBM Web servers. This is a problem with the servers' software, not with Mozilla. (Bug 54031)

If you use "Last page visited" as your Home (starting) page, if the last page you viewed had frames, it may not be displayed correctly when you next restart Mozilla. (Bug 58613)

If you browse a local directory that contains a file with ".." (two or more dots) in its name, not all the files in the directory will be listed. (Bug 53152)

Mozilla sometimes fails to pick up video from Web pages that specify specific ports. (Bug 51237)

Windows 98: Secure (https) sites that contain many image files my load very slowly. (Bug 50843)

Linux: You can't view hidden files or directories (such as .mozilla) using Mozilla. (Bug MISSING)

Downloading Files

You cannot download multiple files simultaneously using FTP. (Bug 33163)

The original extension of a file that you download may be changed. To work around this, make a note of the original extension, and then rename it to change it back. (Bug 50420)

Bookmarks

Do not copy and paste a bookmark folder into itself; this may cause the folder to be deleted. (Bug 53403)

You cannot permanently delete the IE Favorites bookmarks folder. (Bug 22642)

View Source

To view frame source, point to the frame and click the right mouse button (Control-click on Mac OS) and then choose View Frame Source from the context menu. (Bug 47319)

Page content generated by an online form isn't correctly reflected in the view source window. (Bug MISSING)

Mac OS: The horizontal scrollbar in the View Source window might be missing. Resize the window to see the scrollbar. (Bug 56488)

Mail and News

You must complete Mail's account setup before you compose a new message. Failure to do so may result in difficulty in closing the message composition or other open mail windows. (Bug 24665)

In the Mail/News Account Settings: Server Settings dialog box, any changes you make to local directory settings won't take effect until you exit and re-start Mozilla. (Bug 2654)

Undo/Redo and Stop may not always work as expected. (Bugs 32178, 43408 , 14893, 22095, 27468, 28129, 32035, 39393, and other bugs)

Delete Message doesn't always work when you're using Next Unread Message. (Bug 44572) Try clicking the message again to enable Delete.

Lines of text are sometimes dropped when printing multiple-page messages. (Bug 31544) To be safe, print multiple-page messages one page at a time.

Many commands don't work in the stand-alone message window. (Bugs 44033, 45149, 37314) This window opens when you double-click a message in the main mail window.

To change or view the correct online/offline state go to the Navigator window. Mail and News windows and dialogs will always show an online state. (Bug 44579)

Mozilla does not warn the user of a low disk space condition. (Bugs 55814, 57902, 32443, 56565) Some symptoms you may see are:

  • Send Page fails to send the intended page attachment.
  • Copying a message to your Sent folder fails
  • IMAP: Status text indicates there are new messages to retrieve, but no new messages appear in the Inbox. Quit Mozilla, free some disk space, re-start Mozilla, and try again.
  • POP: You see an "unknown error" when trying to select messages that could not be downloaded. Quit Mozilla, free some disk space, re-start Mozilla, and try again. This workaround suceeds only if "Leave messages on Server" is enabled in the Mail/News Account Settings: Server Settings dialog box. (It must be enabled prior to the failed download.) If that option was not enabled, those messages are lost.

Linux: You may encounter problems if you install Mozilla in a root user environment then run as another user. Problems include saving to Sent folder, Drafts, Templates or general authentication problems. (Bug 49397)

AOL Mail and Netscape WebMail Accounts

Mozilla does not support AOL Mail and Netscape WebMail, as Netscape 6 does. If you share your Netscape 6 profile with Mozilla, you may be able to see headers for messages in the account's Inbox if you have previously checked one of these accounts in Netscape 6, but you will be unable to interact with the messages. To access your AOL Mail, WebMail, or Netscape Instant Messenger, you need to use Netscape 6.

Message Filters

Some filter criteria choices are not actually available. (Bugs 40528, 40380) If you select an unimplemented filter criterion when creating a new filter or editing an existing one, you may see odd dialog behavior and the filter will not work as expected. If you migrate a Netscape Communicator message filter specifying an unimplemented criterion, you will experience similar problems.

No warning is given if you rename or delete a folder specified as a message filter destination. (Bug 41720) You must edit the filter to select a new destination folder; otherwise the filter will not work as expected.

Receiving and Reading Messages

Not all of the choices offered in the Search Messages window are implemented or valid for certain mail folder or newsgroup selections. (Bugs 44359, 40380)

If you view messages by thread and you delete a message having one or more replies, the replies may be re-sorted to another place in the message list. (Bug 19412)

You may not see the message header (From, Subject, Date, To, Cc, and so forth) when you read messages. This problem often occurs when you switch mail folders or newsgroups. To see headers, resize the window or the message content pane. (Bug 39655)

If the context menu "Open message in new window" does not work while the message pane is closed, try opening the message pane and closing it while a message is selected, or press Enter to open the selected message in a new window. (Bug 56534)

Attachments

Don't try to download multiple attachments simultaneously. Download them one at a time. (Bug 49180)

In some cases you can't view more than one HTML/Web page attachment to a message in the mail window. The attachments will not all be shown or you may experience a crash when attempting to display them. (Bug 38398)

A crash may occur if you try to open or save a message attachment of a content type unknown to Mozilla. (Bug 44762)

Mac OS: AppleDouble attachments are not encoded properly when sent or saved. Files may be corrupted and rendered unusable. (Bug 22090)

Composing Messages

You can't forward a message that has a signature file containing the HTML tag <div class="signature". (Bug 49484 -- Note that this bug is marked confidential pending a new report.)

Address Book

An imported Netscape Communicator address book will appear in Mozilla as a separate address book. (Bug 41590) It will not be merged with or appear as your Personal Address Book. If you wish the imported address book to be your Personal Address Book, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Tasks menu and choose Address Book.
  2. In the Address Book window, click the imported address book and select all of its entries; then drag them to the Personal Address Book. (This doesn't work for mailing lists.)

Pop and IMAP

If your user name (not to be confused with your email address) contains "@", you must add the following line to your "prefs.js" file before Mail will work properly: (Bugs 34996, 53970)

user_pref ("mail.allow_at_sign_in_user_name", true);

Note: Your prefs.js file is located in the Users50 directory on Windows and Mac OS, and in the .mozilla directory on Linux.

You must exit and restart Mozilla to see the effect of a change to the option: "show All IMAP mail folders" or "show only subscribed IMAP mail folders." To access this option, click the Advanced button in the Server section of the Account Settings dialog box. (Bug 38943)

In the Mail/News Account Settings: Server Settings dialog box, "Clean up ("Expunge") Inbox on Exit" does not work when the pop-up menu is set to "Mark it as deleted." Instead, open the File menu and choose Compact This Folder. (Bug 43411)

In the Mail/News Account Settings: Server Settings dialog box, if the pop-up menu is set to "Mark it as deleted," you may experience problems with message filters that move messages to other folders. You may see duplicates of filtered messages, or filtered messages may disappear and reappear when switching folders. To minimize problems, frequently compact the Inbox (open the File menu and choose Compact Folder). (Bug 57938)

Mail notification may cause Mozilla to freeze if you lose your server connection. (Bug 58547) Follow these steps to change your notification preference:

  1. Open the Edit menu and choose Mail/News Account Settings.
  2. In the Server Settings dialog box, adjust the setting for "Check for new mail every __ minutes."

"Copy to Sent Folder" may fail if your Sent folder is located on an IMAP server. (Bug 59008) To avoid this problem, put your Sent folder under "Local Folders." Follow these steps to change to Local Folders:

  1. Open the Edit menu and choose Mail/News Account Settings.
  2. In the Copies and Folders dialog box, adjust the setting for "Place a copy in:"

News

When you migrate a secure news account from Netscape Communicator to Mozilla, or when you add a secure newsgroup account, you can't access the newsgroup server and read messages until you edit the server's account settings. (Bug 45922) Follow these steps to do so:

  1. Open the Edit menu and choose Mail/News Account Settings.
  2. Find the secure news server account (in the list on the left), and choose its server.
  3. Next to Port, type the server's port number (the default port number is 563).
  4. Put a checkmark next to "use secure connection (SSL)".
  5. Click OK.

The Subscribe dialog box may not work with news servers that require authentication. If you open a password-protected newsgroup you may be prompted more than once for the user name and password combination. (Bug 39862)

Using drag and drop to copy news messages to a folder within a POP mail account or "Local Folders" does not work. You will see "Unknown Error" when trying to select the copy in the mail folder. Instead, use the File button or Open the Message menu and choose Copy Message. (Bug 56911)

ChatZilla

General

ChatZilla is not finished, but is usable if you're willing to accept a subset of the commands offered in more mature IRC clients. A large percentage of ChatZilla users experience crashes, odd behavior, rash, shortness of breath, and an urge to fix bugs. If you would like to contribute please say so on the netscape.public.mozilla.rt-messaging newsgroup, or send an e-mail to rginda@netscape.com.

If you are not familiar with IRC, please check out the FAQs available at www.irchelp.org.

Running ChatZilla

Start Mozilla with the -chat option to start ChatZilla, or select it from the Tasks menu.

More Info About ChatZilla

See the ChatZilla User's Guide for information on using ChatZilla. For info on building ChatZilla, click here. (Note that ChatZilla builds automatically on Windows and Mac OS).

Composer

You may not be able to simultaneously edit a document using both Composer and another editor. (Bug 37089)

If an HTML document contains invalid tags, Composer will remove them. Text is preserved. (Bug 42781)

You can't apply a font style across paragraphs and images. Font changes must be done within each paragraph. (Bug MISSING)

Applying a font style across several words yields multiple font tags in the HTML code. (Bug MISSING)

There are a few problems with bulleted and number lists. (Bug 54479, 50741)

When the background color on a page is set, only the frames behind the lines of selected text are colored. Resizing the window triggers the proper repaint.

After applying a color to text, the text may appear partially highlighted.

Certain pages (such as ones that set frames) can't be edited. However, you are still able to choose the Edit Page option in the File menu for such pages. An editor window opens, but you are unable to edit the page. (Bug 14156)

When you copy and paste a relative URL for a link or an image, that URL will no longer work when you paste it into a mail message or a composer page in a different location. (Bug 57296)

In the Link properties dialog, the Advanced Edit button doesn't work. (Bug 56541)

You can't insert a link to a named anchor that contains an umlaut. Instead, open the View menu and choose HTML Source; then insert the link. (Bug 55286)

Switching to HTML Source mode and then back to Normal mode (using the View menu) sometimes results in tags being deleted. (Bug 55224)

Linux: Dragging and dropping text copies the text instead of moving it. (Bug 56270)

Tables

When you use percentage settings for properties for tables or horizontal lines, viewing those properties may cause a slight reduction in the property setting. (Bug 56022)

When you change the background color of a table cell, you won't be able to see the new color until you close the Table Properties dialog box. (Bugs 53741, 50794)

To left-align a table heading, open the View menu and choose HTML Source; then edit the table tag. You can't left-align table headings using the table property dialog box. (Bug 55879)

To vertically align (valign) a table cell to "middle," open the View menu and choose HTML Source; then edit the <td tag. Also, remove the valign value from your <tr tags. (Bug 57206)

When copying and pasting text from one table cell to another, double-click to select one word, or triple-click to select the entire text contents of the cell. If you try to select table cell text by dragging the mouse across the desired text, you are likely to copy invisible table tags, and cause table formatting problems. (Bug 57292)

Security

Password Manager's Encrypt Sensitive Information command does not work properly and may cause a freeze. To avoid this problem, change your Personal Security Password before choosing the Encrypt Sensitive Information command. (Bugs 58417, 57081) To enable the Encrypt Sensitive Information menu item, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Tasks menu and choose Privacy and Security; then choose Password Manager and Change Personal Security Password.
  2. Fill in requested information and click OK.

    Note: If the Encrypt Sensitive Information menu item is grayed out, try choosing Obscure Sensitive Information first.

If you are specifying a manual proxy configuration in the Proxies preferences, remove any leading "http://" from the specified proxy. (Bug 30387)

The lock icon will appear closed (secure) on Web sites that contain a mixture of secure and insecure content. This is because lock indicates whether the basic page arrived via SSL. It does not indicate that all images and other sub-content on the page are transmitted to the via SSL, and it is the responsibility of the Web site to protect the user on this level. (Bug 47496)

For more information on PSM, see the Netscape Personal Security Manager documentation page.

Mac OS: Encrypting stored data can cause Mozilla to freeze. (Bug 58417)

Linux: A secure (closed) lock icon becomes a non-secure (open) lock icon after you click it. (Bug 57729)

Linux: If you install Mozilla and Personal Security Manager as yourself or as root, another person launching Mozilla on your computer won't be able to use Personal Security Manager. (Bug 49507)

Preferences

If you are using the Classic theme, some preference panels may be displayed incorrectly or may have missing elements. If you view a different preference panel and then return to the one you're working in, the display is corrected. (Bug 53440)

In the Helper Applications panel, adding a new MIME type may cause Mozilla to freeze. If you are unable to edit the MIME type field, delete and create a new helper application type with your changes. (Bug 54059)

Plugins

Plugins installed for Communicator 4.x may not be available for Mozilla. Workaround: install these plugins in the Mozilla Plugins folder.

If you are watching a Flash or QuickTime movie and you open the Preferences dialog or perform other tasks in which dialog boxes appear, the dialog boxes appear blank. To correct this problem, close the page you are viewing and then perform your task.

Mac OS: QuickTime movies are not displayed correctly, and are offset on the page.

Java

Mozilla has been tested only with J2SE v1.3.0_01. Other J2SE releases, or previous JDK's from Sun, will not work with Mozilla.

LiveConnect is not yet enabled in this release. LiveConnect and LiveConnect security will be enabled in a later release.

Running J2SE in 256 color mode may cause a flicking problem.

Linux: Mozilla on Linux and Solaris includes includes J2SE v1.3.0_01. The Java support on Linux and Solaris is not complete (for instance, LiveConnect is not yet enabled), but will be functional in a later release.

Mac OS: Choosing Java Console from the Tools submenu of the Tasks menu does not launch the Java console. This only works on Windows. (Bug 27407)

International Release Notes

General

Mozilla has been designed to display many different languages without extra steps. The user should be able to browse and use e-mail without complicated setups or efforts when necessary fonts are available on the system.

Mozilla can be used with more than one language pack, which lets the user change the menu language and relevant URLs.

Java (JRE 1.3) is installed under the "Complete" or "Custom" Install option of  the installer. All language versions of Mozilla installs an international version of JRE 1.3.0_01 for Windows and Linux, which makes it possible to display both European and Asian characters. Earlier versions of JRE which shipped with Beta versions of Mozilla may not work properly with the shipping version of Mozilla. For those wanting Java functionality, we recommend "Complete" or "Custom"  Install option.

If you are using Chinese, Korean or Japanese language Windows 9x/ME and are having a non-start or crash problem when trying to start up Mozilla, read the Java section of the Known issues section below.

General and Profile Manager

Windows NT/2000: If you create a non-ASCII user name (e.g. Japanese) and if it does not have the Power user or Administrator status, a new profile creation may fail. In such a case, instead of accepting the default location for profiles, choose an alternate location whose path name does not contain non-ASCII characters.

A path name which contains non-Latin 1 characters is not saved correctly. Initially they look OK but when saved, they turn into unreadable characters. A file that is defined using such characters may not be found, e.g. a mail signature file. A workaround is to use only ASCII characters for file and path names.

Profile migration does not work correctly if Communicator 4.x profile names contain 2-byte characters (e.g. Japanese) with 0x5C byte Shift_JIS character.

Shift_JIS Full-width tilde character (0x8160)  and a few other Japanese symbol characters have differing correspondences to Unicode mapping tables depending on platforms. This causes characters like these to display incorrectly in some situations on Macintosh.

Linux: When migrating profiles created by Communicator 4.x under Japanese EUC locale, Address Book entries may not transfer correctly. Workaround: You can edit preferences.js file and change the charset name "euc-jp" (lowercase) to "EUC-JP" (uppercase) for lines containing an entry like the following: "user_pref("ldap_2.servers.pab.csid", "euc-jp");"

Linux: Under a Japanese locale, the window title in Japanese (reflecting the title of a Web page) may not show correctly if the Web page does not match the charset of the Japanese locale, e.g. Shift_JIS title on an EUC locale.

Linux: On Red Hat Linux 6.0 Japanese, the license agreement for the Japanese installer may display empty. Workaround: Click OK and move on to the next step. This problem does not occur on RH 6.1 and later.

Navigator and Composer

Mozilla does not support Dynamic Fonts. (Note: It was supported in Communicator 4.x.)

Files and directories on a local disk bearing non-Latin 1 names may not be accessed by inputting the names into the Navigator location field.

The charset attribute within a SCRIPT tag, i.e. for JavaScript, does not work. Instead JavaScript uses the charset of the document.

With the Windows 2000 IME, most of the new IME features (e.g. reconversion) are supported but some features may not work correctly.

Mac OS: Non-ASCII non-Latin 1 info stored in Internet Config will not show correctly in auto-fill fields such as "Your name" field in the Mail account setup dialog. If this happens, you can manually correct auto-filled entries.

Mac OS: The Japanese language pack or Japanese release can be used on an English Mac OS if the Japanese Language Kit has been installed on the Mac OS. (The Japanese Language support comes free with Mac OS 8.5 or later as an optional install item.) The menu and dialogs, however, will not show as Japanese unless the "Mozilla" program is registered as a Japanese language program. To do this, use the (Japanese) Language register program found in the "Apple Extras" directory.

Mac OS: The Character Coding menu check mark does not get updated promptly and shows incorrect indication of the current page encoding.

Mail

POP and Local message body search does not work with non-Latin 1 key words.

Filtering by body key has not been implemented.

The "Edit as New"  menu does not correctly quote the original non-ASCII text body  if the original message does not contain MIME charset information.

When you quote the original message in reply, sometimes you see the quoted text as corrupted and unreadable. If this problem occurs, check that you don't have multiple Mail folder windows open. When multiple mail folders/windows are open, the reply charset reflects the charset of the selected message in the last window opened rather than the current message from which the reply message is created. Workaround: The user can either close all Mail folder windows except the current one, or select a message in the last window opened which bears the same charset as the one that is being quoted in reply.

Character Coding menu is not effective in a standalone message view window. The standalone window also does not inherit the encoding of the Mail view window if the original message contains no MIME charset or incorrect charset information. The latter two can be overridden but its effect is not inherited into the standalone window.

Japanese Auto-detection may fail sometimes with EUC-xx and UTF-8 attachments, which lack MIME charset information.

The Character Coding menu cannot correct the thread pane display of non-MIME encoded headers. If the message displayed lacks MIME charset information, the thread pane display obeys the default message display charset set in the Preferences dialog box under "Mail & Newsgroups | Message Display | Languages". Correctly setting this option to the charset most often used in the user's mail viewing helps avoid display problem of this type.

Mac OS and Linux: View Page Source does not work for viewing a message source when the Auto-Detect (All) is on. To use this function in Mail, turn off the Auto-Detect (All) from the Character Coding submenu of the View menu.

IMAP

You may see an extraneous vertical bar or a question mark in the window title display of a header subject line. This is a misinterpreted Tab character sent from an IMAP server as part of a line folding sequence. This problem does not occur under a POP mail account.

You may get an error message saying that a mailbox does not exist when you attempt to "Empty Trash". This problem is caused when the Trash folder contains folders bearing non-ASCII names. You may not see them with Mozilla but you can delete them using Communicator 4.x. This will eliminate the warning dialog.

Java

Some cases have been reported in which Windows 9x/ME Japanese users have a problem starting Mozilla when there is a prior installation of older JDK or JRE under the operating system in use. The JRE 130_01 which ships with Mozilla contains many fixes since the official release of JRE 1.3. If you are using an older version of JRE 1.3 or the US version of JRE 1.3 under Japanese Windows, you may experience this non-start problem.

To determine if the non-starting problem is due to Java installation, follow these steps:

    1. Locate the Plugins directory (which is found in the same directory as the Mozilla executable).
    2. Remove all the Java plugin files from the Plugins directory, i.e. the files whose names begin with "npjava...". Remove also the NPOJI600.dll file if you find one. Back them up in another directory so that you can restore them later.
    3. Restart Mozilla. If Mozilla starts, then you have a Java related non-start problem.

If you have the Java problem as described above or want to install updated JRE 130_01 shipped with Mozilla, follow these steps (Note: This type of problem has not been reported for Windows NT4/2000, but if you experience this problem on the latter two platforms, follow these steps for those platforms also):

    1. Click the Start button, open the Settings menu, and choose Control Panel.
    2. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon and select the Install/Uninstall tab.
    3. Locate the old JRE installation (Java Runtime Environment) and delete it.
    4. Run the Mozilla installer and choose either "Complete" or "Custom" installation making sure that Java is installed in the latter option. (Note that the "Typical" install does not install the JRE package but if there is an existing JDK or JRE on the operating system, the installer copies Java plugin files and place them into Mozilla's Plugins directory.) This will install the latest version of JRE 130_01, which works with Mozilla.

Mac OS and Linux: Display of non-ASCII characters (particularly Chinese/Korean/Japanese) in applets may not work without correct font settings in font.properties file.

Uninstalling Mozilla

Linux

To uninstall Mozilla in Linux, remove the /mozilla directory where you installed Mozilla and then remove the ~/.mozilla directory (~ is usually your home directory), which contains profile information.

Windows

JavaSoft and Net2Phone have their own Uninstallers. To uninstall them:

  1. Open the Start menu, open the Settings menu, and choose Control Panel.
  2. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon and select the Install/Uninstall tab.
  3. Select either:
    • Java 2 Runtime Environment Standard Edition v1.3
    • Net2Phone/Net2Fax
  4. Click the Add/Remove button.

To uninstall the other Mozilla files:

  1. Remove the folder where you installed Mozilla (for example, the Mozilla folder inside the Program Files folder)
  2. Delete mozver.dat (in the Windows folder)
  3. Delete mozregistry.dat (in the Windows folder)

Personal Security Manager is used for both Communicator 4.7 and Mozilla. Remove the Security file (usually in the Program Files\Common Files\Netscape Shared\ directory) only if Personal Security Manager was not installed for Communicator 4.7. If you're not sure, it is safer to not remove this folder.

Advanced: These Windows registry keys created during installation can be deleted from the Windows registry:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Netscape\Mozilla
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Netscape\Persona Security Manager

These Windows registry keys are currently used by the installer only (not by Navigator). They will cause no harm if left in the Windows registry.

Mac OS

To uninstall Mozilla in Mac OS, follow these steps:

  1. Remove the folder where you installed Mozilla (probably "Mozilla folder").
  2. Remove the the Mozilla folder in the Documents folder
  3. Remove the file "Mozilla Registry" in the Preferences folder, which is inside the System Folder

Using the Quality Feedback Agent with Automatic Proxy Configuration

Windows: If you are using automatic proxy configuration, and you want to use the Full Circle Talkback Quality Feedback Agent to send incident reports to mozilla.org, you need to replace the talkback.ini file with one that contains the appropriate proxy configuration information. Follow these steps to do so:

  1. If you are using an HTTP proxy, or both an HTTP and SOCKS proxy, create a file named talkback.ini, containing the following three lines, using your proxy host name, domain, and port:
  2. UseUserHTTPProxyInfo=1
    UserHTTPProxyHost="yourproxy.yourdomain.com"
    UserHTTPProxyPort=xxxx

    where xxxx is your proxy port number.

    If you are using a SOCKS Proxy, create a file with these three lines:

    UseUserSOCKSInfo=1
    UserSOCKSHost="yourproxy.yourdomain.com"
    UserSOCKSPort=xxxx

    where xxxx is your SOCKS port number.

  3. Replace the existing talkback.ini file with the version you created.

On Windows 95 and Windows NT systems, copy the talkback.ini file to the following directory location within the directory that contains the Mozilla.exe file: \Fullsoft\data\talkback.ini

Note for Web Developers

For a list of known issues with support for Web standards (HTML 4.01, CSS1/2, DOM1/2, XML, RDF), JavaScript, Java, and Plug-ins in Mozilla, see the following document, which may be updated from time to time: http://developer.netscape.com/docs/technote/gecko/n6release.html

How you can get involved with Mozilla

  • Join us on Bug Day. If you want to help test Mozilla, but don't know where to start, join us on Tuesdays at 3:00PM PST on the #mozillazine IRC channel on irc.mozilla.org. There you can meet friendly Mozillans who can help you learn the process and get you started.
  • Join the BugAThon. If you can script, you can help simplify test cases.

To become even more involved, check out these suggested starting points.