Firefox 38.8.0 for OS/2 Beta 7

[ivan]

Yum way of the future !

I'm not convinced that it is, a lot of the Linux world are trying to drop it and its not certified for OS/2 use so that cuts out a lot of the commercial side of OS/2.

[Joop]

Yum way of the future !

I'm not convinced that it is, a lot of the Linux world are trying to drop it and its not certified for OS/2 use so that cuts out a lot of the commercial side of OS/2.

Today I had a program which wants to install the file "charset.alias" in the \usr\lib directory. Only this file had only a header and was empty. The one existing in my directory does have much more lines and contents. This is exactly what holds me back to use this system of Linux. Its similar like the dll hell with Windows and sometimes even with OS/2. This time it was easy, the file is readable, but binary ones, which one? IBM learned us if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Dave Yeo]

Ideally only RPM/YUM should touch any files in @UNIXROOT and we're lucky to only have one repository and can mostly avoid rpmhell (conflicting rpms from different sources).
There's still problems like glib2 currently missing charset.alias, http://trac.netlabs.org/rpm/ticket/181#ticket
What really gets me is that RPM seems fragile. I have 2 installs of it and they're both subtly broken with some programs that won't update. I also think that the maintainers have taken the splitting of packages too far. While some programs need to be DLLs for various reasons, we have way too many which makes having conflicting DLLs more likely. Doesn't help having the 8.3 DLL name limit either.

[ivan]

Doesn't help having the 8.3 DLL name limit either

It also doesn't help that there is no way of identifying which is the latest - no syslevel information for instance.  Plus there is the possibility of older programs not working with the newer versions of the DLLs. 

[Doug Clark]

This DLL stuff is an awful mess. It appears to be well nigh impossible to get the correct DLLs installed for Firefox.

I have:

1) used Doug B *.wpi to install firefox 38.8.0.  (also tried this using the *.zip file - same results)
2) I also used ANPM to install the libraries/packages listed in the README.OS2 file.
3) I was still missing a significant number of DLLs . I found most of the missing from a downloaded version of firefox 32 I believe - as was suggested on this forum.
4) Used moz_support-2016-05-10.zip for icuin.dll
5) The fontconf package ( which it appears ANPM does't install or know about) came from  fontconfig-2-11_95-1_oc00.zip. I unziped it to its own directory and then manually copied the files from the various subdirectories to my c:\ which is what @unixroot is set to.

Suggestion to whomever made up the fontconfig*.zip file : please don't zip the files with the top directory as "@unixroot" because that makes it impossible to directly unzip into the proper drive and directory.

Now firefox starts but I cannot access Google (or any other HTTPS link) because of a message "Firefox doesn't know how to communicate with the server.   Check to make sure your system has the Personal Security Manager installed."

The back button doesn't work.

When I right click on a link and select "Open in a new tab" or "Open in a new window" nothing happens.

So I am guessing I still have some DLL version issues or missing DLLs since I don't see anyone else with these problems here or on the bug tracker site.

So my suggestion is to:

Include ALL required DLLs and other required packages in the Firefox.zip file, or Firefox.wpi file and configure the installation so they are all installed into the Firefox directory.

Yes that will make the install file much larger and take up more space but disk space is now very cheap.

I have spent probably 4 - 6 hours spread over multiple days trying to get FireFox 38 running. While I am no where close to the smartest guy in the room I am capable of using ANPM, WarpIn, and unzipping stuff and I still can't get it running correctly - meaning to the same level of function as you guys are reporting.

I very much appreciate all the work that has been put into porting FireFox, and the other Unix based programs to OS/2. I think it is great that so much unix based open source stuff is getting ported to OS/2. But the reality of the complexity of the supporting packages and required DLLs is such that mere mortals cannot get the applications running. Or at least I can't.

[I am running ECS 2.2 beta which was installed on a clean disk about 1 year ago. I have not updated or installed SeaMonkey or Thunderbird other than what came with the normal ECS install.]

[Dave Yeo]

Sorry about the fontconfig package, it was a rushed upload. It's out of date now as well, though should still work. On my todo list is to build a standalone fontconfig that uses %ETC% instead of /etc.
Your error message points to missing the NSS libraries. Judging by your other comments, something is screwed up in your RPM/YUM install as following the directions in README.OS2 should work fine. Lots has changed since 2.2B2 was released and you might want to consider starting over with YUM/RPM.
As for including all the DLLs, in principle I agree with you but some of the DLLs have @UNIXROOT dependencies and while I maintain SM and TB, they're both dependent on the Bitwise Firefox code and they're making the decisions and are set in their ways.
I'm also stuck on dial-up so it's hard to upload stuff.

[Joop]

So I am guessing I still have some DLL version issues or missing DLLs since I don't see anyone else with these problems here or on the bug tracker site.

I have, see the first page of this post. I have much more time spend to get it working. There is much more not working, not all are due to porting. It still stutters with video, that's a problem within FF. So no option for me. Also filling the bug tracker is no option, the first thing I will get is if I had installed it through the stupid Unix system. No, I haven't because it doesn't work on an eCS 1.2Dutch system, proofed in our Dutch community. So if I want to use that stupid Unix system, then I have to wait on the new version of eCS. Second, if I have to use the Unix system you can ask yourself why still using OS/2-eCS or the Blue Lion. Third, I use Gimp, don't know what will happen because it does use a similar setup.
And again trouble with RPM/YUM. As wrote before, I think that a few directories are hard coded in the package. Not the OS/2-eCS way and its a security risk, all on the same place, doesn't matter which computer your target is.   

[ivan]

Out of interest it appears the Ubuntu is moving over to Snap.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/14/universal_ubuntu_snap_packages/

Snap, originally developed for Ubuntu's mobile flavor of Linux, is a way of packaging an application with all the dependencies it needs to run in isolation.  In other words the OS/2 way.

[Doug Clark]

Dave - Thank you for the NSS suggestion. I will try and reinstall the yum/rpm/anpm and see if I can resolve it that way.

I hope I didn't come across as critical - I was intending to make suggestions. I am i awe of your contributions and work for the OS/2 community. And I am in awe of the folks porting FireFox. I am truly amazed at how much has been done. Great job all of you.

Since I was bold enough to suggest, I guess I am obligated to volunteer to help and/or test.  So I do.

In my ideal world all of  firefox, main package and required packages, would  be installed with WarpIn - as Doug B. has done for the FF package itself (Thanks Doug B! ).  One of the big advantages it has over ANPM is WarpIn can unload DLLs in use - I ran into problems with ANPM using some DLLs that needed to be updated.  Or perhaps compile YUM/RPM/ANPM so that it uses its own set of DLLs, or compile so that it uses no DLLs, and build in the ability to unload DLLs in use - which is really needed anyway for an installer.

Anyway I want to make clear that I am grateful for all you guys' work.

[Dave Yeo]

@Joop, to use Gimp on an up to date OS/2 system, you will need to set up a cmd file that puts all the needed DLLs in BEGINLIBPATH and use LIBPATHSTRICT. This is a problem caused by EMX DLLs not being compatible with the rest of the system as OS/2 uses an underline prefix in symbols and EMX doesn't. Shouldn't be hard to do as I did it here. Luckily XFree/86 only needs UNIXROOT set for building.

@Ivan, Snap isolates libraries better then OS/2 is capable of, though we could get close with BEGINLIBPATH, LIBPATHSTRICT and changing PATH. We would still have problems with shared memory that doesn't exist on Linux.

@Doug, YUM/RPM is capable of updating locked DLLs though I noticed some recent fixes for this and just like Warpin, you may have to reboot to actually use the updated DLL. I think you may still have some RPM packages left that was installed along with eCS 2.2b2.
RPM is very fragile is hated everywhere but enterprise uses it and the folks driving development know it.

[Doug Bissett]

Or perhaps compile YUM/RPM/ANPM so that it uses its own set of DLLs, or compile so that it uses no DLLs, and build in the ability to unload DLLs in use - which is really needed anyway for an installer.

I will point out that ANPM uses RPM/YUM, but can do nothing that RPM/YUM won't do by the command line. RPM/YUM will update DLLs that are in use, but that may not take effect until the user reboots. It is known that RPM/YUM has many problems, but that is the method that was chosen to do updates for packages that originate in the Linux world.

There was a problem, some time ago, where RPM/YUM could not update itself. Please see: https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/anpm/non-updated-systems/ for instructions to fix the problem.

[Joop]

@Joop, Luckily XFree/86 only needs UNIXROOT set for building.

Don't use XFree/86 to run Gimp.

[Greggory Shaw]

Dave - Thank you for the NSS suggestion. I will try and reinstall the yum/rpm/anpm and see if I can resolve it that way.

I hope I didn't come across as critical - I was intending to make suggestions. I am i awe of your contributions and work for the OS/2 community. And I am in awe of the folks porting FireFox. I am truly amazed at how much has been done. Great job all of you.

Since I was bold enough to suggest, I guess I am obligated to volunteer to help and/or test.  So I do.

In my ideal world all of  firefox, main package and required packages, would  be installed with WarpIn - as Doug B. has done for the FF package itself (Thanks Doug B! ).  One of the big advantages it has over ANPM is WarpIn can unload DLLs in use - I ran into problems with ANPM using some DLLs that needed to be updated.  Or perhaps compile YUM/RPM/ANPM so that it uses its own set of DLLs, or compile so that it uses no DLLs, and build in the ability to unload DLLs in use - which is really needed anyway for an installer.

Anyway I want to make clear that I am grateful for all you guys' work.

Here's another installer for FF, TB, and SM.

http://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php?topic=807.msg10319#msg10319


Greggory

[Doug Clark]

I have updated YUM & ANPM and finally got the newer version of both to run. After the YUM URLGRABBER problem was fixed.

Now when I try to install libstdc++6  I get the following error in ANPM:

Test Transaction Errors:   package libstdc++6-4.9.2.1-3.oc00.i686 is already installed
  file /@unixroot/usr/lib/stdcpp6.dll from install of libstdc++6-4.9.2.1-3.oc00.i686 conflicts with file from package libstdc++6-4.9.2.1-3.oc00.i386

Also the installation/update of fontconfig results in the message:

Error unpacking rpm package fontconfig-2.11.95.1.oc00.i686

And to add insult to injury FireFox38 now crashes when starting up in -console

DIVE is disabled - Panorama's shadow-buffer is enabled
Creating 006D_03.TRP

Killed by SIGSEGV
pid=0x006d ppid=0x0024 tid=0x0003 slot=0x0094 pri=0x0200 mc=0x0001 ps=0x0010
E:\PROGRAMS\FIREFOX38\FIREFOX.EXE
NSPR4 0:0001e45f
etc. etc.

So it appears I am worse off than before.

[Doug Clark]

Can I move my unixroot to another drive, and which directories do I need to move?

Currently unixroot=c:\ in my config.sys
I am running out of space in my C: (boot) drive. Partition size of that drive is 2 GB because of DOS/Win3.1 considerations

Can I just change the setting of UNIXROOT=C:\    in config.sys
and move the directories 
C:\VAR
C:\ETC
C:\USR

Will that work?