What happend to XUL.DLL?

[Joop]

I'm still busy with some versions of JAlbum, can't stand it that it won't load FF when you aks for a preview (F12).
I have this setup and with this setup JAlbum (10.10.7) starts FF (6.02) and FF comes up with the preview. No problems, no popups, just works.
@echo off
SET CLASSPATH=
SET LIBPATHSTRICT=T
SET MOZILLA_HOME=P:\FIREFOX_PROFIEL_60x
SET MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=I:\FIREFOX_PLUGINS
SET NSPR_OS2_NO_HIRES_TIMER=1
SET MOZ_ACCELERATED=0
SET BEGINLIBPATH=i:\JAVA\JAVA160\bin
set path=i:\JAVA\JAVA160\bin;i:\firefox_602
set appdata=T:\plaatjes\MyAlbums
I:
cd I:\DTP\JAlbum_10107
java -Xmx400M -jar JAlbum.jar 2>jalbum_10107_bugtracker.txt

I tried similar setup with a higher version of JAlbum (12.1.9) and with a higher version of FF (24.8.1).
@echo off
SET CLASSPATH=
SET LIBPATHSTRICT=T
SET MOZILLA_HOME=P:\FIREFOX_PROFIEL_240x
SET MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=I:\FIREFOX_PLUGINS
SET NSPR_OS2_NO_HIRES_TIMER=1
SET MOZ_ACCELERATED=0
SET BEGINLIBPATH=i:\JAVA\JAVA160\bin
set path=i:\JAVA\JAVA160\bin;i:\firefox_2481;
set appdata=T:\plaatjes\MyAlbums
rem I:
rem cd I:\firefox_2481
rem firefox!EL.exe
I:
cd I:\DTP\JAlbum_1219
java -Xmx400M -jar JAlbum.jar 2>jalbum_1219_bugtracker.txt

But when I run this I get a popup with "Couldn't load xul.dll". When I rem the lines SET LIBPATHSTRICT=T up to SET MOZ_ACCELERATED=0 and remove the rem on the 3 lines lower then FF is called and runs, JAlbum is called and runs, preview is opening a new window in FF and shows the preview.
Has something changed that XUL.DLL only can be called from the active directory and won't respond to a path statement?

[Dave Yeo]

The couldn't load xul.dll is usually a missing DLL, possibly one of the Firefox DLLs. Mozilla has always needed to be called with its working directory set to the program directory if it is not running (cd I:\firefox_2481) . This is so that it can find its DLLs.

[Joop]

Thanks Dave, but why does FF6.02 do start?, there is no reference for the working directory of FF6.02, there is also nothing in the register about FF6.02, all references are replaced in favour of FF24.8.1. 

[Dave Yeo]

Not supported does not mean never works and quite possibly something has changed to stop xul.dll from finding some of its dependencies based on the PATH statement.
I do know that it has always been considered incorrect to add Mozilla apps to the PATH or LIBPATH statements and by design the exes start looking in their working directory and sometimes sub-directories.

[Joop]

Thanks Dave, so the option left is to preload FF, that works for sure because I've tested it that way. Too bat that the other way doesn't work, not real OS/2-eCS, but that's my opinion.

[Dave Yeo]

Well Firefox (and the other Mozilla apps) aren't native apps on any platform but rather a combination of native widgets, xul and JavaScript pretending to be native. IBM and others put a lot of work into making it act as native as possible but I'm sure there has been minor regressions which is to be expected with our shortage of developers. We're actually doing a lot better then most of the discontinued ports where only 10four (Mac  PPC) is about the only other one keeping up. Mozilla development is very fast moving now and they're planning on speeding it up 
I'm just happy to have a relatively up to date browser that mostly works.

[Pete]

Hi Joop

I notice a difference in your set path statements:-

   set path=i:\JAVA\JAVA160\bin;i:\firefox_602

   set path=i:\JAVA\JAVA160\bin;i:\firefox_2481;


Could the ";" be the problem?

Something else that may help is to add %path% ie:-

   set path=i:\JAVA\JAVA160\bin;i:\firefox_2481;%path%


Regards

Pete

[Joop]

Thanks Pete for your answer.

Hi Joop
I notice a difference in your set path statements:-
   set path=i:\JAVA\JAVA160\bin;i:\firefox_602
   set path=i:\JAVA\JAVA160\bin;i:\firefox_2481;
Could the ";" be the problem?

I tried with and without ";", both same results. Sometimes things hangs or work (depends how you look at it) on just those small "things".

Something else that may help is to add %path% ie:-
   set path=i:\JAVA\JAVA160\bin;i:\firefox_2481;%path%

That's not a good idea because the whole path of config.sys is included with the possible outcome of conflicts.

[Wim Brul]

For jAlbum 11.6.17 and Firefox ESR 31.8.0 I used

Code: [Select]

@echo off
set classpath=
set beginlibpath=d:\programs\openjdk6\bin
set path=d:\programs\openjdk6\bin
cd g:\jalbum
g:
java -Dbrowser.cmd="g:\firefox\firefox!el.exe" -Dbrowser.arg0="$url" -Xmx500M -jar JAlbum.jar
I don't have a firefox!.env file so firefox!l.exe would be better.

[Dave Yeo]

I'd recommend that everyone add "G" to their run! commands on the odd chance that something interesting is logged during a crash etc.

[Joop]

Hello Wim,

java -Dbrowser.cmd="g:\firefox\firefox!el.exe" -Dbrowser.arg0="$url" -Xmx500M -jar JAlbum.jar

Didn't know something like "-Dbrowser.cmd", is there a list of such commands.
This did work with my setup, much better than preloading. Thanks for that.

I don't have a firefox!.env file so firefox!l.exe would be better.

If you work with one firefox it is possible to do it this way. But if you want to run different versions it will be difficult, however you could start with a cmd file which sets everything right.

[Wim Brul]

Hallo Joop,

Didn't know something like "-Dbrowser.cmd", is there a list of such commands.
This did work with my setup, much better than preloading. Thanks for that.

No, there is no list of such commands. Yesterday I spent one whole day digging into the problem that you had. I went to your website to get directions on how to get jAlbum working with eComStation and I downloaded jAlbum.zip via the link that you provided. I also downloaded JAlbum_J160.zip from your website and modified it to suit my environment. This way I could recreate the "Couldn't load xul.dll" error. Then I searched the web to find out how to launch firefox from jAlbum and I visited their website. On their forum I found hints on how to do that, but that did not work. I could however download BrowserLauncher.java from that forum. It was actually offered in response to a question from a guy named JoopN (does this ring a bell?) way back in october 2009. With the help of this source code and a lot of experimenting (the comments in the code differ from how it actually works) I arrived at my solution.

You could try and use javaw instead of java to avoid the display of intermediate text  windows.

[Joop]

Hallo Joop,

Didn't know something like "-Dbrowser.cmd", is there a list of such commands.
This did work with my setup, much better than preloading. Thanks for that.

No, there is no list of such commands. Yesterday I spent one whole day digging into the problem that you had. I went to your website to get directions on how to get jAlbum working with eComStation and I downloaded jAlbum.zip via the link that you provided. I also downloaded JAlbum_J160.zip from your website and modified it to suit my environment. This way I could recreate the "Couldn't load xul.dll" error. Then I searched the web to find out how to launch firefox from jAlbum and I visited their website. On their forum I found hints on how to do that, but that did not work. I could however download BrowserLauncher.java from that forum. It was actually offered in response to a question from a guy named JoopN (does this ring a bell?) way back in october 2009. With the help of this source code and a lot of experimenting (the comments in the code differ from how it actually works) I arrived at my solution.

You could try and use javaw instead of java to avoid the display of intermediate text  windows.

Can' find anything on that date, but I had similar question in March 2009. Forgot that :-(, probably because it didn't work then. There are a lot of things changed. The method on my site does work, its tested that way on my system. Only with versions of JAlbum 12 and up there was a change, same for FF. The answer from David didn't work, it was too short with the knowledge "-Dbrowser.arg0="$url"". I have experimented a lot to get it working by then. Latest FF does respond well to these commands, this was not the case with FF versions around 10 at that time. David has also changed a few things in favor of our OS. If you have the browser right in the register it will start. But with last FF versions I get the error "Couldn't load xul.dll" for some reason. Will be difficult to test because the register has changed for JAlbum. I'm testing if the solution from Wim can be applied to older versions of JAlbum and the latest two FF. You get a lot of combinations for testing and testing takes more and more time.  And with an upgrade somewhere I have to test all the programs again if they still work same way. At this moment I'm rewriting the page on JAlbum and do test with JAlbum in order to see what still works and what not.

[Joop]

I have updated the page about JAlbum and updated the download with a new command file which will work with several combinations. Tested if it will set up a preview (ie start up the browser with the right page). In the page you can see what combinations are tested,  its not endless, but somewhere there is a line or so. You don't need to edit the register (standard browser) or your config.sys (path and libpath). Nevertheless I'm willing to setup a different combination if this is not working on your OS/2-eCS computer. But in that case I need details. One thing I won't do is edit my config.sys, you can work around with other solutions. I hope that with this solution the problems with JAlbum are in the past, except that for the last versions you need a higher version of Java. Again, thanks Wim Brul for the solution.

[Joop]

question from a guy named JoopN (does this ring a bell?) way back in october 2009. With the help of this source code

Can't stand something like that. Found it, but that was with error=2 problem, yesterday I had an other search word. The solution given was java "-Dbrowser.cmd=firefox -Dbrowser.arg=@url -Xmx400M -jar JAlbum.jar", but that won't work. I never got the idea to replace @ with $, but I'm not sure, I've deleted all JAlbum before version 10.1.0 and with it also all setups for trying out. From version 10.1.0 and up it did work as on my page which is replaced yesterday. I can't keep track records that deep, sorry.