NETSCAPE COMMUNICATOR FOR UNIX
If you are using Netscape Communicator Professional Edition (which includes Netscape Calendar, IBM Host On-Demand, and AutoAdmin) please read the information contained in these notes. In addition, you can click here to view the Release Notes specifically for Professional Edition.
Netscape recommends that users of Communicator Standard and Professional editions download
Communicator 4.04. You can find out what version of
Communicator you are running by choosing About Communicator from the Help menu.
These release notes cover:
How to give feedback
Additional information is available:
WHAT'S NEW
Communicator 4.04 supports the optional Netscape FORTEZZA PKCS#11 module (available separately). This module supports the use of the FORTEZZA Crypto Card and FORTEZZA cryptographic algorithms (KEA and Skipjack) when using SSL and S/MIME. More information about Netscape FORTEZZA support is available at http://home.netscape.com/assist/security/fortezza/index.html.
Navigator and Composer
- Added support for PNG graphic format
Java and JavaScript
- Java LDAP classes have been updated for LDAP version 3
- Users can now retrieve images from a JAR file
- Users can now use Java with TrueColor display settings
- Socket time-outs now function correctly in Java VMs
Messenger and Collabra
- Added support for PNG graphic format in messages
- Added compatibility with CYRUS IMAP server
KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE
General and Setup
- Several printing problems exist, including incorrect printing of images and improper alignment on the
page.
- Solaris 2.6 only: Solaris 2.6/Communicator 4.0x does not render fonts properly. To fix the problem, add the following line to your ~/.xinitrc file:
xset +fp /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/
xset fp rehash
- The Find command in NetHelp does not work. Using the Find command may cause Communicator to halt.
- Printing help topics in NetHelp does not work correctly.
- You may not be able to view certificates if your memory cache is set to 0.
- The behavior of the Motif file selection box in Communicator can be modified using the following global resources:
- *nsMotifFSBHacks: True
This resource enables some hacks to the File Selection Box which use a simpler layout algorithm than the standard Motif code. The directory and file listings are always maintained as equal size. The default value for this resource is true for all platforms except SGI. See the useEnhancedFSB resource below.
- *nsMotifFSBCdeMode: False
This resource enables the CDE mode of the File Selection Box. You must be running a CDE enhanced Motif library
for this option to work. This resource will apply pathMode=1 to the File Selection Box. If you specify
nsMotifFSBHacks and nsMotifFSBCdeMode, some of the keyboard and filter enhancements of nsMotifFSBHacks will
also be applied, the layout hacks will not. The default value for this resource is false for all platforms.
- For SGI only, *useEnhancedFSB: True
Communicator honors the SGI resource which enables an enhanced version of the Motif File Selection Box. The
default value for this resource is true for SGI platforms.
- HP-UX only: It is recommended that you obtain the latest version of Motif from
http://www.hp.com/wcso-support/Services/services.html.
The patch number is PHSS_11626. Installing this patch will fix bugs in Motif Drag and Drop.
- HP-UX 10.20 only: When starting Communicator, you may get an error message regarding difficulty
with finding symbols. Running unset SHLIB_PATH before starting Communicator may help resolve this problem.
Navigator
- You may experience problems when using Webfonts on Layers in frame documents, or using Webfonts with style sheets on Layers in frame documents.
- Transparency does not function correctly. If an image has a background chunk, it will be visible in transparent areas and the page background will not show through.
- Printing documents with applets, WebFonts, plug ins, layers, and Style Sheets does not work correctly.
- If you created a Personal Toolbar folder with a previous version of Communicator, you must do the
following:
- Select Edit Bookmarks from the bookmark quickfile button on the location toolbar.
- Select the folder you wish to use as the Personal Toolbar folder.
- Select the Set As Toolbar option from the Toolbar menu.
- You may experience problems when viewing frames that use JavaScript.
- Solaris only: Loading some Java applets in Navigator may cause it to halt.
- If you are experiencing problems while importing a certificate, try exporting your certificates from
Windows, copying your certificates to your Unix machine, and then importing them into Navigator.
- Webfonts cannot finish loading if the file ~/.netscape/lock is left over after Communicator
halts. Remove the file before restarting Navigator, however ensure that you do not remove it while
Navigator is running.
- In a frame document, only the activated frame is printed, because only one frame can be printed at a
time. To activate a frame, click on it.
- The paddings property of Style Sheets is not supported. Use topPadding, rightPadding,
bottomPadding, and leftPadding instead.
- The margins property of Style Sheets is not supported. Use leftMargin, rightMargin,
and bottomMargin instead.
- Width, height, and borderWidth and border tags for images in Style Sheets are not enabled.
- The borderWidth tag in Style Sheets does not work correctly.
- Under certain circumstances in a table cell, the EMBED tag parameter ALIGN=RIGHT causes the plugin not
to be loaded or displayed. As a workaround, insert the ALIGN=RIGHT parameter in the table column and/or row
descriptors.
- Linux 1.2.x only: Some versions of the libc shared library are incompatible with Communicator. Versions that
are known to work are 5.0.9, 5.4.17, and 5.4.22. Version 5.4.4 definitely does not work with
Communicator. To get a newer, compatible version of libc, see the
Sunsite FTP archive or, if you have RPM, see the
Caldera OpenLinux Update site. For
reference purposes, here is the list of shared libraries linked into Communicator:
- libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6.0
- libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6.0
- libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6.0
- libXmu.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6.0
- libXpm.so.4 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXpm.so.4.6
- libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6.0
- libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6.0
- libdl.so.1 => /lib/libdl.so.1.7.11
- libc.so.5 => /lib/libc.so.5.0.9
- Linux 2.0.x only: If you are experiencing random hangs while running Communicator, you may be using an incompatible version of one of the system shared libraries. For reference purposes, here is the list of shared libraries linked into Communicator:
- libXm.so.1.2 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXm.so.1.2.4 (only applies to the dynamic binary)
- libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6.0
- libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6.0
- libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6.0
- libXmu.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6.0
- libXpm.so.4 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXpm.so.4.9
- libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6.1
- libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6.1
- libdl.so.1 => /lib/libdl.so.1.7.14
- libc.so.5 => /lib/libc.so.5.3.12
- libg++.so.27 => /usr/lib/libg++.so.27.1.4
- libstdc++.so.27 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.27.1.4
- libm.so.5 => /lib/libm.so.5.0.6
- OSF/1 only: If you start your browser remotely, you may not be able to view Communicator's menu items.
- OSF/1 only: Clicking on the Security button may cause Communicator to halt.
- Solaris only: Communicator requires that you have libresolv.so.2. If you are using an
early version of Solaris 2.5.1, you may not have this library. You can obtain the patches to upgrade to version 2 at
ftp://sunsolve.sun.com/pub/patches/. Look for patches
103663 (for SPARC processor systems) or 103664 (for Intel x86 processor systems).
Composer
- Composer may overwrite some <LAYER> tags.
- If you are running the Motif WindowManager (mwm), you may not be able to type in the Composer window after you save a file. A workaround is to change the focus to another window on your desktop, and then re-select the Composer window.
- The HTML editor engine now uses a delayed update model that should improve typing performance by
delaying the update of some screen items. The default setting for the delay is 20ms. If you work on a slow machine, and you type very fast, you may be able to improve typing performance by increasing the update delay. Do this by adding an "editorUpdateDelay" specification to your X resources (.Xdefaults). For example, the following entry sets the delay at 100ms:
*editorUpdateDelay: 100
- IRIX 5.3 only: Initializing Input Method support in the Composer and HTML Message Compose
applications (for example, for Japanese input) can halt Communicator. Because of this, the IRIX 5.3
Communicator is shipped with this feature disabled. To enable Input Method support you need to:
- Patch the Motif libraries (SGI patch 1701)
- Add the following line to your X resources (.Xdefaults):
*editorImInputEnabled: true
Messenger and Collabra
- Communicator may halt when you open the Message Center for the first time after installing and setting your preferences. Open the Messenger Mailbox and then open the Message Center.
- The HTML preferences set in the address book may be overwritten by the preference's set in the HTML
Domains dialog box.
- For HTML Message Compose, please refer to the Composer section above.
- The maximum number of messages you can move from one IMAP folder to another is 200.
- When composing a new message, if you enter the recipients and click on the Security Advisor icon, you
get a warning indicating no recipient was specified.
- The address book does not correctly import address description fields from Navigator 3.0.
- POP only: The first time you install Communicator, you will need to restart Communicator for all of the mail server preferences to be recognized. If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Navigator or Communicator, you do not have to do this.
- If you make changes to the Advanced S/MIME Cipher Preferences in the Messenger tab of the Security Advisor dialog box, you must communicate these changes to people that you exchange encrypted mail with. To update their Certificate database information about you, send them a signed message. If you send only
encrypted messages, they will not be aware of your preference changes.
- The Add to Address Book button in the Search Directory dialog box does not work. Selected names are not added to the address book. Access the LDAP Search feature from within the address book, select the desired name, and choose to compose a message. Copy the address, and from the Address Book, add a new user and paste the address in the specified field.
- If you are importing files into the Address Book, they must be either HTML or LDIF file types and must have .html or .ldif as their extension.
- When performing a Save As operation on an Address Book file, you must add an extension or a period
after the filename. Communicator may halt if you don't.
- In Preferences, choose Mail and Groups and then Identity. In the Identity window, include a valid user
name and domain name in the email field (for example, johndoe@company.com). If you do not include the
domain name, Communicator may halt when using the HTML Composer.
- When manipulating folders on an IMAP server and when subscribing/unsubscribing to newsgroups, the
folder combo box in any open thread windows will not reflect the change. A workaround is to click New
Folder in the Message Center and click Cancel in the resulting dialog box.
- The file format for certificate import and export has changed between Communicator 4.03 and 4.04 due to the standardization of PKCS 12. Communicator 4.04 imports certificates exported with older versions of Communicator. However, older versions of Communicator will not be able to import files exported
with Communicator 4.04.
- When downloading a user certificate, you will be able to save the certificate for backup purposes. If the certificate chain does not yet exist on the user's machine, the certificate will be exported without the certificate chain. In this case, it is highly recommended that you save the certificate after retrieving the certificate chain by going into the Security Advisor, selecting Your Certificates and exporting the desired certificate.
- If the text is not wrapping, open Preferences, choose Mail and Groups, and then Messages. In the Messages window, click More and set the Wrap long lines characters to 72. Make sure the formatted option is turned off.
-
- Messenger Only
- Undo and redo are not supported in MoveMail or IMAP. They are only available in POP3.
- Make sure all cards in your address book contain email addresses. If there is not an email address
associated with a card in your address book, Communicator may halt.
- The Body criteria found in the mail filter rules criteria is not working.
- The Date found in the mail filter rules criteria is not functional.
- The Message Center displays 0 for the number of unread and total messages for any folder that has not
yet been opened. If the count is wrong, try to open the folder first.
- Importing an address.html file might cause Communicator to halt.
- After you select a mail folder in the Message Center, the File/Empty Trash Folder menu item is enabled. Emptying Trash
empties both your online trash folder, as well as your local Trash folder (POP server), if one exists.
- When using Communicator with some IMAP servers, specify an IMAP mail directory. To do so, in Preferences, choose Mail
& Groups and then Mail Server. In the Mail Server window, choose More Options. Specify the mail directory in this
dialog. Exit and restart Communicator.
- Filing a message from a discussion group to an online folder results in an empty dialog. File newsgroup messages into
a local mail folder.
- Collabra Only
- Searching discussion messages is case-sensitive.
- The list of discussion groups is regenerated each time the Subscribe to Groups dialog box appears. This will be addressed in a future release.
- To retrieve a new message in a discussion group, click the GetMsgs button. If you want to download only the first N headers in a discussion group, you must close and reopen the discussion group to download the remaining headers.
Conference
- Modem to LAN connections might result in the modem side not receiving audio unless the LAN side also chooses a
matching setting (for example, 28.8 for a 28.8 bps modem) in the Network Connection section of the Preferences dialog box
before connecting.
- HP-UX 9.x only: The HP Aserver might introduce a lag to the audio. Patches are available from HP to help correct
this problem. The patch numbers are: PHSS_5073 and PHKL_5059.
- Solaris only: The Whiteboard toolbar might not be visible on 24-bit systems.
Plugins
- AIX Only: When using the LiveAudio plugin, Communicator may halt.
- AIX Only: On start-up, if Communicator detects a new or changed set of plugins, a memory problem shows itself by failing to render frames in the browser and some security dialogs. A workaround is to restart Communicator when this happens. Netscape and IBM are working on a better solution.
- Linux 2.0.x only: Plugins will only work for the Linux version that has Motif 1.2 dynamically
linked.