Odd path changes with new Mozilla in Debian Sid/unstable

Odd path changes with new Mozilla in Debian Sid/unstable

[Peter Garrett]

This is not exactly a problem, since currently Mozilla appears to be
working. I'm curious as to why the following has happened:

1. I updated to the latest Mozilla in Debian Sid by doing an "apt-get
install mozilla".This installed Mozilla 1.5-3.

2.Initially certain functions failed to operate. For instance, using
Google was impossible as the browser would not send my typed search
terms either with the "enter" key or by clicking on the relevant
"button". In composer, similarly most of the buttons were unresponsive.
In the mail program several icons were greyed out, and so on...

3. I did a "dpkg-reconfigure" mozilla, and the application sprang back
to life, but now when I try to start mozilla from the menu (the browser
component) I get Mozilla-Firebird instead. (Firebird is 0.6.1) Mozilla
--help returns the information: "Usage: /usr/lib/mozilla/mozilla-bin
[options..] [URL], so I created a launcher with the /usr/lib/... path
and this works fine. (This path is not in my $PATH.) 

Changing the menu entry in gnome, I havent yet worked out how to do.

Can anyone explain what might have happened? BTW, "which mozilla"
returns /usr/bin/mozilla, and checking "ls -al /usr/bin/mozilla" shows
that it is a link to "/etc/alternatives/mozilla".
"/usr/bin/MozillaFirebird" is not a link; it appears to be the
executable binary, or the launch script for it.

I'm cautious about altering the link for /usr/bin/mozilla, as I assume
it is a way for Debian to find the binary... but then the link doesn't
do what it's designed to do!

Ideas?

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Re: Odd path changes with new Mozilla in Debian Sid/unstable

[Ray Olszewski]

I don't use Mozilla here so can't help you with most of what you ask about. 
I can clear up one bit of confusion, though.

At 09:43 AM 12/16/2003 +1100, Peter Garrett wrote:
[...]
>Can anyone explain what might have happened? BTW, "which mozilla"
>returns /usr/bin/mozilla, and checking "ls -al /usr/bin/mozilla" shows
>that it is a link to "/etc/alternatives/mozilla".
>"/usr/bin/MozillaFirebird" is not a link; it appears to be the
>executable binary, or the launch script for it.
>
>I'm cautious about altering the link for /usr/bin/mozilla, as I assume
>it is a way for Debian to find the binary... but then the link doesn't
>do what it's designed to do!

Are you sure? /etc/alternatives/mozilla will itself be a link to something, 
to whatever real app is supposed to be running as "mozilla". This is a 
standard bit of Debianish stuff ... if you look in /etc/alternatives, you 
should find you have links for any number of apps that come in many 
versions, including such basics (on my system, anyway) as vi,  editor, awk, 
and telnet. You need to see what the /etc/alternatives/mozilla symlink 
points to in order to figure out what is going on with your system. It 
might well point back to "/usr/bin/MozillaFirebird", for example.

As to your general problems ... please do recall that Sid is currently the 
Unstable version of Debian. It gets weird from time to time, though the 
weirdness is usually transitory ("dpkg-reconfigure" is one good response to 
this; so is waiting an hour and doing an apt-get update/upgrade).

Also, Sid changes often enough that saying you installed the "latest" of 
anything is no help ... you really should report a package version, unless 
(a) you literally installed just before you sent the message and (b) you 
hope for help only from someone who also installed just before reading the 
message.

Since "mozilla" is a wrapper package that installs other packages as 
dependencies (works the same way as the kernel packae James was asking 
about earlier today),  you may just have hit some sort of transient 
mismatch among the dependencies.


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Re: Odd path changes with new Mozilla in Debian Sid/unstable

[Peter Garrett]

Ithought I mentioned that apt installed debian's "mozilla 1.5-3". That's
what the "about" entry in the help menu of the browser reports. I gree
that the /etc/ file points to alternatives, as the name suggests. In my
case it points to  /usr/bin/mozilla-1.5 .

Rather puzzling, then, that it doesn't launch mozilla, wouldn't you say?
Incidentally, that's where the menu link points as well.

On Tue, 2003-12-16 at 10:30, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> I don't use Mozilla here so can't help you with most of what you ask about. 
> I can clear up one bit of confusion, though.
> 
> At 09:43 AM 12/16/2003 +1100, Peter Garrett wrote:
> [...]
> >Can anyone explain what might have happened? BTW, "which mozilla"
> >returns /usr/bin/mozilla, and checking "ls -al /usr/bin/mozilla" shows
> >that it is a link to "/etc/alternatives/mozilla".
> >"/usr/bin/MozillaFirebird" is not a link; it appears to be the
> >executable binary, or the launch script for it.
> >
> >I'm cautious about altering the link for /usr/bin/mozilla, as I assume
> >it is a way for Debian to find the binary... but then the link doesn't
> >do what it's designed to do!
> 
> Are you sure? /etc/alternatives/mozilla will itself be a link to something, 
> to whatever real app is supposed to be running as "mozilla". This is a 
> standard bit of Debianish stuff ... if you look in /etc/alternatives, you 
> should find you have links for any number of apps that come in many 
> versions, including such basics (on my system, anyway) as vi,  editor, awk, 
> and telnet. You need to see what the /etc/alternatives/mozilla symlink 
> points to in order to figure out what is going on with your system. It 
> might well point back to "/usr/bin/MozillaFirebird", for example.
> 
> As to your general problems ... please do recall that Sid is currently the 
> Unstable version of Debian. It gets weird from time to time, though the 
> weirdness is usually transitory ("dpkg-reconfigure" is one good response to 
> this; so is waiting an hour and doing an apt-get update/upgrade).
> 
> Also, Sid changes often enough that saying you installed the "latest" of 
> anything is no help ... you really should report a package version,

please look in my original post and above

>  unless 
> (a) you literally installed just before you sent the message and (b) you 
> hope for help only from someone who also installed just before reading the 
> message.
> 
> Since "mozilla" is a wrapper package that installs other packages as 
> dependencies (works the same way as the kernel packae James was asking 
> about earlier today),  you may just have hit some sort of transient 
> mismatch among the dependencies.
> 
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs

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Re: Odd path changes with new Mozilla in Debian Sid/unstable

[Peter Garrett]

Follow up to be absolutely specific:
~$ dpkg --status mozilla
Package: mozilla
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: web
Installed-Size: 24
Maintainer: Takuo KITAME <kitame@debian.org>
Version: 2:1.5-3


On Tue, 2003-12-16 at 10:44, Peter Garrett wrote:
> Ithought I mentioned that apt installed debian's "mozilla 1.5-3". That's
> what the "about" entry in the help menu of the browser reports. I gree
> that the /etc/ file points to alternatives, as the name suggests. In my
> case it points to  /usr/bin/mozilla-1.5 .
> 
> Rather puzzling, then, that it doesn't launch mozilla, wouldn't you say?
> Incidentally, that's where the menu link points as well.
> 
> On Tue, 2003-12-16 at 10:30, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> > I don't use Mozilla here so can't help you with most of what you ask about. 
> > I can clear up one bit of confusion, though.
> > 
> > At 09:43 AM 12/16/2003 +1100, Peter Garrett wrote:
> > [...]
> > >Can anyone explain what might have happened? BTW, "which mozilla"
> > >returns /usr/bin/mozilla, and checking "ls -al /usr/bin/mozilla" shows
> > >that it is a link to "/etc/alternatives/mozilla".
> > >"/usr/bin/MozillaFirebird" is not a link; it appears to be the
> > >executable binary, or the launch script for it.
> > >
> > >I'm cautious about altering the link for /usr/bin/mozilla, as I assume
> > >it is a way for Debian to find the binary... but then the link doesn't
> > >do what it's designed to do!
> > 
> > Are you sure? /etc/alternatives/mozilla will itself be a link to something, 
> > to whatever real app is supposed to be running as "mozilla". This is a 
> > standard bit of Debianish stuff ... if you look in /etc/alternatives, you 
> > should find you have links for any number of apps that come in many 
> > versions, including such basics (on my system, anyway) as vi,  editor, awk, 
> > and telnet. You need to see what the /etc/alternatives/mozilla symlink 
> > points to in order to figure out what is going on with your system. It 
> > might well point back to "/usr/bin/MozillaFirebird", for example.
> > 
> > As to your general problems ... please do recall that Sid is currently the 
> > Unstable version of Debian. It gets weird from time to time, though the 
> > weirdness is usually transitory ("dpkg-reconfigure" is one good response to 
> > this; so is waiting an hour and doing an apt-get update/upgrade).
> > 
> > Also, Sid changes often enough that saying you installed the "latest" of 
> > anything is no help ... you really should report a package version,
> 
> please look in my original post and above
> 
> >  unless 
> > (a) you literally installed just before you sent the message and (b) you 
> > hope for help only from someone who also installed just before reading the 
> > message.
> > 
> > Since "mozilla" is a wrapper package that installs other packages as 
> > dependencies (works the same way as the kernel packae James was asking 
> > about earlier today),  you may just have hit some sort of transient 
> > mismatch among the dependencies.
> > 
> > 
> > -
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs

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Re: Odd path changes with new Mozilla in Debian Sid/unstable

[Ray Olszewski]

There is not much more I can offer in the way of help (as you will see as 
you read on). You really need feedback from a Debian-Sid user who uses 
Mozilla, and that's not me. The little I can offer follows.

At 10:44 AM 12/16/2003 +1100, Peter Garrett wrote:
>Ithought I mentioned that apt installed debian's "mozilla 1.5-3".

Sort of. Your prior message said "This installed Mozilla 1.5-3". I read 
that as referring to a version of the Mozilla browser, not of the Debian 
meta-package "mozilla". But now we have that part cleared up.

>That's
>what the "about" entry in the help menu of the browser reports. I gree
>that the /etc/ file points to alternatives, as the name suggests. In my
>case it points to  /usr/bin/mozilla-1.5 .

Just to make sure I understand --

"ls -l /usr/bin/mozilla" returns something approximating ...

         /usr/bin/mozilla -> /etc/alternatives/mozilla

... and "ls -l /etc/alternatives/mozilla" returns something like

         /etc/alternatives/mozilla -> /usr/bin/mozilla-1.5

Oh, and "ls -l /usr/bin/mozilla-1.5" indicates that this is an actual app, 
not yet another symlink (or, just conceivably, a script)? (I wouldn't 
expect it to be a symlink, but odd behavior calls for thoroughness in 
troubleshooting.)

>Rather puzzling, then, that it doesn't launch mozilla, wouldn't you say?

Which "it" are you referring to?

 From this (plus the "which mozilla" result you previously reported), I 
would certainly expect that if you opened an xterm and entered "mozilla" at 
the command line, it would start the mozilla-1.5 application listed above.

But if you are referring to the Mozilla choice in Debian's standard X popup 
menu ... all this has nothing to do with what it will start. Or is that 
what your next sentence below refers to (I guess so ... whether you mean 
the menu choice points to /usr/bin/mozilla or to /usr/bin/mozilla-1.5, it 
should start whatever mozilla-1.5 actually is)?

>Incidentally, that's where the menu link points as well.

I'd like to be able to do more than keep asking you questions, but the fact 
that I don't run Mozilla here limits my potential to offer help (especially 
since the searchable package database seems still to be offline). Sorry. 
Perhaps there's another Debian user here who runs Mozilla? Preferably with 
Gnome?

Las thought ... took a quick look in the packaging system and noted that 
mozilla-firebird isn't (as I'd misunderstood from your earlier message) an 
older version of Mozilla. It is a separate and independent package (current 
version 0.7-5). Any "apt-get upgrade" should have tried to upgrade it as 
well as mozilla itself. You may have run into a (rare, thankfully) case 
where one or the other package is missing a "conflicts" entry it needs. 
Without actually trying to install them, I really cannot tell ... but you 
might check their contents lists to see if any of the filenames conflict, 
for example.

Or if your Firebird install was not through the Debian packaging system, 
you might want to check that it did not do something that apt's installer 
cannot cope properly with.



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