Subject: Re: Netscape2.0beta3
To: None <brian@spine.med.utoronto.ca>
From: Greg Earle <earle@isolar.Tujunga.CA.US>
List: port-sparc
Date: 12/19/1995 12:42:21
> I'm afraid I can't remember what finally happened about getting
> Netscape2.0beta(> 1) for SunOS running on NetBSD/SPARC.
> 
> Could someone please post/email whether or not it can be made to work?

I was working on this with Kipp Hickman from Netscape.  Kipp produced a
binary with the mmap() calls passing a "0x0" as the address argument for me
to try out.

The good news is that the binary works normally, i.e. you can run it and it
comes up instead of dying with an "Illegal instruction" when it hits the
mmap() and tries to use the address it passes, like at present.

The bad news: Java applets still don't work.  Something changed between beta 1
(which worked) and beta 2/3 (which don't), and we're not sure just what it is
that killed it on NetBSD (obviously Kipp doesn't run NetBSD/SPARC, and it
works just peachy for us on SunOS).

He recommends that we simply go to the "Security" set of Options and disable
Java from there.  Unfortunately, when I tried to do that yesterday (using
the binary Kipp sent me), clicking on "OK" after setting that preference got
me only a hang.  I had to kill the program off externally.  The preference
*did* get set properly in the preferences file, but for some reason the
program never came back.  (I'm actually finding this to be true quite a bit.
For example, I can click on an image and get "xli" to come up and view it,
and after I quit, no problem.  But if I click on an audio sample, the audio
program gets fired up, it plays, and then ... nothing.  "ps" shows that
the audio - metamail's "showaudio" - is finished, so Netscape should have
gotten the SIGCHLD I would think ... but it's hung nonetheless.  So I don't
play audio samples from Netscape anymore; I use Mosaic 2.7beta2.)

I should note that this is (still) under NetBSD/SPARC 1.0.  I'm waiting for
the Christmas break to have time to upgrade to 1.1.  Since pk's been doing a
little VM diddling, maybe things will be better in -current.  I'd be
interested in people's experiences under 1.1/1.1A (-current).

	- Greg