213553 - Mozilla 1.4 will not start in Windows 98 SE

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(SeaMonkey :: General, defect)

Description

[Wayne Fisher]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/releases/mozilla1.4/mozilla-win32-1.4-installer.exe

Mozilla 1.4 (and Netscape 7.1, which is based upon Mozilla 1.4) will not start 
in a Windows 98 Second Edition environment.  After installation, attempting to 
click on any of the icons or start menu entries to start any component of 
Mozilla 1.4 results in no action.  The hourglass is momentarily displayed (as 
if the program is attempting to initialize), but the selected Mozilla component 
(including the Profile Manager) does not initialize at all.  Mozilla 1.3 (and 
Netscape 7.02) do not exhibit this behavior.

One additional thing to note:  once installation of Mozilla 1.4 (and Netscape 
7.1) completes, the browser initialization never occurs.  Once install 
completed on prior builds, the browser was immediately started and Profile 
Migration or Creation would begin.  This does not occur on Windows 98 SE for 
Mozilla 1.4.  Checking /Windows/Application Data/Mozilla verifies that no user 
data was created for Mozilla.

This error occurs on clean installs of Mozilla 1.4, and upgrades from 1.3.

Mozilla 1.3 and Netscape 7.02 both function fine on the same machine.

Is it possible that the Security Manager or Profile Manager is not being 
installed with Mozilla 1.4 on a Windows 98 SE machine?  Just a though...

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Download an install Mozilla 1.4 on a Windows 98 SE machine.
2. Verify that once install completes, the browser or any other component 
cannot be started.

Actual Results:  
Browser or any other Mozilla 1.4 component would not startup.

Expected Results:  
Browser or other selected Mozilla 1.4 component should initialize and start 
successfully.

Windows 98 SE with all current Microsoft Windows Update patches.
500 Mhz Pentium III
192 MB RAM
Over 75% of hard drive free

Comment 1

[Ian Graham]

I have seen this before. Stupid thought: does the problem go away if you reboot
Win98?

Comment 2

[Wayne Fisher]

The bug manifests itself regardless of whether or not Windows is rebooted.  
Some additional strange facts:

1.  Installs were performed multiple ways:  clean (removing all traces of 
Netscape and Mozilla from the hard drive, registry, /Windows/Application 
Data/Mozilla, etc.), install on top of existing install, install clean with old 
profile still in place.

2.  Earlier version of Mozilla (1.3 and Netscape 7.02, which is based on 1.3) 
do not exhibit this behavior.

3.  The install almost looks as if it halts right after the icons are created 
on the desktop, but before the Application Data is created.

4.  In prior installs of Mozilla and Netscape, I saw that the Security Manager 
was being installed as part of the installation process.  I did not see the 
Security Manager installed during installation of Mozilla 1.4 or Netscape 7.1.

There are quite a few people posting to various message boards concerning this 
problem with Windows 98.  It should be fixed relatively quickly, because many 
user are becomming frustrated and abandoning these recent builds of Mozilla and 
Netscape.

Comment 3

[Thomas Ditmars]

Not on Mozilla now, but I was using Mozilla 1.4final since build-date. Never 
had this issue.

Comment 4

[Wayne Fisher]

For those who may doubt that this bug has plagued many user, may I point you to 
the following forums?

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=16122

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=15794

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=14777

http://ufaq.org/modules.php?
name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=786&sid=4546e6297305e09024132165c2684ed7

http://ufaq.org/modules.php?
name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=751&sid=4546e6297305e09024132165c2684ed7

Comment 5

[Hermann Schwab]

In most of these cases you are citing is either a upgrade from Netscape 7.0x to
Netscape 7.1 mentioned, or a parallel installation of NS and Moz.
Netscape and Mozilla are using the same file registry.dat holding pointers to
their profiles, so it is easy to get the wrong profile.
The release notes are telling you that you NEVER should use a Netscape profile
with Mozilla, or vice versa, but if you do a normal installation, it is easy to
not avoid it. if you only have one profile, both browsers are using it.
If you start a browser, it uses the profile which was last used, by any browser.
So to avoid mixing profiles you must manually select the profiles, before
starting the browser, or add a commandline option to the shortcuts, that each
browser is started with its own named link, or with a profilemanager.

I´m running Netscape7.1 and Mozilla1.4 and Mozilla1.02 and Mozilla 1.3.1 without
problems on a win98 system, and a win98SE system.
I have had problems, before I learned to be careful with profiles, and I also
had to start with a fresh registry.dat once.

So for test of a new start:
1. try to deinstall Netscape&Mozilla and Netscape6 or 7
2. In your windows temp directory delete at least all files and folders
beginning with ns...., 

I don´t think that previous points are necessary, but do them, just to be sure.

3. Rename the Mozilla folder in Application data, which holds profile folders
and registry.dat and pluginreg.dat, so that you can go back after your test.
4. download a zip-build of mozilla and unpack it.
It creates a folder 'bin' and files and folders therein. 
If you start Mozilla.exe from there, it should create a new folder with
registry.dat, pluginreg.dat, and Profile folders and files.

If this is working, you can try a normal install.
Getting rid of the zip-build is easy, just delete the 'bin'-directory.
Feel free to contact me by mail, if you still have questions.

Comment 6

[Wayne Fisher]

I did a little research on the internet, and the problem is caused by the following:

A prior release of Mozilla, when uninstalled, did not remove the GRE folder
(found under /Program Files/Common Files/Mozilla/GRE) and the associated
registry entries.  Removing this directory (the full /Common Files/Mozilla
directory) and then removing the referencing key in the registry allowed me to
install the latest version of Mozilla 1.4.  Looks like something didn't get
uninstalled properly when I removed an older version of Mozilla 1.4.  If this is
not a bug, maybe something should be added to the release notes to clarify this?

Comment 7

[Lukasz Jakubowski]

I confirm the bug with Windows98 (not SE) Polish and Mozilla 1.4 and 1.5 beta.
Behaviour exactly as reported.
Mozilla does not work after clean install or re-install on Win98.
I have yet to try advice from comment 6 by Wayne Fisher. Will report results.

Lukasz

Comment 8

[Lukasz Jakubowski]

No success with any methods (editing registry, deleting files in Program Files
etc.). I used MS Windows Update to patch Win98 to the latest level, but that
doesn't help either.

Comment 9

[Tobias Fischer]

Did you install the newest Version of DCOM from windows-update?
http://www.microsoft.com/com/resources/downloads.asp

The newer Mozilla-Versions need an Update of the DCOM-libraries. 

Comment 10

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

No response. Closing WFM.

pi