69951 - Install instructions for 0.8 Linux "talkback" tar file bogus?

Status: VERIFIED WORKSFORME

(Documentation Graveyard :: Help Viewer, defect)

Description

[gnu]

I am probably just doing something wrong but I can't figure it out.

I'm on a brand new Red Hat 7.0 system, just installed, fresh, on
brand new PC hardware.  I decide to install Mozilla and try to use it as
my default browser in the new system.

I go to www.mozilla.org, click Download, and it takes me to
http://www.mozilla.org/releases/, which recommends the 0.8 release, just a week
old.  This has a link to Release Notes
and a link to Linux "x86 talkback enabled tar.gz format for reporting crash data
(11.3 MB)".  The page encourages me to use the talkback enabled
one so that bugs will get auto-reported back to you.  So I pick
that tar.gz and download it.

In the Release Notes at http://www.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla0.8/
I go to "Installation Notes".  After reading that I should install it
in a separate per-user directory rather than a system directory, I
unpack it in my ~/src/ directory rather than in /usr/local/src.

The tar file contains filenames that all start with "mozilla".
However, the Release Notes offer two ways to install on Linux:
"by downloading the Mozilla installer" or "by downloading the .tar.gz file".
The "installer" one claims that the filenames that come out of the
tar.gz file will start "mozilla-installer".  That isn't true of
the tar file I got, so it must be the other case, right?

Well, no.  It claims that the tar file will unpack into a directory
called "package".

The tar file I got doesn't correspond to any known install instructions.

I unpacked it anyway and looked at it.  It appears to have a bunch
of binaries and libraries in it, with some deep chrome "skin" directories.  I
tried
running "./mozilla".  It prints out a bunch of PATH environment stuff,
prints a hundred or so "RegSelf Shift_JIS to Unicode converter complete"
type of messages, then some errors that don't look too good:

RegSelf Unicode to IBM864 converter complete
*** QfaServices is being registered

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkimage.c: line 416 (gdk_image_destroy): assertion `image
!= NULL' failed.

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkimage.c: line 416 (gdk_image_destroy): assertion `image
!= NULL' failed.

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkimage.c: line 416 (gdk_image_destroy): assertion `image
!= NULL' failed.

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkimage.c: line 416 (gdk_image_destroy): assertion `image
!= NULL' failed.
Registering plugin 0 for: "*","All types",".*"
Registering plugin 0 for: "*","All types",".*"
New location for profile registry and user profile directories is ->
/gnu/home/.mozilla
*** failed to select current profile in list

It popped up a dialog box about whether I wanted to convert my
Netscape 4 profiles over.  Since I didn't, but it didn't offer me that
option, I hit something like "Customize" (it was the second box).
That brought up a different box with a "Cancel" button, so I canceled it.
Mozilla terminated with the "failed to select" message.  Besides the
gdk error crud, that's OK.

So then I copied over my .netscape directory from another PC (minus the
cache), and reran ./mozilla:

bash-2.04$ ./mozilla
./run-mozilla.sh ./mozilla-bin
MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/gnu/home/src/mozilla
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/gnu/home/src/mozilla
     LIBRARY_PATH=/gnu/home/src/mozilla:/gnu/home/src/mozilla/components
       SHLIB_PATH=/gnu/home/src/mozilla
          LIBPATH=/gnu/home/src/mozilla
       ADDON_PATH=/gnu/home/src/mozilla
      MOZ_PROGRAM=./mozilla-bin
      MOZ_TOOLKIT=
        moz_debug=0
     moz_debugger=

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkimage.c: line 416 (gdk_image_destroy): assertion `image
!= NULL' failed.

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkimage.c: line 416 (gdk_image_destroy): assertion `image
!= NULL' failed.

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkimage.c: line 416 (gdk_image_destroy): assertion `image
!= NULL' failed.

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkimage.c: line 416 (gdk_image_destroy): assertion `image
!= NULL' failed.
Registering plugin 0 for: "*","All types",".*"
Registering plugin 0 for: "*","All types",".*"
/gnu/home/src/mozilla/run-mozilla.sh: line 72:  1781 Segmentation fault     
$prog ${1+"$@"}

It had popped up a dialog box about converting Netscape 4 profiles,
and I asked it to do so.  It immediately produced the segmentation
fault message.  I don't see a core file anywhere nearby.

Anyway, bug #1 is that there are no installation instructions that
match this (first on the list!) supposed release tar file for Linux.

Bug #2 is that it prints a bunch of bogus messages about image_destroy
and then gets a segfault.

There's probably something really simple that I don't know -- but I
figured I'd give you the chance to fix your documentation or your 
tar file so that you'll tell EVERYBODY this simple thing.

This is my first try at installing Mozilla anywhere.

	John Gilmore


PS:  Bug #3 is that this bug reporting system demanded that I login
again after spending half an hour typing this bug in.  I can see my
login name and password in the URL on this page.  Why didn't they make
it into the &^%&$%&*#(* system when I clicked "Commit"?

Bug #4 is that when I did login again, it made me go back and pick a "Component"
for
the bug report.    What in hell is a Component, the choice is between
""Mozilla Developer, "User", and "Web Developer".  I have no idea what
Component I'm reporting a bug in, but since I'm a User I picked that.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Is this bug still relevant?

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

There are no more talkback tar installers.  Marking worksforme.

Comment 3

[Brant Gurganus]

v