[20885] in Athena Bugs
Re: Mozilla problem
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (t. belton)
Thu Oct 10 13:18:19 2002
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 13:18:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: "t. belton" <tbelton@MIT.EDU>
To: Raymond A Hill <ahill@MIT.EDU>
cc: <bug-infoagents@MIT.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <1034215076.7741.4.camel@w20-575-2.mit.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.33L.0210101301001.12199-100000@iphigenia.mit.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
When you say that you "removed the mozilla profile and tried to replace it
with your netscape profile," what exactly do you mean? And was that a
profile for Netscape 6.x or for Netscape 4.x?
Netscape 6.x and Mozilla 1.x, though based on the same code and storing
profile data in the same place, are not completely compatible. In general
you cannot reliably expect a profile generated by Netscape 6 to work under
Mozilla 1.
Now, Mozilla WILL convert Netscape 4.x preferences/profiles reasonably
well, but you have to let Mozilla do it - you can't just move files from
~/.netscape to ~/.mozilla and expect them to work.
Either way, you will need to remove your ~/.mozilla directory and all its
subdirectories, while Mozilla is not running, and then start Mozilla again
and let it create the profile from scratch. If you have a 4.x profile
(under ~/.netscape) it will automatically use/convert some of those
settings when creating the ~/.mozilla directories.
After that, you may still need to solve some certificate problems.
Converted 4.x certificates, in general, do not work in Mozilla. You will
almost certainly need to get new certificates, and you may need to remove
the converted ones before you do. There is a script in the infoagents
locker which removes ALL Mozilla certificates in your profile. *Use this
only if you continue to have problems AFTER obtaining fresh certs under
Mozilla.* It is called 'clearcerts'. Exit Mozilla before using it. It runs
silently. After you use it, you will need to obtain certs again.
In summary:
1. Remove your ~/.mozilla directory and its subdirectories while Mozilla
is not running.
2. Start Mozilla and let it generate ~/.mozilla itself.
3. Remove any certs you see listed in the Preferences|Privacy &
Security|Certificates|Manage Certificates dialog. Use the dialog to do
this; don't delete files by hand.
4. Obtain a fresh certificate from within Mozilla.
5. If, and only if, this cert continues to not work, run the 'clearcerts'
script in the infoagents locker (while Mozilla is not running!) and then
get a fresh certificate.
The error you saw about being unable to initialize the security component
is one of Mozilla's fairly useless security errors. It may mean that no
usable certs were available, or it may mean that the certificate files
were corrupted ... or it may mean that you typed the wrong certificate
password.
- Todd Belton
On 9 Oct 2002, Raymond A Hill wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I tried to set up mozilla to use in place or Netscape, and had some
> problems. I removed the mozilla profile, and tried to replace it with
> my netscape profile. When starting mozilla, it told me that
> "Could not initialize the browser's security component. The most likely
> cause is problems with files in your browser's profile directory.
> Please check that this directory has no read/write restrictions and your
> hard disk is not full or close to full. It is recommended that you exit
> the browser and fix the problem. If you continue to use this browser
> session, you might see incorrect browser behaviour when accessing
> security features."
>
> A SiPB guy tried to work some magic on my files, but to no avail. He
> said I might have found a bug. Please advise.
>
> Thanks,
> Andy Hill
>
>
>
