Netscape 6 & 7 GTK bundling

[Jon Hansen_1]

I need to package a served netscape build for my company. This needs to be a stand-alone build. With no library (GTK) requirements. I so far have been able to install all the required files on a workstation and have them run without any issue.

However, copying then from the opt directory to the served directories causes issues. Netscape and Java copy and run fine served. When I copy the gnome (GTK) libraries to the served architecture, Netscape refuses to read them. This is really annoying. Expecially since the OS builds will change between sites. Any help would be greatly apreciated.

Here is an example of the start script for the customers.

#!/bin/ksh -p
export HOME_BIN=/appl/netscape6.2
export JAVADIR=${HOME_BIN}/Java
export GNOMEDIR=${HOME_BIN}/Gnome
export SHLIB_PATH=${GNOMEDIR}/lib:${JAVADIR}/jre/lib:$SHLIB_PATH
export PATH=$PATH:${JAVADIR}/bin:.:${HOME_BIN}:${GNOMEDIR}/bin

${HOME_BIN}/netscape

[Rick Beldin]

Netscape is fairly fussy about the location of the dependent shared libraries. I would suggest that if you really want to do this setup you set up soft links to mimic the layout on a normal install.

If you are determined to do it another way, then you'll probably have to wander through some of the netscape/mozilla startup scripts. These scripts do additional SHLIB_PATH processing that may be getting in the way.
I'm thinking about the /opt/netscape/netscape script, the run-mozilla.sh and others. They vary from release to release.

[Jon Hansen_1]

Thanks,
But unfortunately those scripts do not hold any environmental variables to set the GTK locations. I hope I do not need to compile gtk specifically for the netscape build.

[David Mores]

I had the same situation where I wanted to server NS 7 from a server. You can go two ways as I see it. 1- copy the GTK library from /opt/gnome to the central location you want and then add a link on each client workstation to point /opt/gnome to the centrally served location. 2- Rebuild the GTK library from sources where you configure the install location to be the central server location you desire. Then when you set SHLIB_PATH to point to this location, NS 7 will see and use it. It works for me!

[Jon Hansen_1]

After much research I guess that compiling is the only way to go. --SIGH--. Any pointers for compiling gtk for HP? Is there a fast way to auto-link the gtk libraries' directory to the modified locations?

[David Mores]

There are 4 parts to build for the GTK libraries. Patience is what you need here. There may be some problems with building each, but they can be worked through.

I'm not sure what you mean by auto-link, but you only need to have the user define the SHLIB_PATH variable to include the path to the GTK libs to make it work. No symbolic links needed.

[Jon Hansen_1]

This is fixed and works. After reading howto make a static library into a dynamic library. It makes copying the files a fairly simple exercise.