Using Netscape with Debian 2.0
I'd been using Netscape with Debian up to 1.3.1 for a year with no great difficulty, but it took me a lot of time and effort to get Netscape running on Debian 2.0 . Debian 2.0 has switched to newer libraries (e.g., libc6 instead of libc5) than those that are still the standard within the Linux community. A program compiled with the new libraries doesn't need for the OS to have the old ones available. The GIMP package compiled for 2.0 and packaged as a .deb file runs fine under 2.0 without additional c libraries. But Netscape (unless you get the source and compile it yourself with the new libraries) needs additional old libraries to run under Debian 2.0 . Debian is nice about telling you about dependencies - if you choose a package in dselect, it tells you what libraries you need (dselect is a front end to the Debian package installer; it has great capabilities to both help and frustrate the Debian user). Before Debian 2.0, the OS used the same libraries Netscape was compiled under. I had seen no particular gain in messing with the installer at all, as I still had to get the actual archive from Netscape for the installer to put in. So when I did an FTP install, I usually didn't bother getting the Netscape installer.
All it takes to get Netscape to run under Debian 2.0 is to install the proper old libraries and the like. These will be added to the list of files to get if you choose the Netscape installer during an FTP install. I don't see the Netscape installer on my Debian 2.0 CD ("Official" Debian 2.0 CD from Linux Systems Lab) at all, so I don't see any way to tell from that CD what libraries are needed to run Netscape.
Afraid this time I was a slow learner; I spent a large chunk of a week and a half (including a lot of the weekend) doing a large number of fruitless installs figuring this out. The largest number was 5 tries in a day; the fastest was 1 hr. 15 min. to format a drive, install the base system from the 7 floppies, install a more complete system by FTP or from CD, configure it as I'd like it if Netscape would work, install Netscape by hand, establish that Netscape wasn't working, and start over formatting.
The needed libraries are on my CD, though the installer to tell they are what's needed is not. At one point, I started to do an install via FTP, and had dselect build the file list including the Netscape installer from an ftp site. Then when I was ready to actually get the files the net was too busy, so I exited that phase of dselect and went back to the first level, this time pointing it at my CD, and after that Debian 2.0 install I was able to install Netscape and have it work. The Netscape installer was not present on my CD and so wasn't gotten, but the libraries were, so installing Netscape by hand (unpacking the archive and running Netscape's install script therein) produced a working Netscape. The Netscape script puts the binary into /usr/local/netscape while the Debian installer put it into /usr/lib/netscape .
The Netscape installer on the FTP sites expects the Netscape archive (filename.tar.gz) to already be in /tmp on your computer when it runs. If you want to add Netscape to an existing system, just get a Netscape archive and put it into /tmp before running dselect to FTP the installer (and libraries). (The contents of /tmp disappear when you reboot.)
If you're installing a new system and want to get it working with Netscape at the same time, at the end of the base install when it puts you into dselect, tell it right away to quit dselect, then get the archive and put it in /tmp, then run dselect again. (At least that works fine for me, as I have ethernet to a cable modem at home, and to a direct network connection at work.)
In case you're working from a CD which doesn't have the Netscape installer (and hence can't tell you which packages Netscape needs), the packages the installer for Netscape 4 called for (beyond the basic X11 stuff) in addition to the things in the Server_comp install are:
motifnls (opt X11)
libc5 (opt oldlibs)
libg++27 (opt oldlibs)
xlib6 (opt oldlibs)
xpm4.7 (opt oldlibs)
(suggested) imagemagick (graphics)
In an install when I'd chosen Basic instead of Server_comp (at the last stage of the base install from floppies, immediately before starting dselect), the Netscape 4 installer also listed mime-support (net) and xlib6g (X11).
Another thing about dselect - it may put the working files into the /usr part of the hierarchy, but it starts by putting the .deb packages it gets into subdirectories of /var . So if you've got a modest /var partition, you may need to get only parts of what you want at a time no matter how big your /usr partition is. Just run dselect and get some packages, then run it again and get more.
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