YoLinux Tutorial: Mozilla / Firefox / SeaMonkey Web Browser Configuration
Plug-ins and Support Applications for Web Surfing with Linux
This page describes where to get Mozilla, SeaMonkey or Firefox plug-ins and applications for
processing multi-media and special file types. This page also describes how
to configure them.
One must restart the browser before plug-ins will be active.
Most Linux distributions including Red Hat Linux 8.0/9.0/Fedora includes the Mozilla 1.x (same as Netscape 7) browser.
Mozilla has been depricated and has been replaced by SeaMonkey.
The Mozilla Foundation has released three browsers covered in this tutorial:
Mozilla: This was the first
open source browser released from the Netscape group. Mozilla is no
longer developed. The follow-on project which develops an integrated
web browser, HTML editor, email client, address book and chatzilla
client is SeaMonkey.
SeaMonkey: Integrated web application suite derived from the former Mozilla source code.
Firefox: A high performance, feature rich, standards based web browser.
Java (generic): ln -s /usr/java/latest/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ (Where the "latest" directory is another soft link which points to a specific release. The Java 1.6 RPM configures itself this way.)
Supports mime type: application/x-java-vm
(Required for Microsoft Exchange OWA webmail support.)
If the directory /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ does not exist, create it or use the directory which explicitly states your version of Mozilla. i.e.: /usr/lib/mozilla-1.0.2/plugins/. Installing the "plugger" RPM will generate the directory /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/.
Restart the browser to pick-up the new plug-ins. Verify with the URL "about:plugins".
[Potential Pitfall]: Many version of the
Java shared object plugin libjavaplugin_oji.so will crash Mozilla.
The one listed above will work.
Directory path for browser plug-ins.
(Often $MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME/plugins)
Proxy Configuration:
Proxy configuration: Many corporate networks rely on SOCKS proxy servers
for access to the internet. Typically a Proxy Auto Configuration (PAC)
script is issued to be registered
with the browser. These scripts are usually targeted to Microsoft
Explorer of Netscape Navigator (4.x) specifically. Try the proxy script:
"Edit" + "Preferences" and select "Advanced (+)" and "Proxies" +
"Automatic proxy configuration URL", enter the script location
and select the "Reload" button.
If it works, great your ready to surf.
If your corporation uses a proxy directly, enter it under "Manual
proxy configuration".
If using a script and it does not work, use the command
"wget http://proxy-url.domain.com/proxy-script.pac" to
download the proxy script. Examine the file proxy-script.pac.
Burried in the logic of the script is usually the explicit listing of a
proxy server which can be entered under the Mozilla manual configuration.
If you are at a corporation using a firewall and have direct access,
I'm jealous and you have no need for proxy configuration.
Firefox Extensions:
Firefox extensions are supplemental programs which are installed within
Firefox from the Mozilla web site. Extensions are available for
Blogging, Web Developer Tools, Dictionaries, Download Tools,
Editing and Forms, Image Browsing, Kiosk Browsing Languages,
Message Reading, Navigation,
News Reading, Privacy and Security, Search Tools,
Website Integration, XUL Applications, ...
To add an extension:
Allow the extensions website to install software:
Select "Edit" + "Preferences" (or "Tools" + "Options" on newer systems)
Check "Allow web site to install software" then
press the corresponding "Allowed Sites" button.
Enter the "allowed" site.
Select and install an extension: Select "Tools" + "Extensions" + "Get more extensions".
This brings up a web page from which you may choose the extension which suits your needs.
Firefox, Mozilla and SeaMonkey Plug-ins:
Plug-ins display various media types within a web page or if a link to
a media file, it can display the content within the browser window.
While there are many browsers available for Linux, most plug-ins conform to the
Netscape 4 plug-in architecture. Thus this tutorial should apply to most
Linux web browsers.
List active plug-ins, type the URL: about:plugins
Note: Restart the browser before using a newly installed plug-in.
The browser must be restarted to be aware of the new plug-in.
Plug-ins are located in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ for system wide availablility.
Downloads: The easiest way to download the appropriate
components is with the YUM, the "Yellow Dog" network RPM package
installer. See YoLinux tutorial on YUM configuration
and how to add the FreshRPM.net site to your download list which will
allow you to have access to the media player applications which are not
included in the base install.
Universal Application Plug-ins:
These universal plug-ins can accept extenstion to handle other media types by making additions to the mozplugger (or plugger) configuration file /etc/mozpluggerrc (or /etc/pluggerrc) and installing the application.
MozPlugger: Red Hat Enterprise Linux/Fedora 1-8/CentOS
Plugger is a Mozilla plug-in that ties many of the Linux applications to
Mozilla so that they can be viewed within the browser rather than by launching
a separate "helper" application.
The plugin "plugger" installs with Red Hat 7-9 and handles most of the
file types including pdf (requires xpdf or evince), Postscript (requires ggv. Note older versions of Linux used gv ghostview. Newer versions tend to use ggv Gnome ghostview.),
mpeg (requires xanim), avi (requires xine or mplayer. If using xine, use "xine -p".),
midi (timidity), wav (play), tiff (eog), bmp (eog), ...
Download the Mozilla plug-in, plugger (rpm) - part of Red Hat Linux base OS
i.e.: http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/redhat/redhat/linux/9/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/plugger-4.0-23.i386.rpm (RH 9.0)
Plugger has the following dependencies: xloadimage (view image in X11 display),
sox (sound sample translator) and mikmod (play soundtrack).
These should be part of the Linux installation.
Plugger will handle the following mime types: wav, midi, mpeg, mov, avi, png, tiff, bmp, pdf, ps, wav, au, mp3 etc.
(partial list) [Description - suffixes man page]
Plugger is configured to use the following applications: eog, xpdf, ggv, play, playmidi,
xanim, xine, mtvp, timidity, xmp, mikmod, mpg123, xloadimage and display.
If the audio file plays back
at too high a speed, then use esdplay instead of play.
While Plugger is pre-configured to handle many mime types, there are gaps
in format coverage. See file: /etc/pluggerrc for mime types and
applications configured to work with plugger.
Adding applications to /etc/pluggerrc
.. ... application/vnd.ms-excel: xls, xlb: Microsoft Excel Document nokill exits: oocalc "$file" - Add this line
repeat swallow(PluggerGnumeric) fill: gnumeric --class PluggerGnumeric "$file"
...
..
Note: This seems to have been an oversight in Red Hat 9.0, plugger-4.0-23.
Fix for Red Hat 8.0/9.0. The postscript viewer gv (ghostscript) has
been supersceded by ggv (Gnome ghostscript) Update plugger reference
by changing all references of gv to ggv:
After making changes to the plugger configuration file (/etc/mozpluggerrc or /etc/pluggerrc), remove the following auto generated configuration file (various names have been used) and restart the browser.
~/.mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat
~/.mozilla/pluginreg.dat
~/.netscape/plugin-list
Note that web server support for additional mime types is added to /etc/mime.types or can be added with the directive "AddType" in the Apache httpd configuration file httpd.conf. Restart the httpd daemon after any configuration change.
Download RPM package: RealPlayer10GOLD.rpm or executable: RealPlayer10GOLD.bin
(or download Real player from Helix web site)
Get rid of the old plugin if necessary:
[prompt]# rpm -q RealPlayer RealPlayer-8.0-1
[prompt]# rpm -e RealPlayer-8.0-1
Install rpm: rpm -ivh RealPlayer10GOLD.rpm
Installs to /usr/local/RealPlayer/.
The name of the package in the RPM database will be "RealPlayer".
(APT install: apt-get install realplayer)
Post install script:
[prompt]# cd /usr/local/RealPlayer/postinst/
[prompt]# ./postinst.sh
Take defaults: system-wide symbolic links? Y, and prefix for symbolic links [/usr]
Note:
The post install script will create soft links for the plug-ins into /usr/lib/netscape/plugins/, /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ and /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/.
The package will also install the stand-alone executable /usr/local/RealPlayer/realplay.bin
(Must first set the environment variable HELIX_LIBS: export HELIX_LIBS=/usr/local/RealPlayer)
Installs Application menu launchers under "Sound and Video".
Configures GNOME mime types for desktop support.
Defaults to using OSS sound driver (older). To specify ALSA sound driver
(Fedora Core and Linux kernel 2.6) edit file: ~/.realplayerrc
[helix] SoundDriver=2 ... ..
(This and many more files installed/configured.)
Configure Mozilla manually as follows: ("Edit" + "Preferences" + "Navigator" + "Helper Applications")
Mime Type
Suffix
Application
application/vnd.rn-realmedia
rm
/usr/local/RealPlayer/realplay.bin
application/smil
smi
/usr/local/RealPlayer/realplay.bin
audio/vnd.rn-realaudio
ra,ram
/usr/local/RealPlayer/realplay.bin
audio/x-pn-realaudio
ra,ram
/usr/local/RealPlayer/realplay.bin
video/vnd.rn-realvideo
rv
/usr/local/RealPlayer/realplay.bin
audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin
rpm
Plug In: RealPlayer
(Plugin handles this one for you. No "Helper Application" to configure.)
[Potential Pitfall]: If installing the binary
instead of the RPM on a system with Native Posix Threads kernel
(NPTL first available in Red Hat
9.0) one may have to set the following environment variable before running
the downloaded script (rp8_linux20_libc6_i386_cs2.bin) and application:
LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.4
[Potential Pitfall]: Lock file may remain after a
crash and prevent startup. Kill hung processes if they exist: killall realplay then remove lock file before startup: ~/.RealNetworks_RealShared_00
Macromedia Flash Player:
Fully supports: Mozilla 1.0+, Netscape 7.x, Firefox 0.8+, SeaMonkey
tar xzf install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz
cd install_flash_player_9_linux
./flashplayer-installer
Notes:
If plugger RPM is installed, it will generate the directory
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins and you can install the flash plugins there.
If not you can create the directory or use the existing Mozilla directory
/usr/lib/mozilla-1.X.X/plugins/.
Note that you may have to extablish a soft link for Firefox upgrades.
i.e.: ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so /opt/firefox/plugins
or ln -s /usr/lib/flash-plugin/libflashplayer.so /opt/firefox/plugins
Restart browser.
Or install from internet repository:
YUM:YUM install: yum -y --enablerepo=flash install flash-plugin
or
Ubuntu/Debian APT: apt-get install flashplugin-mozilla
or
Flash will utilize the language environment variable LANG.
(Valid English LANG= C, POSIX or any with the prefix "en_". See readme.txt
for more details.)
MPlayer all-in-one Mulimedia Video Player Plug-in:
Awesome software but may violate patents and intellectual property laws.
See: MPlayerHQ.hu.
Source and pre-compile binary RPM packages available. Plays Real media,
Microsoft Media Video (wmv), wav, SGI, mpeg2, H264, Indeo3, Sorenson3,
VP3, 3ivx, FFv1, ASV1, VCR1/2, QuickTime, DVB, Tivo, mov, avi, ...
Supports:
codecs: ac3, asf, DivX, DivX4, DivX5, FLI/FLC, mp3, mpeg-1
(VCD), mpeg-2 (DVD), mpeg-4 (v1 and v2), VIVO, Quicktime mov: svq1 and
svq3 (Sorenson 1 and 3), Intel Indeo, Cinepak, Windows Media Video
(7,8) wmv (WMV1, WMV2, WMV3)
This plugin allows one to view Quicktime video including those encoded
with the Sorenson codec. It also handles other media types.
It is a commercial package which must be purchased ($24.95) before
downloading
(or shipped CD). The CrossOver package consists of Wine
and the Apple Quicktime viewer. It comes with an installer
and configurator which makes this a simple install.
Codeweavers Home Page
- [Download] - Select "Cross Over Plugin downloadable"
See List of supported Codeweaver plugins.
The MPlayer plugin above will now handle everything you need.
XMMS: All-in-one audio player. (Managed by mozplugger or plugger.)
XMMS (X MultiMedia System) supports various audio formats
with the use of plugins. XMMS is included in the Red Hat and Fedora
Core distributions but support for MP3 is not included due to licensing
issues. MP3 support and other packages are available for download.
Additional support libraries and packages: libmikmod, gstreamer-plugins-extra-audio, libmad, libid3tag
For a huge list of XMMS plugins to display CD covers, lyrics, infrared device support, X-10 support, ... , see http://xmms.org.
XMMS Downloads:
Fedora Core:
RPM download required to play MP3s (dag): xmms-mp3 (i386 and x86_64)
XMMS Status: xmms-status (i386 and x86_64)
Add status xmms plugin support: right click on xmms window, select
"Options" + "Preferences" + "General Plugins" + "Status Docklet Plugin
1.0 [libstatusdocklet.so]". Then check "Enable Plugin" and "Apply".
Use yum to download and install RPMs from freshRPMs.net and dag.wieers.com:
(See YoLinux YUM configuration)
yum -y install xmms-mp3 gstreamer-plugins-extra-audio lame gsm faad2 libmad libid3tag
(libmad: MPEG audio decoding library)
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) viewer. Note that Firefox 1.5+ supports
native viewing of SVG.
It works, although I could not view Adobe's SVG examples.
All attempts to use the Adobe plug-in failed. Don't bother. Use Firefox
1.5 (or better) with it's native SVG support to view SVG files.
Adobe test page or with file SVGAbout.svg included with tar file. (does not work with plug-in or with Firefox 1.5+ native support.)
Navigation controls: (didn't work for me)
Pan: ALT + mouse drag
Pan horizontal/vertical only: Shift + ALT + mouse drag
Zoom: ctrl + click and point mouse at point to zoom in.
Zoom region: ctrl + click and drag mouse at rectangle to zoom in.
Right click for pop-up menu.
[Potential Pitfall]: This plug-in never worked for me and gave me the following errors using their two examples:
XML Parsing Error: not well-formed Location: http://www.adobe.com/svg/svgfiles/svgtest.svgz Line Number 1, Column 1:
^
AND:
XML Parsing Error: prefix not bound to a namespace Location: file:///opt/adobesvg-3.01/SVGAbout.svg Line Number 292, Column 2:
What kind of crap Adobe plug-in and examples are these!!! I tried FC3
with firefox-0.10.1-1.0PR1.20 and firefox-1.0.7-1.1.fc3 and both browsers
crashed with the plug-in. Using Firefox version 1.5 downloaded from
Mozilla.com with native SVG support, the Adobe examples failed but the
Croczilla.com examples worked.
What works: Firefox 1.5+ native support or helper application "Eye of Gnome" eog.
Tcl/Tk plugin:
Allows execution of Tcl/Tk script in browser window.
zip -dc tclplug20-x86-linux.tar.gz tar xf tclplug20-x86-linux.tar cd tclplug20-x86-linux ./install.sh
Additional info note: This plugin should only be used with trusted sites or
intranets. It allows the script to be downloaded from a website and
executed in the browser locally. It allows the full power of Tcl/Tk.
a "Safe-Tcl" Tcl interpreter is available which only executes a subset of
Tcl is available from this web site.
VRML Plugins:
3D Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) geometry model viewers.
FreeWRL Home Page -
[Download]
The preferred Linux VRML Viewer. (Could not get rpm to work with Red Hat 8.0)
Scan-toWeb solution for digital documents:
Developed at AT&T Labs for viewing compressed high resolution images.
Talk about esoteric. Just added this to make the list complete.
Home Page - [Installation]
nDVI - a LateX DVI viewer plugin for Mozilla
Download: nDVI home page http://www.nikhef.nl/~t16/public/ndvi/ndvi_doc.html
Math and Math Symbols:
MathZilla plug-in: Firefox 1.5+ includes native MathML support.
View Math symbols represented in XML in your browser.
jsMath: All you need are the right fonts. Javascript does the rest.
Live Math: (proprietary)
This commercial cross platform plug-in supports their LiveMath product for
the creation of equation symbols and graphics.
The configuration described below and the script shown,
applies to the Mozilla/SeaMonkey browser only.
The Firefox browser does not accept user defined applications for mime type handling.
Firefox only accepts plug-ins and thus any additional support must be
configured through the "MozPlugger" plug-in.
Links to file types not handled by the Mozilla/SeaMonkey browser or e-mail attachments
not handled by the Mozilla/SeaMonkey e-mail client are opened by helper applications.
The file mime type and/or file extension identifies the file type.
This section of the tutorial shows how to configure the Mozilla/SeaMonkey web
browser to support additional file types.
This is different than using a plug-in which allows for the file to be viewed
within the browser. Helper applications are launched as separate applications.
The following configuration instructions for allowing Mozilla
to handle various media formats ultimately results in the modification
of the files $HOME/.mailcap, $HOME/.mime.types and $HOME/.mozilla/user-id/xxxxxx.slt/mimeTypes.rdf.
Downloads: The easiest way to download the appropriate
components is with the YUM, the "Yellow Dog" network RPM package
installer. See YoLinux tutorial on YUM configuration
and how to add the FreshRPM.net site to your download list which will
allow you to have access to the media player applications which are not
included in the base install.
Mime Types and Applications:
application/octet-stream: This mime type is very vague but used all
the time especially by Microsoft e-mail clients like Outlook.
There is no single application to handle the multitude of file
types which are sent with this mime type. Only the file extention or actual
file interrogation of its magic number (file command) can reveal the contents.
The following script and program attempt to launch the appropriate application
for this mime type.
Now why would an mpeg movie or a jpeg image ever be sent as an octet-stream? Either its
a Microsoft product which sent it or a misconfigured server is unaware of the
mime type or "dumbed down" to avoid having users use this media type.
This solution uses a shell script /opt/bin/mozilla-octet-stream.sh and executable /opt/bin/suffix compiled from the source below.
File: /opt/bin/mozilla-octet-stream.sh
#!/bin/sh # Description: This handles mime type application/octet-stream for Mozilla. # This shell script uses the file extention to determine # which application to use as the mime type is vague # License: BSD
# Author: Greg Ippolito
FILE_EXTENTION=`/opt/bin/suffix "$1" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'`
case "$FILE_EXTENTION" in
url)
# Microsoft Outlook can generate a "url" attachement.
# See http://www.mozilla.org/unix/remote.html
# Executable path is dependant on distribution. This is for Red Hat 8.0
# Use the command "ps -auwx" to find the actual process name. /usr/lib/mozilla-1.0.1/mozilla-bin -remote "openURL(`awk -F\"=\" '/^URL/ { print $2 }' \"$1\" `)" break ;; doc | dot | rtf) /usr/bin/oowriter "$1" & break ;; xls | xlt | xlm | xld | xla | xlc | xlw | xll) /usr/bin/oocalc "$1" & break ;; ppt | pot | ppa | pps | pwz) /usr/bin/ooimpress "$1" & break ;; pdf) /usr/bin/xpdf "$1" & # or /usr/bin/evince (RHEL5) or /opt/Acrobat5/bin/acroread if installed
break
;;
ai | eps | ps)
/usr/X11R6/bin/ggv "$1" &
break
;;
bmp | png | xpm | pgm | ico | jpg | jpeg | jpe | gif | tiff | tif | svg | svgz)
/usr/bin/eog "$1" &
break
;;
xwd)
xwud -in "$1" &
break
;;
rm | smi | ra | ram | rv)
/usr/X11R6/bin/realplay "$1" &
break
;;
mpg | mpeg | mpe | mp2)
/usr/bin/xine -p "$1" &
break
;;
wmv | asf | wma | wax | wmx | mov)
/usr/bin/mplayer "$1" &
break
;;
vcf)
/usr/bin/gedit "$1" &
break
;;
txt | cpp | cc | h | hh | idl | c | C | java)
/usr/bin/gedit "$1" &
break
;;
*)
gvim "$1" &
;;
esac;
function getfileext () { file=$1 echo ${file##*.} } FILE_EXTENTION=`getfileext $1`
This may be used instead of the following program "suffix" below except that this
shell function will not work on file names with embedded blanks.
Using the program suffix is superior than using the bash function
getfileext ().
File: suffix.c
Source code to /opt/bin/suffix
/* File: suffix.c Description: This command line program returns the suffix of a file name as defined by the characters following the last "." in the file name. License: BSD
Author: Greg Ippolito
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h> /* for exit */
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
size_t i, ilen;
int isuffix_len;
int j=0;
int k=0;
char *suffix;
if(argc < 1) return -1;
ilen = strlen((const char *)argv[1]);
for(i=ilen; i!=0; i--)
{
if((int)argv[1][i] == '.') // Pointer math.
{
isuffix_len = ilen - i;
for(j=i+1; j<=ilen; j++)
{
putchar(argv[1][j]);
}
putchar('\n');
break;
}
}
return 0;
}
Compile: gcc -o /opt/bin/suffix suffix.c
Both the shell script and program must have execute privileges:
application/ms-tnef: Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format
This format is used by Microsoft Outlook for attachments.
Use TNEF, a program for unpacking MIME attachments of type
"application/ms-tnef".
Mozilla/SeaMonkey Configuration:
Description: Microsoft File extension: MIME Type: application/ms-tnef Application: /opt/bin/tnef-mozilla.sh
Use application TNEF to list and unpack contents of tenf attachments:
gnumeric Home Page (Rpm is part of the base Red Hat Linux CD installation http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/redhat/redhat/linux/9/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/gnumeric-X.XX-X.i386.rpm
The Acroread PDF viewer includes a Netscape plug-in nppdf.so but I never got it to work. The Adobe acroread application as configured above works like a champ.
[Potential Pitfall]:
Acroread 5.0 - The default Red Hat 8.0/9.0 UTF-8 language environment
variable is incompatable with Adobe Acroread. One must set "LANG" to
something else. i.e.: export LANG=C
It can be set in your login profile or near the beginning of the shell script /opt/Acrobat5/bin/acroread
Red Hat (8,9,E3,E4) comes with the plug-in "plugger" which will launch the xpdf
viewer which seems to be just as capable as Adobe Acroread. Acroread has more
printing features.
Evince (/usr/bin/evince) was introduced with Red Hat Enterprise 5.
Red Hat 8.0 systems introduced /usr/bin/eog. Later releases include gthumb.
xv Home Page (Rpm is part of Red Hat Linux Powertools CD (RH 7.0. Not found in 7.1???)http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/7.0/en/powertools/i386/RedHat/RPMS/xv-3.10a-23.i386.rpm
and xv-docs-3.10a-23.i386.rpm
Note: Note kfax is part of RPM: kdegraphics.
kdegraphics-2.1.1-1.i386.rpm
This application works well for multi-image tiff fax files sent by JFax
and other fax-mail services.
MPlayer all-in-one Mulimedia Video Player:
Awesome software but may violate patents and intellectual property laws.
See: MPlayerHQ.hu.
Source and pre-compile binary RPM packages available. Plays Real media,
Microsoft Media Video (wmv), wav, SGI, mpeg2, H264, Indeo3, Sorenson3,
VP3, 3ivx, FFv1, ASV1, VCR1/2, QuickTime, DVB, Tivo, mov, avi, ...
Description: MS ASF video File extension: asf,asx,wma,wax,wmv,wmx MIME Type: video/x-ms-asf Application: /opt/bin/mplayer-run
Description: Windows Media Video File extension: wmv MIME Type: video/x-ms-wmv Application: /opt/bin/mplayer-run
Description: Windows Media File extension: wmv,asf,mov MIME Type: application/x-mplayer2 Application: /opt/bin/mplayer-run
Shell script to launch MPlayer: /opt/bin/mplayer-run
FreeAmp: (mp3)
Download freeamp application (rpm) - part of Red Hat Linux Powertools CD Red Hat 7.0 - Not included in RH 7.1?? http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/7.0/en/powertools/i386/RedHat/RPMS/freeamp-2.0.8-3.i386.rpm
Also see FreeAmp home page for RPM's: http://www.freeamp.org/index.html?mode=download (This RPM requires MusicBrainz library RPM also available from this site. Note RH6.x RPM works well on RH7.1)
If using a proxy (example setting): export http_proxy=http://proxy.megacorp.com:80
Bittorrent: (Distributed download client. Manages ".torrent" files)
Download Linux client (source, YUM, RPM or .deb) Available for Python 2.3 and 2.4.
Install:
Install RPM prerequesites: (YUM install did not seem to require them but RPM did)
python(abi)
python-crypto
python-twisted
wxPython (Also installs wxGTK2)
python-psyco
python-zopeinterface
Gnome Nautilus and Mime Types:
Applies to RH 8/9. Newer Fedora systems are migrating to Gnome VFS.
The Gnome Nautilus Mime Type configuration tool will also define mime types
for Mozilla/SeaMonkey. The configuration tool /usr/bin/gnome-file-types-properties
will edit the following user configuration files:
$HOME/.gnome/mime-info/user.keys: List mime types and the associated application/viewer.
$HOME/.gnome/mime-info/user.mime: Mime types and the associted file extention
Use the following syntax: ftp://login:password@ftp-site.com
Select "File" + "Upload File..."
OR
Open two Mozilla windows, one showing the destination FTP directory
and the other showing the local directory. Now drag and drop.
Locked out after a crash?:
[Pitfall]:
If you experienced a system crash and subsequently rebooted and tried to start
Mozilla but are prevented from using your user profile, you may have to
remove the "lock" file.
The lock file prevents more than one instance of Mozilla from running on a
single profile. It is a symbolic link which will have to be removed before
starting Mozilla. Remove it: rm $HOME/.mozilla/userid/dji9dszq.slt/lock where the funky "slt" directory name will be unique to your user id.
Newer versions of Firefox will also have an additional lock file: ~/.mozilla/firefox/9f2f04yd.default/.parentlock
Using ssh tunneling and a Remote Proxy:
You can create an ssh tunnel to a remote system and use the remote system
as a proxy.
Local system: Connect to remote system using ssh and dynamic port forwarding.
ssh -D port-numberlogin-id@remote-node
Example:
ssh -D 9999 user1@node6.mega-corp.com
This establishes a connection to the remote node and configures traffic on
local port 9999 to be forwarded to the remote system which acts as a proxy
and fulfill the network request.
Mozilla/SeaMonkey Configuration:
Select "Edit" + "Preferences..."
On the left hand side of the window select and expand on the browser tree
"Advanced" + "Proxies"
Select "Manual Proxy Configuration"
Select "SOCKS V4"
Set entries:
Socks Host: localhost
Port: 9999
Remote system: The service sshd must be running.
Browser requests will be forwarded to local port 9999 through
ssh to the remote node which will fulfill the request. I have tried
this for http web request as well as e-mail POP3 inbound mail and SMTP
outbound mail and it works!
x86_64 Platform Pitfalls and Fixes:
The Mozilla/SeaMonkey and Firefox browsers compiled for the x86_64 platform
(AMD Athelon/Opteron/Turion 64 and Intel EM64T) do NOT
support proprietary plug-ins compiled for i386.
This is a problem if you want to use
Macromedia Flash plug-ins. The solution is to use the 32 bit
i386 browser binaries (and their dependencies) on the x86_64 version of Linux.
This works because x86_64 Linux (i.e. AMD Athelon)
supports the option to run both i386 and x86_64 binaries.
Books:
