Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 2012-01-16

Chapter 36. Graphical Web Browsers

SeaMonkey-2.6.1

Introduction to SeaMonkey

SeaMonkey is a browser suite, the Open Source sibling of Netscape. It includes the browser, composer, mail and news clients, and an IRC client. It is the follow-on to the Mozilla browser suite.

The Mozilla project also hosts two subprojects that aim to satisfy the needs of users who don't need the complete browser suite or prefer to have separate applications for browsing and e-mail. These subprojects are Firefox-9.0.1 and Thunderbird-9.0.1. Both are based on the Mozilla source code.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-7.0 platform.

Package Information

SeaMonkey Dependencies

Required

ALSA Library-1.0.24.1, gtk+-2.24.8 Zip-3.0 and UnZip-6.0

[Note]

Note

libjpeg and libpng (patched for apng support) should have been installed before gdk-pixbuf and should exist on your system. If for some strange reason you haven't installed them, you should remove the --with-system-jpeg and --with-system-png options from the mozconfig file created below.

Recommended

yasm-1.2.0 or libvpx-v0.9.7 (to allow Seamonkey to play webm videos).

Optional

D-Bus GLib Bindings-0.98, startup-notification-0.9, SQLite-3.7.8, Hunspell, Libevent, Doxygen-1.7.5, GNOME Virtual File System-2.24.4 and libgnomeui-2.24.3 (for gnome integration), libnotify-0.4.5, NSPR-4.8.9, NSS-3.13.1, Wireless Tools-28, Valgrind (only for testing the jemalloc code) and Wget-1.13.4

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/seamonkey

Installation of SeaMonkey

The configuration of SeaMonkey is accomplished by creating a mozconfig file containing the desired configuration options. A default mozconfig file is created below. To see the entire list of available configuration options (and an abbreviated description of each one), issue ./configure --help. You may also wish to review the entire file and uncomment any other desired options. Create the file by issuing the following command: 

cat > .mozconfig << "EOF"
# If you have a multicore machine you can speed up the build by running
# several jobs at once, but if you have a single core, delete this line:
mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS="-j4"

# If you have installed Yasm delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-webm

# If you have installed DBus-Glib delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-dbus

# If you have installed wireless-tools delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-necko-wifi

# If you have installed libnotify delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-libnotify

# Uncomment these if you have installed them:
# ac_add_options --with-system-nspr
# ac_add_options --with-system-nss
# ac_add_options --enable-system-sqlite
# ac_add_options --with-system-libvpx
# ac_add_options --enable-startup-notification
# ac_add_options --enable-system-hunspell
# ac_add_options --with-system-libevent

mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/moz-build-dir
ac_add_options --enable-application=suite
ac_add_options --prefix=/usr
ac_add_options --with-pthreads
ac_add_options --enable-system-ffi
ac_add_options --with-system-jpeg
ac_add_options --with-system-png
ac_add_options --enable-system-cairo
ac_add_options --with-system-zlib
ac_add_options --enable-shared
ac_add_options --disable-static
ac_add_options --disable-debug
ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter
ac_add_options --disable-installer
ac_add_options --disable-updater
ac_add_options --disable-tests
EOF

Compile SeaMonkey by running the following command: 

make -f client.mk

This package does not come with a test suite. However, it can be launched from the build directory before installing with the command line: moz-build-dir/mozilla/dist/seamonkey/seamonkey

Install SeaMonkey by issuing the following commands as the root user: 

make -C moz-build-dir install &&
mkdir -pv /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins &&
ln -svf ../mozilla/plugins /usr/lib/seamonkey-2.6.1 &&
cp -v moz-build-dir/mozilla/dist/man/man1/seamonkey.1 /usr/share/man/man1

Command Explanations

make -f client.mk: Mozilla products are packaged to allow the use of a configuration file which can be used to pass the configuration settings to the configure command. make uses the client.mk file to get initial configuration and setup parameters.

make -C moz-build-dir install: this runs make install inside the moz-build-dir directory.

ln -s ../mozilla/plugins /usr/lib/seamonkey-2.5: this creates a symlink to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins for the sake of compatibility, to keep all your plugins in the place mozilla plugins are normally found.

Configuring SeaMonkey

If you deleted the --disable-webm option from your mozconfig, your Seamonkey can play most youtube videos without the need for the flash plugin. To enable this, go to http://www.youtube.com/html5 and click on 'Join the HTML5 Trial' (needs cookies enabled).

For installing various SeaMonkey plugins, refer to Mozdev's PluginDoc Project.

Along with using the “Preferences” menu to configure SeaMonkey's options and preferences to suit individual tastes, finer grain control of many options is only available using a tool not available from the general menu system. To access this tool, you'll need to open a browser window and enter about:config in the address bar. This will display a list of the configuration preferences and information related to each one. You can use the “Filter:” bar to enter search criteria and narrow down the listed items. Changing a preference can be done using two methods. One, if the preference has a boolean value (True/False), simply double-click on the preference to toggle the value and two, for other preferences simply right-click on the desired line, choose “Modify” from the menu and change the value. Creating new preference items is accomplished in the same way, except choose “New” from the menu and provide the desired data into the fields when prompted.

[Tip]

Tip

There is a multitude of configuration parameters you can tweak to customize SeaMonkey. A very extensive list of these parameters can be found at http://preferential.mozdev.org/preferences.html.

Contents

Installed Programs: seamonkey
Installed Libraries: Numerous libraries, browser, and email/newsgroup components, plugins, extensions, and helper modules installed in /usr/lib/seamonkey-2.6.1
Installed Directories: /usr/lib/seamonkey-2.6.1

Short Descriptions

seamonkey

is a browser/email/newsgroup/chat client suite. The various components such as the Composer, mail-news client, IRC chat client, and address book can be accessed from the menu after seamonkey starts or via command-line switches to the seamonkey script. Issue man seamonkey for additional information.

Last updated on 2012-01-16 14:56:53 +0000