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Netscape Personal Security Manager
for Mozilla

Newsgroup: netscape.public.mozilla.crypto
Technical contacts: David Drinan

Manager: Bob Lord

About Netscape Personal Security Manager for Mozilla
Version Dependencies
Mozilla M16 Build Instructions
Special Instructions for Advanced Linux Users
Installing Netscape Personal Security Manager for Mozilla
Using Netscape Personal Security Manager with Mozilla
Feedback

About Netscape Personal Security Manager for Mozilla

Netscape Personal Security Manager (PSM) is a standards-based, client-independent application from iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions that performs PKI operations on behalf of Netscape Communicator 4.7, the Mozilla browser, and other applications. PSM also provides advanced cryptographic capabilities for applications that connect with Certificate Management System and greatly simplifies PKI operations for end users.

This page provides information about downloading and testing Netscape Personal Security Manager 1.1 binaries that have been specially configured to work with Mozilla, the open-source browser currently under development at http://www.mozilla.org/. The information provided here is of interest only if you are currently running the M16 release of Mozilla and are comfortable working with "alpha" software under development, which is subject to frequent crashes and other abnormal behavior.

For information about Netscape Personal Security Manager for Communicator 4.7, see Personal Security Manager Documentation.

For information about the Mozilla open source PKI projects, including PSM, see Open Source PKI Projects.

Version Dependencies

This version of Netscape Personal Security Manager 1.1 for Mozilla is currently available for Windows 95/98/NT and Linux 2.2 only. A Macintosh binary will be available from this page soon.

To use this special version of Netscape Personal Security Manager 1.1 for Mozilla, you should be running M16 or a later release. Earlier builds will not work. Recent daily builds from the tip may or may not work.

For information on the latest Mozilla milestone builds, see http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/release-notes/.

Mozilla M16 Build Instructions

If you are building M16 for yourself, follow the generic Mozilla build instructions, with the following differences:

Building on Linux/Unix

The branch tag name is SeaMonkey_M16_BRANCH. Set the environment variable MOZ_CO_BRANCH to SeaMonkey_M16_BRANCH.

Be sure to pull the browser source using client.mk using the following commands:

cvs co -rSeaMonkey_M16_BRANCH mozilla/client.mk
cd mozilla
gmake -f client.mk pull_all build_all
Important: If you don't use client.mk to pull and build the tree, your build will be incomplete

Building on Windows

The branch tag name is SeaMonkey_M16_BRANCH. Set the environment variables MOZ_CO_BRANCH and MOZ_BRANCH to SeaMonkey_M16_BRANCH.

Be sure to pull the browser source using client.mak using the following commands:

cvs co -rSeaMonkey_M16_BRANCH mozilla/client.mak
cd mozilla
nmake /f client.mak pull_all build_all
Important: If you don't use client.mak to pull and build the tree, your build will be incomplete.

Special Instructions for Advanced Linux Users

If your shell initialization file (.cshrc for /bin/csh,.tcshrc for /bin/tcsh, or .profile for /bin/bashor /bin/sh) changes the value of the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH,make sure that your initialization script only adds to the value of LD_LIBRARY_PATHinstead of replacing it. This is because the mozilla wrapper scriptlaunches the browser in a new shell after modifying the contents of LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

So, for .cshrc/.tcshrc, be sure you use the following wrapper ("/some/path" should be replaced by the path you previously defined):

# add to LD_LIBRARY_PATH if it exists, set a new valueif it doesn't
if ($?LD_LIBRARY_PATH) then
    setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /some/path:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
else
    setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /some/path
endif
For .profile, use the following wrapper:
# add to LD_LIBRARY_PATH if it exists, set a new value if it doesn't
if [-z "LD_LIBRARY_PATH"] ; then
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:.
else
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.
fi
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
 

Installing Netscape Personal Security Manager for Mozilla

PSM software contains encryption technology that is subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations and other U.S. law, and may not be exported or re-exported to ineligible countries or to persons or entities prohibited from receiving U.S. exports. Ineligible countries are currently Afghanistan (Taliban-controlled areas), Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Serbia (except Kosovo), Sudan, and Syria. Persons or entities prohibited from receiving U.S. exports include Denied Parties, entities on the Bureau of Export Administration Entity List, and Specially Designated Nationals. For more information on the U.S. Export Administration Regulations ("EAR"), 15 C.F.R. Parts 730-774, and the Bureau of Export Administration ("BXA"), please see the BXA home page.

PSM software may also be subject to import and/or use regulations in other countries.

Important notes for Windows users:

On Linux, PSM for Mozilla is installed into a newly created psm directory in the same directory as the mozilla executable.

For All Platforms: You must restart Mozilla after the installation script has completed succesfully.

To install Netscape Personal Security Manager 1.1 for Mozilla M16, click the Install Netscape PSM button for the platform you are using:

Using Netscape Personal Security Manager with Mozilla

After installation is completed, exit Mozilla and restart it to start using Personal Security Manager. Once Netscape Personal Security Manager is installed, you can use Mozilla to visit web sites that support SSL. To view the PSM user interface, click the lock in the lower-right corner. Not all elements of the UI are working correctly, but you can view the panels and try out some of the features.

Known issue: If you go to an HTTPS URL that specifies a directory, but without a closing slash, Mozilla erroneously displays a padlock with a red slash through it. The same problem can occur unpredictably with some CGI scripts, HTML pages, and so on.

For information on security testing, see Security Smoketest.

Feedback

If you run into problems, please file bugs with Bugzilla (product PSM).

To send feedback to the Personal Security Manager development team, send email to psmfeedback@netscape.com. Feedback back sent to this address will be read by the team, but you will not receive a personal response.

We are especially interested in feedback on installation problems and the user interface.

                                                       
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