[%- mypath = "${template.name}"|replace('[^\/]*$','') -%]
[%- PROCESS "${mypath}/relnote.var" -%]
[%- PROCESS "changes.tmpl" -%]
[% rnote.basename %] Release Notes
[% rnote.basename %]
You MUST absolutely do a full backup of your profile
before upgrading from a version earlier than SeaMonkey 2.53.1. This version of
SeaMonkey makes changes to your profile that can't be reverted in cases where
you need to go back to the older version.
Automatic upgrades from previous 2.53.x versions are
enabled for this release.
The Mozilla backend code SeaMonkey is based on, now usually incorporates
breaking changes in every release. This is especially true for the Mozilla Gecko
add-ons code and the JavaScript interpreter. Consequently, some older extensions
may no longer function properly. If you experience any problems please
refer to the troubleshooting section first. Especially try to disable extensions
first and check if this makes a difference.
Important only if you upgrade from 2.49.5 or an earlier version:
Due to changes in the user profile, if you have set a master password, you will
have to remove it before upgrading to [% rnote.basename %]. After a
successful upgrade, don't forget to manually remove the files key3.db and cert8.db
in your profile afterwards, as they include credentials and passwords no longer
protected by a master password. You can find the path to your profile folder
entering the special about:support URL in a SeaMonkey browser window.
You can remove your master password by providing an empty password in the
"Change Master Password" dialog. Do not use the "Reset Password" function.
You will lose all stored passwords this way. If you have a SeaMonkey 2.53.1 or 2.53.2 language pack installed you need to
remove it before upgrading to this version. These language pack versions
were marked to be compatible with all SeaMonkey 2.53.x releases and cause
breakage when used with a different version. You can then install one of the
provided [% rnote.baseversion %] language packs from the download section after
installation of the base product.
For [% rnote.basename %], the following extensions are included.
ChatZilla
DOM Inspector
Lightning
Beta versions also contain the following extension.
SeaMonkey Debug and QA UI
These release notes describe system requirements, installation instructions,
and known issues for [% rnote.basename %] up to/including [% rnote.name %].
These notes are updated when we receive feedback, so please check back
for new information.
What's New in [% rnote.basename %]
[% rnote.basename %] contains (among other changes) the following major changes relative to
[% rnote.relativeto.name %]:
Obtain Windows code-signing certificate for SeaMonkey binary and update
signing bug 1438084.
Support SHA-2 hashes in CertIDs in OCSP responses - port of bug 1746221.
The following bugs were fixed in our branch of the Gecko source code only:
Fix rust 1.57 Windows linking for SeaMonkey 2.53 bug 1746785.
The Bookmarks Manager has switched its name to Library, and now also
includes the History list. When History is invoked, the Library will be
shown with the History list selected. The extensive modifications were
needed because of Mozilla Gecko platform API changes.
Download Manager has been migrated to a new API. Although it looks pretty
much the same as before, the search option is missing and some other minor
details work differently. The previous downloads history is removed during
the upgrade.
The layout panel was added to the CSS Grid tools.
TLS 1.3 is the default SSL version now.
Support for all NPAPI plugins like Flash, Java and Silverlight has been removed.
For displaying pdf files in the browser you can use
pdf.js-seamonkey
from Isaac Schemm.
SeaMonkey now uses a new api for formatting regional data like time and
date. Default is to use the application locale of the current SeaMonkey
build. If you use a language pack or a different OS formatting this is
usually not desired. You can change the formatting from the application
locale to the regional settings locale (OS) in the preferences dialog under
"Appearance".
Additional important security fixes up to Current Firefox [% changes.fx.esr %]
ESR and a few enhancements have been backported. We will continue to enhance
SeaMonkey security in subsequent 2.53.x beta and release versions as fast as we
are able to.
[% rnote.basename %] shares most parts of the mail and news code with Thunderbird.
Please read the
Thunderbird [% changes.tb.tm %] release notes for
specific changes and security fixes in this release.
SeaMonkey-specific changes
SeaMonkey now uses gtk3 on Linux. If you experience a problem because of
this please file a bug and link it to bug 1367257.
Please try another OS theme first. Some of them are buggy and cause problems
with SeaMonkey, Thunderbird and Firefox.
Downloading
The SeaMonkey project provides official versions and language packs of
[% rnote.name %] for Windows, Linux and macOS in US English and
a small variety of other languages. Community volunteers are also contributing
builds for other platforms. You can download
[% rnote.name %] here.
System Requirements, Installation and Uninstallation
Before installing, make sure your computer meets the
system requirements.
Please note that the new Windows x64 version will only support Windows 7 x64
and up. You need to uninstall a previous Windows x86 version if you want to use
it. Installing the x64 over the old x86 is not supported and does not remove
the old version which might cause problems later.
[% rnote.name %] will no longer offer to migrate your data from SeaMonkey
1.x or Mozilla 1.x at the first start after installation (bug 689437).
In order to upgrade from such an old version, install the last SeaMonkey 2.0
release first, do the one-time profile upgrade, uninstall SeaMonkey 2.0 and
then install your target release (e.g. this one). If you are on an older release we suggest upgrading to SeaMonkey 2.49.5
first.
You can find more details about installation, profile data and uninstallation
in our install and uninstall
document.
Extensions (Add-ons) and Themes
Extensions and Themes for [% rnote.name %] can be installed from the
SeaMonkey Add-Ons
website or the "Get Add-Ons" section in the Add-ons Manager.
Extensions with binary components such as Enigmail only work for the specific
platform they are released (e.g. win extension for Windows, linux64 for Linux
64 bits). Besides, matching version of extensions for SeaMonkey may not be the
latest available of those versions. Therefore, they need to be adjusted for
each new SeaMonkey release, which also means that an old version of such an
add-on can break SeaMonkey if you disabled compatibility checking (which e.g.
happens when you install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter add-on). Please,
note the following warnings and advice regarding extensions:
Previous versions supported a proprietary JavaScript try/catch solution.
This was removed in bug 1228841
and needed to be backported to 2.53.10b1. The backport might break some
add-ons. One add-on affected is the classic version of DownThemAll.
A fixed version is available from the DTA forked repo.
For Enigmail, please refer to the
Enigmail page.
The latest supported version is 2.0.9
Enigmail but there have been some problems reported against it.
Adblock Plus 2.9.1 may cause huge memory and CPU consumption and is not
recommended or officially supported in this SeaMonkey version. Consider
switching to uBlock.
Lightbird 0.7.1. is not compatible with this version. The message preview
pane will not update itself correctly.
The latest 1.16.x working version of uBlock can be found
here.
Please install the latest legacy version.
The latest working version of NoScript Classic 5.x can be found
here.
Dictionaries in WebExtension formats do not work, even though
they appear to install correctly. Support for them will be added at a
later date. Please install the latest classic version from the dictionary
history or unpack the dictionary inside the WebExtension package into your
/dictionaries directory.
Lightweight themes are no longer provided on the SeaMonkey Add-ons site.
Full theme add-ons may need changes because of user interface and internal
changes. If you find any problem with themes, contact the theme author.
Before reporting a problem with the user interface please make sure to
recreate it with either the Classic or Modern theme.
Because of security backports which removed obsolete code, Session Manager
add-on version 0.8.1.14 or above is required to be compatible with current
and future 2.53 releases.
Known Issues
This list covers some of the known problems with [% rnote.name %].
Please read this before reporting any new bugs.
The base user agent version was set to 68 in 2.53.10 to help with website
compatibility. For YouTube do not set the user agent to identify only as
Firefox or make sure you are using a site specific user agent for it.
YouTube will show only a mostly blank page otherwise in some scenarios.
Enhancements for this are planned in bug 1737436.
Some translations are missing in a few languages in the user interface and
are being substituted with the corresponding US English terms. We plan to
update the l10n translations for the final version but some languages like
Polish are now missing a translator. Consider helping out with translations
if you would like to have a 100% translated version.
Opening single new tabs from the Library always loads them in the
foreground. The problem is tracked in bug 1619108
SeaMonkey will not start under Linux if you downloaded the wrong package.
We are providing x86 and x64 versions of SeaMonkey for Linux.
For newer distributions you probably need the Linux x64 version.
Lightning or one of the distributed extensions is disabled under Add-ons.
Starting with SeaMonkey 2.53.7b1 the distributed extensions can no
longer be removed. If you have previously enabled one then under some
circumstance it might be disabled during the upgrade process. If the
extension is disabled and can not be enabled then it is because an old or
incompatible version is still present in your profile.
To clean out old versions use the following instructions:
Enter "about:config" in the location bar.
Enter "extensions.installedDistroAddon" in the search field.
Reset (delete) all keys found.
Open the Add-ons Manager. If the "remove" button is shown for the
disabled extension use it. Stored data like your personal calendars will
not be removed by this action.
Restart SeaMonkey.
Disable any distributed extension you do not wish to use.
Unable to connect to secure sites and a certificate error is shown.
In 99% of all cases this issue is caused by the same problem. Your
antivirus software or custom firewall acts as a man in the middle and
intercepts secure https traffic. In order to intercept and scan this
encrypted network traffic, it normally uses a vendor specific certificate
which is not installed by default in SeaMonkey by the third party software
installer. If you want to keep this feature working you need to install one
or more certificate(s) from the antivirus software in SeaMonkey. You need
to ask your antivirus software vendor where they are located. Consult the
SeaMonkey online help to find out how you can import and manage certificates.
If you experience a hang and/or get a message box warning that a script
is busy when opening the Data Manager try deleting the webappsstore.* files
from your profile folder when SeaMonkey is not running. These files contain
data stored by websites and will be recreated during the next start. If
you are unsure if the information is needed please back up the files before
deleting them. The problem is tracked in
bug 1305624
but so far no coding error has been found.
This problem has been reported frequently when trying to manage passwords.
But the problem will generally happen just after you open the Data Manager,
because this component is also used for managing cookies, site preferences
permissions and other settings.
If you are running Windows 7 "Send to > Mail recipient" might not work.
More information can be found in
bug 1356902.
As a workaround install the "Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 to 2019"
redistributable runtime library. For x86 install the
VS2019 x86 runtime.
If you are using the x64 build install the
VS2019 x64 runtime.
SeaMonkey was built using the latest VS2019 compiler so make sure to
upgrade any older VS2017 runtime.
If you experience a delay showing the first page after start, please
delete the Safebrowsing folder in your profile. Bad Safebrowsing data may
delay showing the first page for up to 30 seconds. The problem is tracked
in bug 1432274.
This can occur even if you are not using Safebrowsing because the lists are
always fetched.
SeaMonkey does not currently support the WebExtensions add-on api. Some
popular add-ons like NoScript and uBlock Origin are no longer shown because
of this on the SeaMonkey add-ons website. You can usually get compatible
versions from the manufacturers site. WebExtensions support is a planned
feature for 2.57. For dictionaries please install the latest non webext
version.
The SSL 3.0 encryption protocol is no longer supported due to
security concerns (bug
1106470). Legacy websites may still rely on it and will not work
with the newer TLS 1.x protocols. Contact the website administrator
to update their server to resolve the issue at the source.
The Remember Passwords add-on breaks password handling. Please disable
or uninstall this add-on using the Add-ons Manager.
You cannot set up a new Sync account or pair a device anymore (bug 998807).
Data loss warning: If you use a profile with this or
any later version and then try to go back to SeaMonkey 2.49.5 or earlier,
SeaMonkey will rename your bookmarks and history file to
places.sqlite.corrupt and create a new places.sqlite file, effectively
resetting your browsing history. This is because the internal format
changed and the upgrade process only works in one direction.
Additionally, running MailNews with local folders and POP3 mail filters may
produce summary files that are not correctly read by previous versions of
SeaMonkey. If you decide to go back to a previous version of SeaMonkey, you
should do it from a profile backup only. Stored passwords and local storage
will also be unavailable in the old version.
After creating a news account through clicking a news URL, the MailNews
account wizard may be broken (the account type will always be News). To
work around the problem, set the mail.server.serverX.valid pref (where
X is the internal number of the corresponding news account) to true in
about:config, or delete the invalid news account (bug 521861).
Web pages may appear differently in the MailNews feed reader than in the
browser (bug
662907). Workaround: Add a "noscript {display:none}" rule to your
userContent.css
(note that the Stylish add-on cannot be used here since it does not
integrate with the MailNews feed reader).
Lightning keyboard shortcuts for accessing the calendar tab from within
the MailNews window or from the main menu (Ctrl+Shift+C/D) do not work. (bug 514512).
If you try to start SeaMonkey using a locked profile, it will crash (see bug 573369).
In ChatZilla users are unable to add an exception for an invalid
certificate unless an override is added to the preferences (see bug 1738597).
Linux:
SeaMonkey 2.53.7b1 can not be automatically updated to later beta
versions as it is set to the wrong update channel. To overcome this,
make sure SeaMonkey 2.53.7b1 is not running, edit the channel-prefs.js
file located in the defaults/pref directory of the installation
directory for SeaMonkey 2.53.7b1 and change the app.update.channel pref
from "release" to "beta". When SeaMonkey is restarted it should then
find future beta releases.
Windows:
You might not be able to install SeaMonkey in Windows 10 if you have
turned on the Windows Defender Smartscreen feature. Your SeaMonkey
download will be blocked in the case. To overcome this go to
"Windows Security->App & browser control" in the new Windows Settings
and set the "Check apps and files" setting to Warn from Block.
Antivirus scanners may report that some parts of SeaMonkey (e.g. the
file freebl3.dll) are suspicious. If you downloaded SeaMonkey from one
of the official download sites, this is a false alarm. You might
experience problems with secure websites when this happens. To fix the
issue, instruct your antivirus software to ignore these files (and move
them out of quarantine) and/or switch to another antivirus software and
reinstall SeaMonkey.
Mac:
The scrollbar is not always visible on some websites under recent
macOS versions (10.15 upwards) see
bug 1684651.
When hardware acceleration is off, background colors in the UI
(toolbar, status bar etc.) might not update correctly when you switch
focus from/to a window. Users running Macs with certain older hardware
will experience this even if they haven't turned
off hardware acceleration in Preferences (Appearance/Content) (bug 626096).
SeaMonkey 2.53.7b1 can not be automatically updated to later beta
versions as it is set to the wrong update channel. To overcome this,
make sure SeaMonkey 2.53.7b1 is not running, edit the channel-prefs.js
file located in the Contents/Resources/defaults/pref folder of the
installation folder for SeaMonkey 2.53.7b1 and change the
app.update.channel pref from "release" to "beta". When SeaMonkey is
restarted it should then find future beta releases.
Troubleshooting
Some questions are asked more frequently than others. Have a look at the SeaMonkey FAQ.
Maybe your particular problem has already been solved.
Some antivirus software keeps detecting our installers as containing a
"Trojan" or "Downloader". This is a false positive because of some wrong
detection mechanism in the antivirus software. The code in question is
actually from 7-Zip and decompresses the installer so that its contents can
run and install SeaMonkey. That technology is widely used and probably can
be used to compress bad as well as good software, but the 7-Zip code itself
is perfectly safe. Mozilla scans all our files routinely when putting them
on the FTP server and we assure you that our installers are as clean as the
official Firefox downloads that are scanned by the same mechanisms.
For security, parts of
bug 1035091
were ported in
bug 1411708.
This might cause problems with add-ons like Stylish which use moz-document.
Set the preference "layout.css.moz-document.content.enabled" to
"true" to overcome this but be aware that this disables the
added security fix.
Poorly designed or incompatible extensions can cause problems with
SeaMonkey, including make it crash, slow down page display, etc.
If you encounter strange problems relating to parts of SeaMonkey no longer
working, the browser not starting, windows with strange or distorted
appearance, degraded performance, etc, you may be suffering from Extension
or Theme trouble.
Restart SeaMonkey in Safe Mode. On Windows, start using the "Safe Mode"
shortcut created in your Start menu or by running
seamonkey.exe -safe-mode.
On Linux, start with /path-to-seamonkey/seamonkey -safe-mode
or first change to the SeaMonkey installation directory and start with
./seamonkey -safe-mode, and on macOS, run:
cd /Applications/SeaMonkey.app/Contents/MacOS/
./seamonkey-bin -safe-mode
When started in Safe Mode all extensions are disabled and the Default theme
is used. Disable the Extension/Theme that is causing trouble and then start
normally.
If you uninstall an extension that is installed with your user profile
(i.e. you installed it from a Web page) and then wish to install it for all
user profiles using the -install-global-extension command line flag, you
must restart SeaMonkey once to cleanse the profile extensions datasource of
traces of that extension before installing with the switch. If you do not do
this you may end up with a jammed entry in the Extensions list and will be
unable to install the extension globally.
If you encounter strange problems relating to bookmarks, downloads, window
placement, toolbars, history, or other settings, it is recommended that you
try creating a new profile and attempting to reproduce the problem before
filing bugs. Create a new profile by running SeaMonkey with the -P command
line argument, choose the "Manage Profiles" button and then choose "Create
Profile...". Migrate your settings files (Bookmarks, Saved Passwords, etc)
over one by one, checking each time to see if the problems resurface. If you
do find a particular profile data file is causing a problem, file a bug and
attach the file.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I do to help?
We need help from developers and the testing community to provide as much
feedback as possible to make SeaMonkey even better. Please read these notes
and the Bug Writing
Guidelines before reporting any bugs to
Bugzilla.
Why haven't you responded to the mail I sent you?
Use the alt.comp.software.seamonkey newsgroup or the SeaMonkey forums on
mozillaZine.
The SeaMonkey team read them regularly, and your email may have gotten lost.
Lots of people. See Help->About SeaMonkey, contributors for a
list of some of the people who have contributed to Mozilla and SeaMonkey.
Where's the [% rnote.name %] source code?
A tarball of the [% rnote.name %] source code is available at the
download page.
The latest development code can be obtained from the source repository.
SeaMonkey-specific source is in the "suite" directory. Please follow the
build instructions.
We provide source code for 2.53.1 and future releases on
gitlab. For accessing
the site you currently need to use the
web
components polyfill add-on.
Can I remove the tool- and menubar grippies?
You can remove the tool- and menubar grippies by setting the preference
"browser.toolbars.grippyhidden" to "true".
Other Resources and Links
The following resources contain useful information about [% rnote.name %]: