[%- mypath = "${template.name}"|replace('[^\/]*$','') -%]
[%- PROCESS "${mypath}/relnote.var" -%]
[% rnote.name %]
[% rnote.name %]
These release notes describe system requirements, installation instructions,
and known issues for [% rnote.name %].
These notes are updated when we receive feedback, so please check back
for new information.
SeaMonkey uses the same internal platform as Firefox 3.5.4
now. Due to this change SeaMonkey is now much closer to Firefox as far as
user profiles, add-ons and functionality of user interface elements are
concerned.
The default location of user profiles has changed. Legacy
profiles, e.g. from SeaMonkey 1.x, or even Thunderbird profiles, can be
migrated automatically, excluding third-party add-ons (extensions and
themes). The old profile will not be touched (instead, copies are made).
The new Add-on Manager allows to install, update, disable
and remove extensions (add-ons), themes and plugins using the same
mechanisms Firefox uses. This should ease extension management and
development considerably.
Session restore (crash recovery) has been added. Now,
when SeaMonkey crashes, all your browser windows and tabs will be restored
automatically or on request (including data entered in web forms!). In
addition, users can select to always restore the browser windows and tabs
from their last open session when starting SeaMonkey.
Reopening closed browser windows (Undo Close Window) is
now possible.
History is now stored in a better database solution, so
that it can easily keep more information, and the location bar determines
which addresses to autocomplete and/or show in the drop down menu with a
smarter algorithm based on what you type, searching in both URL and title of
visited pages by default.
Toolbars in the browser, main MailNews and message
compose windows are now fully customizable, including icon
size and whether to display icons and/or text for every major toolbar, all
available via their context menus.
The MailNews component now includes support for reading RSS and
Atom feeds. The browser detects feeds offered by web pages, can
preview them and offers different ways to subscribe to them.
New IMAP accounts will now keep local offline copies by default, as a part
of a number of speed improvements when working with IMAP.
Synchronization can be disabled per account or for individual folders, and
limited to the most recent messages in the Synchronization & Storage
settings.
Tabbed Mail enables accounts, folders and even single
messages to be opened in tabs inside the Mail & Newsgroups window. This
feature also enables the Lightning extension to be installed into SeaMonkey
for calendering functionality.
Password Manager was switched to an improved version,
allowing easier searching, and notification bars replacing modal dialogs for
remembering logins.
Download Manager has been completely reworked, including
support for cross-session resumable downloads.
A new form manager replaces all previous web form
management, and automatically keeps a record of what you type into forms and
presents you these options in a drop-down list when you come back.
Cookie Manager has been improved and now allows
searching for cookies by site and cookie name.
Gecko, the rendering engine used in SeaMonkey, has seen
many improvements since the version used in the last stable release. Changes
range from a better graphics backend (Cairo/Thebes) to improved support
for fonts, CSS, DOM and JavaScript. [% rnote.name %] passes
the Acid2 test and most of Acid3 and includes all the HTML5 and other new
web-facing features also included in Firefox 3.5, such as audio/video
elements, downloadable fonts and JIT-compiled JavaScript.
Most of the icons in the default theme have been
exchanged for newer images that fit better with the look of modern desktop
environments.
The default theme on Mac OS X was completely renewed to
better fit with the look of Leopard and Snow Leopard.
For extension developers,
SMILE
is introduced, making interfaces known from
FUEL and
STEEL
also available in SeaMonkey.
Support for Windows 95, 98, Me and NT 4 was dropped. GTK 2.10 or higher is
now required on Linux/UNIX. Support for Mac OS X 10.3 ("Panther")
and 10.2 ("Jaguar") was also dropped.
The SeaMonkey project provides official versions of [% rnote.name %] for
Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in US English and 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.
[% rnote.name %] will offer to migrate your data from SeaMonkey 1.x
or Mozilla 1.x at the first start after installation.
You can find more details about installation, profile data and uninstallation
in our install and uninstall
document.
Extensions and Themes
Extensions installed under SeaMonkey 1.x are not migrated to SeaMonkey 2, and
may not be compatible for reinstalling in this version due to major changes in
our architecture. Please report any issues to the maintainer of the extension.
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.
Known Issues
This list covers some of the known problems with [% rnote.name %].
Please read this before reporting any new bugs.
Installing SeaMonkey 2.0 into the same location where an older version of
SeaMonkey is installed will result in a non-working installation. Either
install SeaMonkey 2.0 to a different location - for example the default
installation location as given by the installer - or un-install the older
version of SeaMonkey first. (Bug 526202)
Clearing private data can stop password manager from working (including
password lists appearing empty) until the next restart of SeaMonkey (Bug 523345)
Only one profile from SeaMonkey 1.x is migrated to [% rnote.name %]
automatically (Bug 383006)
Workaround: Manually start migration as
described
in the knowledge base.
Migrating a SeaMonkey 1.x profile may set "Use secure authentication"
in the Outgoing Server (SMTP) settings, which causes an error when trying
to send to a server supporting GSSAPI (Kerberos authentication) if it is
not configured on the client machine. Unchecking that option resolves the
issue. (Bug 522633)
New email count on the Mac OS X dock icon is sometimes wrong (Bug 509163)
MailNews account password prompts are no longer serial at startup (Bug 338549)
Workaround: If a Master Password is set and you saved your login
credentials, only one prompt will appear at startup. You can disable this
new behavior by setting signon.startup.prompt to false in
about:config.
For some Windows users, cutting or copying text, links, whatever from
anywhere in SM 2.0 does not appear to place the cut or copied text in the
Clipboard. Some reports say that "McAfee SiteAdviser Service" might be
responsible and completely deleting or shutting down this service might fix
the problem. (Bug 525601)
Profile Roaming is not working any more (Bug 378647)
"Turbo mode" (quick launch), including the tray icon, has been removed (Bug 361682)
Splash screen support (was shown by default on Windows) has been removed
due to not being implemented in the new toolkit (Bug 329742)
Download manager sometimes uses high amounts of CPU time with multiple
downloads active or in the list
(Bug
506731)
Troubleshooting
Some anti-virus software keeps detecting our installers as containing a
"Trojan" or "Downloader". This is a false positive and is some wrong
detection mechanism in the anti-virus 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.
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
./seamonkey -safe-mode and on Mac OS X, 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
filing instructions before reporting any bugs to
Bugzilla. You can also give us
your feedback through this feedback
form.
Why haven't you responded to the mail I sent you?
Use the newsgroup.
The SeaMonkey team reads it 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.
Other Resources and Links
The following resources contain useful information about [% rnote.name %]: