Microsoft KB Archive/186858

= Internet Explorer/Outlook Express 4.01 for Sun Solaris Readme.txt File =

Article ID: 186858

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 for UNIX, when used with:
 * the operating system: UNIX
 * Microsoft Outlook Express 4.01, when used with:
 * the operating system: UNIX

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This article was previously published under Q186858



SUMMARY
--- README for Internet Explorer 4.01 for Solaris with Outlook Express Sun Solaris version 2.5.1 and 2.6 August 24, 1998 --- Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, 1997-1998

This document provides the information you need to get started and information to supplement the product documentation.

You can look up additional Knowledge Base articles on http://support.microsoft.com. To do so, specify Internet Explorer or Outlook Express in field one and topic information in field two.



MORE INFORMATION
======== CONTENTS

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WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE? SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS SETUP Downloading Internet Explorer/Outlook Express 4.01 Installing Internet Explorer/Outlook Express 4.01 Uninstalling Internet Explorer/Outlook Express 4.01 COMMON DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT INTEGRATION USER AGENT AN ALTERNATE WAY TO ORGANIZE FAVORITES NTLM Domain Authentication KNOWN ISSUES Solaris Compatibility Internet Explorer User Interface Issues Miscellaneous Issues Outlook Express Issues SUPPORT

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================ WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE?

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================

This release of Microsoft Internet Explorer/Outlook Express 4.01 for Sun Solaris includes support for IMAP functionality (IMAP4) in Outlook Express, performance improvements, and fixes for known Year 2000 problems.

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====== SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

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======

To run this version of Internet Explorer/Outlook Express 4.01 for UNIX, your system must meet the following minimum requirements:
 * A Sparcstation 2 or greater
 * US English Solaris 2.5 or above
 * 32 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended)
 * 65 MB of hard-disk space to perform the installation

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SETUP

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Downloading Internet Explorer/Outlook Express 4.01 --

You can download the file ie4setup from the following FTP site:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/deskapps/ie/unix/sol/ie4setup

The product is also available at the following HTTP site:

http://www.microsoft.com/unix/ie

The file ie4setup is a self-extracting executable that contains all the files you will need. If you ftp this file, be sure to use binary transfer mode.

Installing Internet Explorer/Outlook Express 4.01 -

Installing to the default directory, /usr/local/microsoft, may require that you be logged in as root. 1) Change directory to where you downloaded the file  ie4setup: 'cd '. 2) Make the downloaded file executable: 'chmod +x ie4setup'. 3) Run the executable: './ie4setup'. 4) When Setup prompts you for an installation directory, you can accept the default directory or type in a new directory path.

To run Internet Explorer 4.01:

After it is installed, you can start Internet Explorer by running " /bin/iexplorer".

To run Outlook Express 4.01:

After it is installed, you can start Outlook Express by running " /bin/oexpress".

NOTE: Internet Explorer and Outlook Express 4.01 introduce new features that may not compatible with earlier releases of our product. We recommend that all platform installations be upgraded to the same revision of the product.

Uninstalling Internet Explorer/Outlook Express 4.01 ---

You must remove the current installation directory, for example, 'rm -r /usr/local/microsoft'. Additionally, each user that has run either Internet Explorer or Outlook Express will have a directory named ".microsoft" in the home

directory for the user account. This directory contains customer user settings and my also be deleted if the user wishes to remove all personal settings for Internet Explorer and Outlook Express (including the private message database and favorites folders).

If you implemented CDE integration as explained below, you should remove it by deleting the "IE4.dt" file from the system or user directory.

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========================= COMMON DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT INTEGRATION

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=========================

If you run Internet Explorer within a CDE session, it will adopt the CDE color scheme unless overridden with explicit color settings.

If you install Internet Explorer on Solaris 2.6, you will be asked whether you wish to install CDE integration. If you answer yes, a file called "IE4.dt" will be added to the system. If you are user "root", the file is added to the directory /etc/dt/appconfig/types/C, and will affect all users on the system. Otherwise, the file will be added to the directory ~/.dt/types, and will affect only you.

The file "IE4.dt" is in the "ie4" subdirectory of the installation, and can be copied to other users' ~/.dt/types directory.

If you use CDE integration, then the generic web browser icon will launch Internet Explorer, and the default action for an HTML file will be to launch Internet Explorer and open the file.

CDE integration can be removed by simply deleting the "IE4.dt" file from the system or user directories, and restarting the session.

There is a set of Internet Explorer icons for use with CDE, in the ie4/ie4icons subdirectory of the installation. They can be used by administrators who want to place the Internet Explorer logo on the desktop.

More information about the integration can be found in the Knowledge Base article Q181622 available from http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q181/6/22.a sp.

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USER AGENT

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The User Agent String for Internet Explorer is static except for the third field which depends on the Operating System and the processor you are using.

Here are some common configurations and the user agent strings generated by Internet Explorer on these platforms: Sparc 5, Solaris 2.5.1: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; SunOS 5.5.1     sun4m; X11) Any Ultra, Solaris 2.5.1: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; SunOS 5.5.1     sun4u; X11) Any Ultra, Solaris 2.6: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; SunOS 5.6 sun4u;     X11)

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============================ AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO ORGANIZE FAVORITES

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============================

In addition to being able to organize favorites through the Organize Favorites item on the Favorites menu, you can also manipulate your favorites through the file system. Your favorites are organized and maintained in the directory, ~/.microsoft/Favorites. You should shut down Internet Explorer to make changes to this directory. The changes you make will be reflected in your Favorites menu when you restart Internet Explorer.

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KNOWN ISSUES

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Solaris Compatibility -

Internet Explorer is not supported on Solaris 2.4 and below.

To run Internet Explorer on Solaris 2.5 a patch is required. Use of any or all of these patches is subject to any license terms that may accompany the patch. Patch 103093-23 corrects a multithreading issue.

NOTE: Additional patches from Sun Microsystems, Inc., may be necessary to get full functionality from this patch. See the patch's README for more details.

A link to download this patch is available from the following page:

http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/us/pubpatchpage.pl

If that link doesn't work, try the FREE PATCHES link off of:

http://sunsolve.sun.com/sunsolve/

You can download either the patch itself at:

ftp://sunsolve.sun.com/pub/patches/103093-23.tar.Z

There is also a cluster of recommended patches that will install in a single step which includes 103093-23:

ftp://sunsolve.sun.com/pub/patches/2.5_Recommended.tar.Z

Note that this patch number may become 103093-24 or  higher in the future as Sun Microsystems, Inc., upgrades it.

Internet Explorer will not start on a Solaris 2.5.1 system that has been updated with the Xsun patch 103566-34 or 103566-35. This is due to problem number 4152947 in the Sun patch. Please obtain version 38 or 39 of this patch to address this issue.

If you install Internet Explorer on a host machine, and use NFS to mount the installation on another machine using a different pathname, then you will not be able to execute Internet Explorer on the second machine. Similarly, if you move the installation directory to a different pathname, you will not be able to execute Internet Explorer. In both cases you will receive the following error message:

Support for SunOS 2.6 has not been installed on this system.

The message may read "SunOS 2.5" or "SunOS 2.5.1" as

appropriate.

To fix the problem, ensure that the environment variable MSFT_HOME is set to the name of the installation directory before starting Internet Explorer. For example, if you mounted or renamed the installation directory as /net/myhost/local/ms, then execute this command:

(csh) setenv MSFT_HOME /net/myhost/local/ms/ or  (sh) MSFT_HOME=/net/myhost/local/ms/ ; export MSFT_HOME

Note the trailing "/" character.

You may use alternative approaches. For example, experienced users may prefer to make a copy of the "bin/iexplorer" and "bin/oexpress" commands, which are simple shell scripts, and change the directory reference on line 3.

If you have multiple platforms installed in a single directory, you should set the environment variable MSFT_HOME to the name of the installation directory before starting Internet Explorer or Outlook Express.

Sun's shared memory transport (SHMEM) -

If the Sun's transparent shared memory is enabled, IE hangs on startup. This is established to be a Sun Solaris Bug, reported as bug 4144519.

Internet Explorer User Interface Issues ---

o Experienced users of X11 can set color preferences using X resources with the class name "Iexplorer".

o When highlighting text in the browser window, Internet Explorer will automatically highlight whole words, unless the cursor is backed up over a word, in which case single character units can be highlighted.

o If you have more than one invocation of Internet Explorer running and one of the browser windows has a modal dialog open, the menu bars on all other Internet Explorer windows are disabled.

o When not running within a CDE session, Internet Explorer obtains its color specifications using standard X mechanisms with fallback values obtained from the file: /ie4/Iexplorer. This is an X resource file and contains instructions that will help the system administrator or individual user perform limited color and font customization. Note: You may use the command line options to set the foreground and background colors - for example, "iexplorer -bg black -fg white" would be useful on a monochrome display.

Miscellaneous Issues

o If you delete the directory TempInternetFiles while the browser is running, the browser may hang.

o HTML pages that omit file extensions for image references are not rendered correctly.

o Renaming a "Favorites" folder with a name that has more than the leading letter capitalized will result in the name being unchangeable through the browser. Although it can still be changed as described in the "AN ALTERNATIVE  WAY TO ORGANIZE FAVORITES" section above.

o Internet Explorer may leave files in a temporary directory (/var/tmp). These files are not needed and can be safely deleted whenever Internet Explorer is not running.

o If different people share a common user ID, network authentications made by one person may be available to others who are running simultaneous copies of the browser.

o Form items and transparent GIF images do not print correctly.

o Address auto-complete does not always work as expected

for addresses with mixed case.

o In the Mappings tab of the Internet Options Menu, the command line field cannot contain output redirection statements (e.g.: cat %1>/dev/audio).

o In the Programs tab of the Internet Options Menu, the news command or script specified cannot be passed more than one argument.

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========= Outlook Express Issues

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=========

Extended Characters --- Extended Character Set is not supported in the IMAP folder names in this release.

Lock files for Mailboxes

If the write permission on /var/mail directory is removed, the lock files for mailboxes won't be created.

First run of Outlook Express

The first run of Internet Explorer or Outlook Express on a clean install may take up to 30 seconds to come up. Please do not interrupt it by pressing CTRL-C, as you may corrupt the registry file.

Unix Mail Spool --- Attempting to read a Unix mail spool that was not written by sendmail or /bin/mail may not work.

There are known compatibility problems when using fetchpop in combination with Outlook Express' native SendMail support. As a work-around, we suggest directly downloading mail from the server by configuring Outlook Express to use POP3.

Deleting Mailboxes -- Deleting Inbox.mbx or Outbox.mbx while Outlook Express is running may cause Outlook Express to crash.

Mailboxes and Address Books from Windows 95 / Windows NT

Due to machine architecture differences, you can not import these files into Outlook Express.

Monochrome displays --- Colored text on a Monochrome terminal may not be displayed legibly.

News

After a period of time, an inactivity notification box may pop up saying "server has unexpectedly terminated the connection". To reconnect to the server, simply select a message or a newsgroup.

Text Based Mail Programs

If you regularly send mail to people who use text based mail programs, you may want to change the mail setting under Tools / Options / Send to Plain Text. Some text based mail programs may have trouble with mail containing a sequence of multiple spaces.

Help

If you have Outlook Express and Internet Explorer running in separate workspaces under CDE, when you select Help/Contents, you may need to change workspaces to view the help text.

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Support

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If you experience any problems in using Internet Explorer or Outlook Express for Solaris, please use Microsoft's online Knowledge Base for these products at http://support.microsoft.com to find a solution. To do so, specify Internet Explorer or Outlook Express in field one and topic information in field two. Microsoft also offers telephone-based technical support by calling Microsoft Technical Support at (425)635-7123.

In addition to the above two forms of support, Microsoft also sponsors a public peer-to-peer newsgroup named "microsoft.public.inetexplorer.unix". To access this newsgroup, use Outlook Express to access the Microsoft public news server at msnews.microsoft.com.

Additional query words: msieunix msoeunix

Keywords: kbinfo kbreadme KB186858

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