Communicator 4.03, Linux and remote execution

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Mon, 29 Sep 1997, Dave Wreski wrote:

> 
> Hi all.  I wonder if anyone has setup Communicator 4.03 to run from a
> samba machine, serving NT 3.51 and 4.0 workstation machines.
> 
> It seems the initial install application does not fully execute when
> running from a remote share, and I can't figure out why.

i've done this already.

1) do a net use \\cb1-gw\applications u:
2) install to the u:\applications\Netscape drive
3) run regedit.exe.  put \\cb1-gw\applications in the paste buffer.  do a 
search for u:\applications, and manually search/replace.
4) unmap the u: network drive.

you might want to have write users = sysadmin on the applications share.


you might also want to do this:

1) search for the preferences dlls, and export them to separate files.  
each dll is registered under a CLSID.  there are about 17 of these for 
4.01.  you can then put these in _one_ file, double-click on it and you 
will have the preferences dlls registered on a new machine.  hurrah.

2) always and only create a user named defaultuser, and store their 
preferences in \\cb1-gw\homes\.netscape.  then, search the registry for 
default user, and make sure that _this_ entry is also in the above 
manually created registry file.

3) make a copy of the prefs.js file in each ~/.netscape directory.  have 
a default prefs.js file, with some odd things like DEFAULT_USER in it.  
set up a perl script or use ex to substitute DEFAULT_USER with the real 
username, called from the adduser.bat script or some other suitable 
arrangement.

the important thing is to have the prefs.js file created: netscape will 
create _all_ the other files for you except this one.

other caveats: get your default preferences right before rolling out the 
prefs.js file.  do you want, as default, people's email password to be 
cached?  do you want to use IMAP4 or POP3?  can you get POP3 / IMAP4 to 
save sent-mail on the server, in the right location? (i couldn't).

etc.

also, WARN people: if they see the "no user preferences found.  create 
one or cancel" dialog, CALL sysadmin.  if they see "select profile: 
defaultuser / user1 / user2", CALL sysadmin.

luke

 
> I'd like to have a 'public' directory where installation binaries can be
> kept, and have each user run it from this share, instead of having to copy
> it locally, then execute it.
> 
> Also, instead of C:\Program Files\Communicator, has anyone successfully
> installed this over the network, so it doesn't have to take up space on
> every workstations hard disk?

yes.

> Oh, one other Communicator question.  Does anyone know how to import
> user profiles, so I can have one user connect from any one PC on the
> network, and use the same profile?  Currently, I have to setup the profile
> on the shared disk, but recreate the profile at each workstation that the
> user will login to.  It would be much easier to install once, on
> F:\Profiles\Fred, for instance, and import that configuration from another
> machine, instead of having to retype his entire configuration at every
> machine...

oh, look!  i seem to have answered your question, without reading this 
part of your email.  hm.  maybe i shouldn't do this too often.


Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton (lkcl at switchboard.net)
Web site under construction  (http://mailhost.cb1.com/~lkcl)
"Confront difficulties while they are still easy"