2. How to make Netscape 3.0 and java work

2.1 Getting the environment right

The fundamental problem with Netscape 3.0, java, and linux machines is the use of a Standard C Library revision later than libc 5.0.9. With the following wrapper script to netscape, java will for the most part cease to crash the browser.

The script also sets a very simple CLASSPATH. Be careful, certain CLASSPATH entries can confuse netscape and cause it to crash.

#!/bin/sh
export CLASSPATH="/usr/local/netscape/java/classes/java_30:."
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/lib/509"
netscape $*

To make this all work, follow these steps:

• Install netscape
• Copy the java_30 file included with the netscape archive to /usr/local/netscape/java/classes/
• Create a directory called /lib/509/
• Copy libc.so.5.0.9 to /lib/509/
• Create a symlink from /lib/509/libc.so.5.0.9 to /lib/509/libc.so.5
• Edit the shell script to match your setup

Recently, it has been reported that netscape will also crash with Java applets if using versions of libXext.so higher than libXext.so.6.0. The solution, again, is to copy libXext.so.6.0 into a directory such as '/lib/509/', making the appropriate symbolic links and setting the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to look there first.