Any way to debug browser issues?

[Tom 'Needs A Hat' Mitchell]

On Sat, May 22, 2004 at 11:09:40AM +1200, Roland Venter wrote:
> > debugging mozilla - a trace or some mode to tell me what it is doing
> > other than th sign in the bottom that goes:
> >
> > Resolving host www.google.com....
> > Connecting to www.google.com...
> >
> > The connecting part is where it hangs; interestingly if I have an IP it
> > does not hang...  I just dont know where to start with the logs...
> >
> 
> Not a lot of details to go on, but a stab in the dark, you're not
> experiencing DNS timeouts by anychance?  If you're using a proxy is it
> correctly performing DNS resolution....

Since this is an upgrade there may be stuff in your .mozilla/.netscape
what ever dot dirs.  I would first add a fresh user and then login as
this user and try mozilla.  The idea is that there are no preferences
left over for a fresh user.  For example you might have a $PATH change
or $HOME/bin/mozilla like I do. 

You can trace mozilla's system calls as it attempts to connect to
google with strace. Make sure all the paths for libraries, files and
stuff make sense.  i.e. You can do rpm -q --whatprovides on each
library and file that is opened.  Check the date time stamps....
almost no file should be 'older' than the upgrade or have a future
date.

You can snoop your packets with tethereal or another packet tool.

Clean up any /etc/host addresses that you do not need by commenting
them out.  If DNS is flaky for you, you can lookup google and other
'famous' hosts and add them to the local /etc/hosts file.

Check you versions of mozilla and friends.  Most of these are not
needed but this is what "current" looks like on my FC2 box:
    $ rpm -qa | grep mozilla
    mozilla-nspr-1.6-8
    mozilla-dom-inspector-1.6-8
    mozilla-nspr-devel-1.6-8
    mozilla-chat-1.6-8
    mozilla-nss-devel-1.6-8
    mozilla-nss-1.6-8
    mozilla-mail-1.6-8
    mozilla-1.6-8
    mozilla-js-debugger-1.6-8
    mozilla-devel-1.6-8

You can remove and reinstall mozilla.  First save any special plugins
in a dir that will not be found. Then check to see if you have the rpm's
to reinstall mozilla cached.  Then you can:

    rpm -e mozilla; rpm -qa | grep mozilla
    # keep a list of all you clean out so you can reinstall...

Check for multiple copies, then reinstall it from a command line.

    up2date mozilla
  or 
    yum install mozilla
  or
     yum install mozilla\*
  or
    rpm -Uvh $SAVEDPATH/mozilla*rpm	# faster if you have cached rpm files.

Be aware that mozilla, netscape and many other browsers share files,
dirs and config files.  Inventory all your browsers and update,
isolate or remove all the questionable ones.

You can step through your *bin/system-config-* setup tools.  One of
the potential risks with an upgrade is that a setup step might be
skipped because the setup looks finished to the tool. I see 42
*bin/system-config-* setup tools on my FC2 box. Most do not need to be
run but look at each and decide.

Things like:
  /usr/sbin/system-config-network-cmd
  /usr/sbin/system-config-network
  /usr/sbin/system-config-network-gui
Are worth inspection, they are almost all python or shell
scripts... give then a glance first do not just run them




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