This document guides you through the installation process.

It also shows you how to import data

from another Internet client such as Netscape or Microsoft Outlook.

Before you install

Installing on Windows
Installing on Mac OS X
Installing on Linux
Migrating from another Internet client
Installation troubleshooting

Before you install

You can safely install Mozilla with other Internet client software, such as Netscape
Communicator, Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, and
Opera. Mozilla can import user data from other Internet clients; however, import may not work
if you uninstalled the client first. If you wish to migrate from another Internet client to Mozilla,
we recommend that you uninstall the client after you have both installed Mozilla and have
migrated your user data. For more details, read Migrating from another Internet client.
Note: To avoid incompatibility problem with previous versions, the Mozilla installer will prompt
you to delete the install directory if it is not empty. Answer NO if you put your profile or other
personal files in the install directory, otherwise the files will be deleted. Users who put profiles in
the default location are not affected.
If you have Netscape 6 or 7 installed
Do NOT share profiles between Mozilla and Netscape 6 or 7. Mozilla and Netscape 6 or 7
share the same profile registry and directory. However, a profile created by one may be
incompatible with another. Mozilla automatically uses your Netscape 6 or 7 profile unless you
have multiple profiles, in which case Mozilla prompts you to choose a profile.
To avoid accidentally opening Mozilla with your Netscape profile, create a new, extra profile
using your Netscapes Profile Manager before installing Mozilla.
If you have a previous version of Mozilla installed
Before installing a new version of Mozilla, you should uninstall your previous version first. If
you have a third-party extension installed, particularly the spell checker, you should also
completely delete your Mozilla install directory before making a new install. Do not install over
an old Mozilla version.
Following the uninstall instructions in this document should not affect your profile data (unless
your profile files are in a custom location).

System recommendation

This section lists recommended hardware and software configuration for installing Mozilla. As
with any other software, a faster processor and/or additional memory may increase performance.

Processor
RAM
Free hard disk space

Windows
Windows 98 Second Edition
Windows Millennium Edition
Windows NT 4.0
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Pentium 233 MHz (or faster)
64 MB
26 MB

Operating system
Processor
RAM
Free hard disk space
Additional

Macintosh
Mac OS X (10.1 or later preferred)
PowerPC processor 266 MHz (or faster)
64 MB
36 MB
QuickTime

Operating system

Linux
Red Hat Linux 7.0 or later;
Debian 3.0 or later;
SuSE 7.2 or later;

Operating system

or a version of Linux with kernel 2.2.14 or later and the

following library versions (or compatible):

Processor
RAM
Free hard disk space

glibc 2.2,
GTK 1.2.x (1.2.5 preferred),
XFree86 3.3.x,
Libstdc++ 2.9.0

Pentium 233 MHz (or faster)

64 MB
26 MB

During installation, twice the disk space is needed for temporary files. After installation is complete, the temporary files will be
deleted for other uses.

Installing on Windows
It is recommended that you exit all programs before running the setup program. Also, you should
temporarily disable virus detection software.

To install Mozilla, follow these steps:

1. On the download page, click a Windows installer link to download the file to your
machine.
2. Navigate to where you downloaded the file and double click the installer program icon on
your machine to begin the Setup program.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions in the setup program. The program starts automatically
the first time.
Note: Certain ATI video drivers are not compatible with Mozilla and may lead to crashes. If
you are experiencing crashes try getting the latest ATI driver at
http://mirror.ati.com/support/driver.html

Running multiple versions of Mozilla

You can keep multiple versions of Mozilla in your computer by installing them in different
directories. Note, however, you can only run one Mozilla version at a time.

Starting and closing Mozilla

To start Mozilla, double click on the Mozilla icon on your desktop. You can customize how
Mozilla starts up (e.g. what profile to use) via command line arguments. For more information,
read
http://www.mozilla.org/docs/command-line-args.html

Quick Launch
Quick Launch allows you to open Mozilla quickly. When Mozilla uses Quick Launch, a Mozilla
icon is present in the system tray (near the clock)

You can open Navigator by double clicking on the icon. To open a different component (such as
Mail & Newsgroups or Composer), right-click the icon and choose the component from the
context menu.
During installation, you have the option of enabling or disabling Quick Launch. If enabled,
Quick Launch loads part of Mozilla into memory when your computer starts up (and each time
Mozilla first starts up). Quick Launch keeps Mozilla in memory even after you close all Mozilla
windows so you can quickly re-open Mozilla as needed. If your computer is low on memory, you
may want to disable Quick Launch.
To enable Quick Launch:
1. Open the Edit menu and choose Preferences.

2. Choose Advanced category.

3. Select Keep Mozilla in memory to improve startup performance to enable Quick Launch.
4. Click OK.
To disable Quick Launch, right-click on the Mozilla icon in the system tray and choose "Disable
Quick Launch" in the context menu.
To exit Quick Launch and Mozilla completely:
1. Close all Mozilla windows.
2. Right-click on the Mozilla icon in the system tray and choose "Exit Mozilla" from the
context menu.

Java, Plug-ins, and Other Extras

Java
To run Java applets, you must install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.4.1 or later.
If you already have the JRE on your system, the setup program should recognize it. If you need
to download the JRE, you can find it at: http://java.sun.com
Plug-ins and download managers
Many new versions of browser plug-ins and download managers work with Mozilla. However,
installation may require manual operations. For more details, see
http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/windows.html

Installing Address Book Palm Sync

To be able to sync between Mozillas address book and your Palm, you need to enable the
Mozilla Palm Sync conduit. To do that, open the Start Menu, select Programs, select Mozilla,
and choose the Address Book Palm Sync Install item. Note that if you set up your Palm to sync
its address book with Mozilla, the address book will no longer sync with the Palm Desktop.
Once you have done this you can connect your Palm device and press the HotSync button on
your Palm cradle. This should bring up the HotSync Manager dialog on your desktop and should
start Mozilla. Once synchronization is complete, close and reopen Mozilla, and open the Mozilla
Address Book to confirm that the synchronization was successful.

Uninstalling Mozilla
To uninstall Mozilla, open the Control Panel, open Add Remove Programs, and choose Mozilla
1.x from the list. Note uninstalling Mozilla does not remove your profile data.

Installing on Mac OS X

To install Mozilla,
1. Click the Mac OS X disk image link to download the file to your machine.
2. The disk image expands and mounts itself.
If the disk image doesn't mount automatically, double-click on the .dmg file to mount it.
If that fails, and the file does not look like a disk image file, do a Show Info on the file,
and, in the Open with application category, choose Disk Copy.
3. Open the disk image, and drag the Mozilla icon to where you want to install Mozilla. We
recommend that you copy it to the Applications folder.
4. Eject the disk image.
5. To start Mozilla, open the folder where you installed Mozilla and double click the
Mozilla icon.
Note: Certain ATI video drivers are not compatible with Mozilla and may lead to crashes. If
you are experiencing crashes and you use an ATI video driver you may be able to workaround
the problem by setting your screen to Thousands of colors rather than Millions. You may also try
getting the latest ATI driver at http://mirror.ati.com/support/driver.html
Note: Do not disable extensions before installing Mozilla. Doing so may cause installation
problems.

Starting Mozilla
You can drag the Mozilla icon from the install folder to your dock to have it easily accessible at
all times. You might also wish to select Mozilla as your default browser in the Internet system
preferences pane (under the Web tab).

Java and Plug-ins

Mozilla uses Internet plug-ins and Java already installed on your system. No special work is
required.
To see what Internet plug-ins are supported, visit http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/OSX.html .

Uninstalling Mozilla
To uninstall Mozilla,
1. Remove the application files in /Users/<yourusername>/Library/Mozilla (but leave
the Profiles sub-folder).
2. Remove the file Mozilla Registry from
/Users/<yourusername>/Library/Preferences

3. Remove Mozilla from the installed location. (i.e. /Applications)

Installing on Linux
Note: These instructions use the bash shell. If you're not using bash, adjust the commands
accordingly.
To install Mozilla by downloading the Mozilla installer, follow these steps:
1. Create a directory named mozilla1.x (mkdir mozilla1.x) and change to that directory
(cd mozilla1.x).
2. Download the installer package (called mozilla-i686-pc-linux-gnu-1.xinstaller.tar.gz) to the mozilla1.x directory.
3. Change to where you downloaded the package (cd mozilla1.x) and decompress the
archive file with the following command:
gunzip -dc moz*.tar.gz | tar -xvf -

(This places the installer in a sub-directory named mozilla-installer.)

4. Change to the mozilla-installer directory (cd mozilla-installer) and run the
installer with the ./mozilla-installer command.
5. Follow the instructions in the install wizard for installing Mozilla
6. To start Mozilla, change to the install directory and run the ./mozilla command.
Note: you must run Mozilla at least once to complete the installation process. If a different user
(other than the person who installed the program) runs the program first, a core dump will occur.
Installing RPM builds
The Red Hat RPM builds are created to work with the default Red Hat 7 and Red Hat 8
installations. Using these RPMs on SuSE requires installation of the gdk-pixbuf package.
Multi-user installs
To install Mozilla for multiple users on Linux, perform an installation as described above. Then,
create the following script in your Mozilla directory, make it executable (chmod u+x
<scriptname>), and run it as root. Do not run this program as su[do] root.
#!/bin/sh
dist_bin=`dirname $0`
MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=$dist_bin
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$dist_bin
export MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME LD_LIBRARY_PATH
$dist_bin/regxpcom
$dist_bin/regchrome
touch $dist_bin/chrome/user-skins.rdf $dist_bin/chrome/user-locales.rdf

Starting Mozilla

You can customize how Mozilla starts up, e.g. what profile to use, via command line arguments.
See http://www.mozilla.org/docs/command-line-args.html
To hook up Mozilla to the GNOME Panel, follow these steps:
1. Click the GNOME Main Menu button, open the Panel menu, and then open the Add to
Panel sub-menu and choose Launcher.
2. Right click the icon for Mozilla on the Panel and enter the following command:
<install_directory>/mozilla

where <install_directory> is the location of your Mozilla installation (e.g.

/usr/local/mozilla).
3. Type in a name for the icon, and type in a comment if you wish.
4. Click the icon button and type in the following as the icon's location:
<directory_name>/icons/mozicon50.xpm

Java and Plug-ins

Mozilla searches for plug-ins in the following locations:

The path pointed to by environment variable MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH

Your Mozilla plugins directory, e.g. /usr/local/mozilla/plugins)
~/.mozilla/plugins

If you install a plug-in without root permissions, use ~/.mozilla/plugins instead of the
plugins sub-directory of the Mozilla install directory. You may have to create this directory
first.
For a list of plug-ins supported by Mozilla and how to install them, visit
http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/linux.html

Java
To run Java applets, you must install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.4.1 or later
(1.4.2 recommended). To enable Java for Mozilla, put a symlink to
java2/plugin/i386/ns610/libjava.oji.so in your plugins directory, e.g.:
ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.2/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
~/.mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so

Copying the file (instead of making a symlink) will cause Java to crash.
If you need to download the JRE, you can find it at: http://java.sun.com

Uninstalling Mozilla
To uninstall Mozilla, removed the directory where you installed Mozilla. Do NOT remove the
~/.mozilla directory, which contains profile information unless you no longer need your
profiles.

Migrating from other Internet client software

Mozilla can import data directly from other popular Internet clients such as Netscape
Communicator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, and Eudora.
Mozilla can also import data in several standard file formats, so migrating from other client
software is also possible.
Mozilla co-exists well with other Internet programs, so uninstalling them is unnecessary.

Migrating from Netscape Communicator

If you have Netscape Communicator 4.5 or later installed, Mozilla automatically converts the
default profile (but except for address books) for use with Mozilla.
Note: converting Communicator profiles requires that Communicator is still installed on your
computer. If you have already uninstalled Communicator, reinstall it again so you can convert
your old profiles. After you have converted your old profiles, you can uninstall Communicator.
Importing address book
To import your address book from your Communicator profile, first export it in the LDIF format.
To do this:
1. Open Address Book in Communicator.
2. In Address Book, open the File menu and choose Export.
3. In the Export dialog, choose type LDIF (*.ldif) .
Type in an identifiable filename that will be used as the address books name upon
import.
Save the file.
4. Close Netscape Communicator.
To import the LDIF file to Mozilla, follow these steps:
1. In Mozilla, open the Windows menu and choose Address Book
2. In Address Book, open the Tools menu and choose Import... .
3. In the Import dialog, select Address Books and click Next.

4. Select Text file (LDIF, .tab, .csv, .txt) and click Next.
5. In the file picker dialog, choose the LDIF file you just exported.
6. You should now see the Address successfully imported from Text file message.
Converting additional profiles
To convert an additional Communicator profile for use with Mozilla, first open the Profile
Manager. If Mozilla is already running, open the Tools menu and choose Switch Profiles...;
otherwise:

On Windows, open the Start Menu, select Programs, select Mozilla, and choose Profile
Manager.
On Mac OS, hold down the Option key and open Mozilla from the Finder or the Dock.
On Linux, run the ./mozilla -profilemanager command.

In the Profile Manager dialog, select the profile you want to convert and click Use Profile. A
dialog will walk you through the conversion process.
To convert your address books, follow the instructions described in the previous section.
Deleting old profiles
Netscape Communicators uninstaller does not remove your old profiles. On Windows and
Linux, to remove your old profiles, delete the users sub-directory in Communicators original
install directory.

Migrating from Netscape 6 or 7

Your Netscape 6 or 7 profiles will be available to Mozilla. However, sharing profiles between
Netscape 6 or 7 and Mozilla can cause problems.
Mozilla automatically uses your Netscape profile unless you have multiple profiles, in which
case Mozilla prompts you to choose a profile. To avoid accidentally opening Mozilla with your
Netscape profile, create a new, extra profile using your Netscapes Profile Manager before
installing Mozilla.
It is worth repeating that you should not share profiles between Mozilla and Netscape 6 or 7.
AOL Mail and Netscape WebMail
You can use Mozilla's mail client to access AOL Mail. To set up your AOL account on Mozilla
Mail & Newsgroups, create a IMAP mail account, set the incoming server to imap.aol.com, and
set the outgoing server to smtp.aol.com. For accounts with AOL outside of U.S. and
CompuServe 2000, see http://members.aol.com/adamkb/aol/mailfaq/imap/#foreign for
server addresses. For instructions on how to set up an IMAP account, consult Mozilla's on-screen
Help.

Netscape 6 and 7 has Netscape WebMail integrated into its mail client. Mozilla does not have
such integration, but you can access Netscape WebMail via the Web at
http://webmail.netscape.com.

Importing user data from AOL

Mozilla cannot import data from AOL directly. To import mail saved on your computer (Filing
Cabinet) and addresses from AOL, you must use third-party utilities to export your data in
formats Mozilla can import. You may try the utilities listed in:
http://www.emailman.com/conversion/

(mozilla.org does not recommend or support any software listed on the Web page.)
For general instructions on importing mail and addresses, read Migrating from another mail
client.

Migrating from Microsoft Internet Explorer

Migrating from Microsoft Internet Explorer is easy. Mozilla automatically imports your Internet
Explorer Favorites. To access them, open the Bookmarks menu and select Imported IE Favorites.
Synchronizing your favorites and bookmarks manually
Mozilla automatically imports your favorites only once. If you have changed your favorites, you
can re-import your favorites manually.
First, you need to export your favorites in HTML format. On Mac OS,
1.
2.
3.
4.

Open Internet Explorer.

Open the Favorites menu and select Organize Favorites.
Open the File menu and select Export Favorites.
In the dialog that appears, save the file.

On Windows, to export your favorites,

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Open the File menu and select Import and Export.
3. Follow the instructions in the wizard that appears to save your favorites to a file.
To import your favorites to Mozilla,
1. Open Mozilla. In Mozilla Navigator, open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage
Bookmarks.
2. In the Bookmarks Manager, open the Tools menu and choose Import.
3. Open the HTML file you just saved in the file picker.

Migrating from Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express

To import your old mail settings, mail, and addresses:
1. Open Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups: open the Window menu and choose Mail &
Newsgroups.
2. In Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups, open the Tools menu and choose Import.
3. Following the instruction of the Import dialog.
Note: importing settings, mail, and addresses from Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express
requires that the program is still installed on your computer. You may uninstall Outlook or
Outlook Express afterwards.
Note: Mozilla does not support special characters (e.g. / and #) in mail folders. If you receive the
following error: Unable to import mailboxes, cannot create proxy object for destination
mailboxes, then open Outlook (or Outlook Express) and rename your folders. Then try importing
again.
Hotmail
Mozilla is not integrated with Hotmail, but you can access your Hotmail account via the Web:
http://www.hotmail.com

Migrating from Eudora

To import your old mail settings, mail, and addresses:
1. Open Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups: open the Window menu and choose Mail &
Newsgroups.
2. In Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups, open the Tools menu and choose Import.
3. Following the instruction of the Import dialog.
Note: Mozilla does not support special character (e.g. / and #) in mail folders. If you receive
Unable to import mailboxes, cannot create proxy object for destination mailboxes error, open
Eudora and rename your folders. Then try importing again.

Migrating from another browser

To import saved Internet links to Mozilla from a browser other than those mentioned above:
1.
2.
3.
4.

From your old browser, export the links as an HTML file

In Mozilla Navigator, open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
In the Bookmarks Manager, open the Tools menu and choose Import.
Open the HTML file you just saved in the file picker.

You can now access the links from the Bookmarks menu.

Migrating from another mail client

To import mail from a mail client other than those mentioned above:
1. From your old mail client, export your mail in standard Unix mail box (.mbx) format.
After the file is saved, remove the file extension if there is any; for example, if the
filename is oldmail.mbx, change it to oldmail .
The filename of the exported file must not have any special character such as / or #.
2. Close Mozilla if you have it running.
3. Copy the mail box file to the mail/Local Folders directory in your profile directory
(see XXX).
Your old mail should now be accessible from your Local Folders account in Mozilla Mail &
Newsgroups.
To import mail addresses:
1. From your old mail client, export your address in LDIF format.
2. Open Mozilla.
Open the Windows menu and choose Address Book
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

In Mozilla Address Book, open the Tools menu and choose Import... .
In the Import dialog, select Address Books and click Next.
Select Text file (LDIF, .tab, .csv, .txt) and click Next.
In the file picker dialog, choose the LDIF file you just exported.
You should now see the Address successfully imported from Text file message.

Installation troubleshooting
This section provides troubleshooting tips to frequently encountered problems during
installation. Not all known problems are listed here. For additional help please read the release
notes for your Mozilla version.
I cannot install Mozilla on Mac OS X
Make sure that extensions are not turned off. The QuickTime extension must be on.
I cannot uncheck optional components during installation
If you are installing to a directory where another version of Mozilla was already installed,
then every component you have installed becomes a required component. To remove
optional component such as Chatzilla, uninstall first and then install again.

I receive error Unable to import mailboxes, cannot create proxy object for destination mailboxes
when importing mail
Mozilla does not support special character (e.g. / and #) in mail folders. If you receive the
error, open your mail client and rename your folders. Then try importing again.
Address Book Palm Sync not installed correctly
1. Download the following registry file to your hard drive:
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mozilla/contrib/palm/AddPa
lmABSyncRegistryKey.reg

2. If your Palm software is not installed in C:\Palm, then open the file with a text
editor to set the proper path. Note that the path you specify is within " " and for
each directory separator use two \\ for each \.
3. Now go to Windows explorer and double click on this file. This should display a
message saying Information in this file has been successfully entered into the
registry.
4. Redo the Address Book Palm Sync Install to enable Mozilla Address Book Palm
Sync.