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Java Desktop System Release 3 for the Solaris 10 Operating System Release Notes

Chapter 1 Java Desktop System Release 3 Release Notes

These release notes provide information about the following releases:

1.1 Product Features

The Java Desktop System includes the following features:

Built from open source

The source code for almost all of the software included with the Java Desktop System is freely available.

Software development tools

Advanced tools to assist developers in creating Java-technology based applications are included.

Productivity applications

A complete office suite is included that provides a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing tool, and database design tool. Applications for instant messaging, web browsing, and email and calendar management are also included.

1.2 What's New in This Release

This release of the Java Desktop System on the Solaris 10 OS combines innovations from the open source software community and from Sun Microsystems to create a comprehensive, integrated, and interoperable desktop environment. The following table describes improvements and enhancements in this release of the Java Desktop System.

Function 

Description 

Mobility 

  • Improved profile management for roaming web browser profiles.

Interoperability 

  • An Exchange connector allows the Email and Calendar application to interoperate with a Microsoft Exchange network.

  • Browser features that improve compatibility with non-standard browsers such as nternet Explorer.

  • Samba 3.0 provides better interoperability with Windows file shares.

New Accessibility Applications 

  • Screen reader and screen magnifier

  • On-Screen Keyboard

See the Java Desktop System Release 3 Accessibility Guide and the Java Desktop System Release 3 Accessibility Release Notes for more details.

Internationalization 

  • Simplified Chinese SunPinYin input method.

  • New File System Examiner to help users migrate from legacy environments to UTF–8 character encoding.

General Improvements 

  • All of the major components of the Java Desktop System, GNOME, Email and Calendar, Mozilla and Gaim have been updated.

  • StarOffice 7 includes Product Patch 4.

  • The framework for Smartcard integration via industry standard PC/SC API is included.

1.3 Known Issues

The following table describes known issues in this release of the Java Desktop System for which there are no workarounds at the time of product release.

Topic 

Known Issue 

Applications 

  • Change Request Number: 6200999

    Mozilla: You can specify that User Preferences should be transferred to and from the Roaming Access server. Choose Edit -> Preferences -> Roaming User -> Item Selection then choose User Preferences. However this selection does not take effect.

  • Change Request Number: 6204976

    Email and Calendar: The Evolution application cannot save attachments with localized content.

  • Change Request Number: 5082008

    Archive Manager: You cannot use Archive Manager to create the following types of archives:

    • .arj

    • .lha

    • .bzip

    • .lzop

    • .zoo

  • Volume Control

    The option in the Volume Control panel application that enables you to start the Volume Control desktop applications does not work.

  • Change Request Number: 6245563

    Problems using Keyboard Indicator

    Avoid using Keyboard Indicator. It can make the keyboard unusable when you switch between X servers. This panel application will be removed from future releases of the Java Desktop system.

Topic 

Known Issue 

Applications Continued 

  • Change Request Number: 6233643

    Problems using the View as Catalog and View as Image Collection options in File Manager.

    File Manager might crash or you might encounter the following error messages:

    • The application 'nautilus' has quit unexpectedly

    • The Catalog view encountered an error while starting up

    • The Image Collection view encountered an error while starting up

    Restart File Manager or click the Restart Application button from the crash dialog if these problems occur.

  • Change Request Number: 6253210

    If you try to open online help for Volume Control in Yelp, the help for the Keyboard Accessibility panel application is opened.

  • Sound Recorder

    The slide bar and the side counter do not working when recording a new.wav file.

Localization 

You cannot print out documents from Mozilla containing non-BMP Unicode characters. 

1.4 Differences From the Previous Release

This release of the Java Desktop System on the Solaris 10 OS is based on the GNOME 2.6 Desktop. The following components are no longer included in this release of the Java Desktop System:

If you need any of these components, contact the GNOME community. See http://gnome.org

1.5 Where To Find Documentation

You can view PDF and HTML versions of the documentation for the Java Desktop Systemon http://docs.sun.com.

1.5.1 Accessing Localized Versions of User Documentation

Some localized versions of the Java Desktop System user documentation do not display in the Help browser.

Perform the following steps to view the localized versions of the user documentation on http://docs.sun.com:

  1. Open the following page:

    http://docs.sun.com

  2. Select the language that you require from the language selection buttons.

    The language selection buttons are located next to the Search/browse within area of the page.

  3. Enter the name of the manual that you want in the Search field.

  4. Choose the manual that you want from the list displayed.

1.5.2 Documentation for Sample Applications

This release of the Java Desktop System includes sample applications that have Help manuals provided by the GNOME free software community. Sun Microsystems does not take any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of Help manuals provided by the free software community.

Sun provides approximately 130 man pages related to applications and functionality. If Sun Microsystems, or an agent of Sun Microsystems, is not specifically credited as the author of a man page, Sun Microsystems takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the document.

Sun Microsystems does not provide localized versions of documentation for sample applications.

1.5.3 Information About Removable Media

For information about removable media, refer to the Java Desktop System Release 3 User Guide on http://docs.sun.com.

1.6 Sample Applications for Evaluation

Sun Microsystems provides a variety of sample applications with the Java Desktop System for you to review and evaluate. The sample applications are from the GNOME free software community or from third-party suppliers. Sun Microsystems does not provide any of the following services with sample applications:

1.6.1 Sample Applications

The following table lists the applications from the GNOME free software community that Sun Microsystems provides as sample applications.

Application 

Description 

Calendar Client

Calendar application 

Diagram Editor

Diagram editor that enables you to create flow charts, maps, UML diagrams, and many other diagrams. 

Dictionary

Online dictionary that enables you to look up definitions and correct spellings of words. 

Digital Camera Browser

Digital camera browser that enables you to manage images. 

Disk Analyzer

Disk analyzer that enables you to visualize your disk. 

Image Editor

GNU Image Manipulation Program that enables you to edit images. 

Image Organizer

Image viewer and browser that displays thumbnails of images on your desktop. 

Interface Editor

Programming application that enables you to create user interfaces for GNOME applications. 

Movie Player

Multimedia player that enables you to play motion pictures. 

On-screen Keyboard 

Provides an on-screen keyboard that you can use as an input device for the Java Desktop System. 

Project Manager

Project management and scheduling tool. 

Screen Magnifier 

Provides screen magnification and several other accessibility features. 

Source Editor

General purpose extensible editor for programmers. 

Weather Report

Displays current weather conditions for different regions. 

1.6.2 Third-Party Applications

The following table describes third-party products in this release of the Java Desktop System. Sun Microsystems does not take any responsibility for the functionality, features, or any other form of support for these applications.

Third Party Products 

Description 

Platform 

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Enables you to view PDF documents on the Java Desktop System. You can find information about this application at the following location: http://www.adobe.com. 

SPARC 

The GNOME PDF Document Viewer is available on the x86 platform to view PDF documents. To start PDF Document Viewer, click Launch, then choose Applications -> Graphics -> PDF Document Viewer.

1.6.3 Sample Games

Sun Microsystems provides the following sample games for evaluation only:

1.7 Plugins for Mozilla 1.7

This section contains information about plugins for Mozilla 1.7.

1.7.1 Java Plugin

Java Plugin is enabled in Mozilla 1.7 by default. If Java Plugin does not work, then create a symbolic link in the /usr/sfw/lib/mozilla/plugins directory, pointing to the appropriate file shown in the following table:

Platform 

Path 

SPARC 

$JAVA_PATH/plugin/sparc/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

x86 

$JAVA_PATH/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

In the Java Desktop System Release 3, $JAVA_PATH is /usr/java/jre.

Note –

Do not copy the libjavaplugin_oji.so file instead of creating a symbolic link. A copy of the file causes Java to crash.

Install all Java plugins in the /usr/sfw/lib/mozilla/plugins directory.

1.7.2 Other Plugins

The Adobe Acrobat Reader third-party plugin is also available for Mozilla 1.7:

For more installation information about Mozilla plugins, see the following location: http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/solaris.html

1.8 Localization Support

The supported languages for this release of the Java Desktop System are as follows:

Note –

This release of the Java Desktop System includes some localizations that are taken from the GNOME community. Sun Microsystems does not take any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of these localizations.

1.9 Recommended Locales

Sun Microsystems recommends that you use the UTF-8 and the zh_CN.GB18030 locales even though other legacy locales are listed in the login screen. When you manually switch from the default login screen to the GNOME 2.x Display Manager, only the UTF-8 and zh_CN.GB18030 locales are available. If you want to add the legacy locales on your GNOME 2.x Display Manager login screen, remove the comment tags surrounding the entries for the locales in /etc/X11/gdm/locale.alias file and then reboot your system.

1.10 Migration To Unicode Multilingual Computing

The Java Desktop System is a fully Unicode-enabled, multilingual system that supports languages with Unicode UTF-8 encoding. The Java Desktop System also provides codeset conversion to support legacy (non-UTF-8) encodings. This section describes issues you might encounter when you migrate to Unicode multilingual computing.

1.10.1 Importing And Exporting Data

There are a number of methods of importing and exporting data that are affected by the migration to Unicode multilingual computing.

1.10.1.1 Microsoft Office Files

Microsoft Office files are encoded in Unicode. StarOffice applications can read and write the Unicode encoded files.

1.10.1.2 HTML Files

HTML files authored using HTML editors such as Mozilla Composer, or HTML files saved by a web browser, usually contain a charset encoding tag. After exporting or importing, you can browse such HTML files with the Mozilla Navigator web browser, or edit the files with Mozilla Composer, according to the encoding tag in the HTML file.

1.10.1.3 Fixing Broken HTML Files

Some HTML files might be displayed in garbage characters. This problem is typically due to the following reasons:

To find the charset encoding tag in the HTML file, perform the following actions:

  1. Open the file with Mozilla.

  2. Press Ctrl+i, or click View to open the View menu.

  3. Click on Page Info.

The charset information is in the bottom of the General tab, for example: Content-Type text/html; charset=us-ascii

If the string charset=us-ascii does not match with the actual encoding of the file, the file might appear as broken. To edit the encodings of the HTML file, perform the following actions:

  1. Open the file with Mozilla Composer.

  2. Open the File menu.

  3. Select Save As Charset.

  4. Choose the correct encoding. Mozilla Compose automatically converts the encoding and the charset tag as appropriate.

1.10.1.4 Emails Saved As Portable Format

Modern emails are tagged with the MIME charset tag. The Email and Calendar application accepts MIME charset tags. You do not need to perform any encoding conversion.

1.10.1.5 Plain Text Files

Plain text files do not have a charset tag. If the files are not in UTF-8 encoding, encoding conversion is needed. For example, to convert a plain text file encoded in Traditional Chinese big5 to UTF-8, execute the following command:

iconv -f big5 -t UTF-8 inputfilename > outputfilename

You can also use File System Examiner for the encoding conversion.

You can use Text Editor to read and write character encoding text automatically or by specifying an encoding explicitly when opening or saving a file.

To start Text Editor, click Launch, then choose Applications -> Accessories -> Text Editor.

1.10.1.6 File Names and Directory Names

If file names and directory names using multibyte characters are not in UTF-8 encoding, encoding conversion is needed. You can use File System Examiner to convert file and directory names and the contents of plain text files from legacy character encodings to UTF-8 encoding. Refer to the online Help for File System Examiner for more information.

To start File System Examiner, click Launch, then choose Applications -> Utilities -> File System Examiner.

When you access non-UTF-8 file or directory names on Microsoft Windows via SMB using File Manager, you can access the non-UTF-8 file or directory names without encoding conversion.

1.10.1.7 Launching Legacy Locale Applications

For applications that are not ready to migrate to Unicode UTF-8, you can create a launcher on a front panel to start the application in legacy locales. You can also launch the applications directly from the command line. Perform the following steps to create a launcher for an application:

  1. Right-click on the panel where you want to place the launcher.

  2. Choose Add to Panel -> Launcher.

  3. Use the following format to type the entry in the Command field in the Create Launcher dialog:

    env LANG=locale LC_ALL=locale application name

    For example, if you want to launch an application called motif-app from /usr/dt/bin in the Chinese Big5 locale, enter the following text in the Command field of the Create Launcher:

    env LANG=zh_TW.BIG5 LC_ALL=zh_TW.BIG5 /usr/dt/bin/motif-app

    You may also need to specify appropriate LD_LIBRARY_PATH for the application

  4. Click OK to create the launcher on the panel.

When you need to run CLI (command line interface) applications which are specific to a legacy locale, open a Terminal window in the legacy locale first and then run the CLI applications in the same Terminal terminal window. To open a Terminal window in a legacy locale, enter the following command:

env LANG=locale LC_ALL=locale gnome-terminal --disable-factory.

Instead of opening a new Terminal window in a legacy locale, you can switch the locale setting from UTF-8 to a legacy locale in the current Terminal window by changing the encoding the Set Character Encoding menu in the Terminal window. Then you must also set the LANG and LANG environment variables to the current shell.

1.11 Support in Future Releases