I need a "from scratch" installation of the latest SeaMonkey.
My primary machine has SeaMonkey 2.49.4 .

I was going put new SeaMonkey on my secondary machine.
But, it just had a fatal hardware failure.

Is there some way I can co-install the latest version on my primary machine?

I vaguely recall having done it years ago but have forgotten details.

Help please.
TIA

On 09/12/2023 12:35 PM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> I need a "from scratch" installation of the latest SeaMonkey.
> My primary machine has SeaMonkey 2.49.4 .
>
> I was going put new SeaMonkey on my secondary machine.
> But, it just had a fatal hardware failure.
>
> Is there some way I can co-install the latest version on my primary
> machine?
>
> I vaguely recall having done it years ago but have forgotten details.
>
> Help please.
> TIA
>

Priority of request just went down, but still want to know if feasible.
Discovered my primary machine was running i386 Debian.
TERTIARY backup has amd64.
Murphy lives.
TIA

Richard Owlett wrote:
> I need a "from scratch" installation of the latest SeaMonkey.
> My primary machine has SeaMonkey 2.49.4 .
>
> I was going put new SeaMonkey on my secondary machine.
> But, it just had a fatal hardware failure.
>
> Is there some way I can co-install the latest version on my primary
> machine?

I have done this before -- it's a useful way of watching what's
happening with pre-release versions, but where I'm still using the
current version as my daily driver.

Two things that you have to account for: one is in installing the second
version to a different folder. The other is in making sure you have a
separate profile for the second version.

I'm currently running Seamonkey 2.53.17, and the normal installation
location for that in Windows is C:\Program Files\SeaMonkey . If I want
to install a beta version (say 2.53.18), then I make sure that I use the
Custom options in the installer to install in a different location. I
normally use C:\Program Files\SeaMonkey-Beta.

At that point, I have two Seamonkey installations, and it's necessary to
make sure that I have desktop shortcuts to each one. Generally, what I
do is to use the Windows Explorer to find the seamonkey.exe binary for
each version and then drag a shortcut to my desktop, and make sure that
each shortcut is appropriately labeled -- something like "Seamonkey
Current" and "Seamonkey Beta".

From there, it's essential to make sure you have different profiles for
each version. As with Firefox and Thunderbird, Seamonkey is not
backward-compatible, and if you interact with a profile with a newer
version, then interacting with that profile with an older version risks
data loss. The stuff that's vulnerable is data in the various SQLite
files. For Seamonkey, that would be the bookmarks, cookies and history
in your browser, and in the mail client, your contacts list, message
handling filters, and for both, things like saved login credentials,
certificates and possibly some of your extensions.

The way I go about that is:

- Seamonkey with the Profiles Manager active (seamonkey.exe -P)
- Create a new profile, and give it an identifiable name, e.g., "beta"
- Tick the box that causes Seamonkey to always start with the Profile
Manager Enabled
- Quit Seamonkey
- Use the Windows Explorer to get to your profiles. The location you
want is %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Seamonkey\Profiles.
- Copy the contents of the Default profile folder to the Beta profile
folder.

(Using the Profile Manager this way means that I don't have to do any
editing of the profiles.ini file)

At this point, when you start up Seamonkey, use the Profile Manager to
select the appropriate profile for the version of Seamonkey.

You can also take this a step further with your desktop shortcuts. For
each shortcut, you can specify the profile you want, e.g.,

C:\Program Files\SeaMonkey\Seamonkey.exe -p [salt].Default
C:\Program Files\SeaMonkey-Beta\Seamonkey.exe -p [salt].beta

(where [salt] is the 8-character random string that's part of the name
of the profile).

That way, you don't have to go through the Profile Manager, and you
don't have to remember to choose the correct profile.

I believe I have the syntax correct for specifying profile name, that
is, using names that are defined in the profiles.ini file, rather than
having to use the full path to the profile. But I'm working from memory.

For you, one more consideration is that I know from previous interaction
with you, you use POP, and prefer to delete mail from the server after
it's downloaded. For this kind of thing, I recommend against doing
this. It's OK to keep POP, but you're hitting the same account on the
same server with different POP profiles, you risk significant disruption
to your mail, where any live mail that is viewed by the test profile
will not be seen by your primary profile. And if your primary profile
clears all the inbound mail before you use the test profile, then the
test profile won't have any mail to view.

Thus, I strongly recommend that you adjust the retention settings for
both profiles to leave mail on the server for a while. How long you do
that depends on your preferences and sensitivities, you may be able to
do things for something like 3 days, but you need to make sure that both
profiles are able to access the same content in the inbox for at least a
time. Otherwise you should not try this exercise with anything other
than a test account, and do not allow your test installation to touch an
account that handles live mail.

Smith

On 09/12/2023 04:36 PM, NFN Smith wrote:
> Richard Owlett wrote:
>> I need a "from scratch" installation of the latest SeaMonkey.
>> My primary machine has SeaMonkey 2.49.4 .
>>
>> I was going put new SeaMonkey on my secondary machine.
>> But, it just had a fatal hardware failure.
>>
>> Is there some way I can co-install the latest version on my primary
>> machine?
>
> I have done this before -- it's a useful way of watching what's
> happening with pre-release versions, but where I'm still using the
> current version as my daily driver.
>
> Two things that you have to account for: one is in installing the second
> version to a different folder.  The other is in making sure you have a
> separate profile for the second version.

That is pretty much what I thought I had done.
The only difference in the rest of your post should only be due to my OS
being Debian.

>
> I'm currently running Seamonkey 2.53.17, and the normal installation
> location for that in Windows is C:\Program Files\SeaMonkey .  If I want
> to install a beta version (say 2.53.18), then I make sure that I use the
> Custom options in the installer to install in a different location.  I
> normally use C:\Program Files\SeaMonkey-Beta.
>
> At that point, I have two Seamonkey installations, and it's necessary to
> make sure that I have desktop shortcuts to each one.  Generally, what I
> do is to use the Windows Explorer to find the seamonkey.exe binary for
> each version and then drag a shortcut to my desktop, and make sure that
> each shortcut is appropriately labeled -- something like "Seamonkey
> Current" and "Seamonkey Beta".
>
> From there, it's essential to make sure you have different profiles for
> each version.  As with Firefox and Thunderbird, Seamonkey is not
> backward-compatible, and if you interact with a profile with a newer
> version, then interacting with that profile with an older version risks
> data loss. The stuff that's vulnerable is data in the various SQLite
> files.  For Seamonkey, that would be the bookmarks, cookies and history
> in your browser, and in the mail client, your contacts list, message
> handling filters, and for both, things like saved login credentials,
> certificates and possibly some of your extensions.
>
> The way I go about that is:
>
> - Seamonkey with the Profiles Manager active (seamonkey.exe -P)
> - Create a new profile, and give it an identifiable name, e.g., "beta"
> - Tick the box that causes Seamonkey to always start with the Profile
> Manager Enabled
> - Quit Seamonkey
> - Use the Windows Explorer to get to your profiles.  The location you
> want is %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Seamonkey\Profiles.
> - Copy the contents of the Default profile folder to the Beta profile
> folder.
>
> (Using the Profile Manager this way means that I don't have to do any
> editing of the profiles.ini file)
>
> At this point, when you start up Seamonkey, use the Profile Manager to
> select the appropriate profile for the version of Seamonkey.
>
> You can also take this a step further with your desktop shortcuts.  For
> each shortcut, you can specify the profile you want, e.g.,
>
>   C:\Program Files\SeaMonkey\Seamonkey.exe -p [salt].Default
>   C:\Program Files\SeaMonkey-Beta\Seamonkey.exe -p [salt].beta
>
> (where [salt] is the 8-character random string that's part of the name
> of the profile).
>
> That way, you don't have to go through the Profile Manager, and you
> don't have to remember to choose the correct profile.
>
> I believe I have the syntax correct for specifying profile name, that
> is, using names that are defined in the profiles.ini file, rather than
> having to use the full path to the profile.  But I'm working from memory.
>
> For you, one more consideration is that I know from previous interaction
> with you, you use POP, and prefer to delete mail from the server after
> it's downloaded.  For this kind of thing, I recommend against doing
> this.  It's OK to keep POP, but you're hitting the same account on the
> same server with different POP profiles, you risk significant disruption
> to your mail, where any live mail that is viewed by the test profile
> will not be seen by your primary profile.  And if your primary profile
> clears all the inbound mail before you use the test profile, then the
> test profile won't have any mail to view.
>
> Thus, I strongly recommend that you adjust the retention settings for
> both profiles to leave mail on the server for a while.  How long you do
> that depends on your preferences and sensitivities, you may be able to
> do things for something like 3 days, but you need to make sure that both
> profiles are able to access the same content in the inbox for at least a
> time.  Otherwise you should not try this exercise with anything other
> than a test account, and do not allow your test installation to touch an
> account that handles live mail.
>
> Smith
>
>

Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 09/12/2023 04:36 PM, NFN Smith wrote:
>> Richard Owlett wrote:

>>
>> Two things that you have to account for: one is in installing the
>> second version to a different folder.  The other is in making sure you
>> have a separate profile for the second version.
>
> That is pretty much what I thought I had done.
> The only difference in the rest of your post should only be due to my OS
> being Debian.

Right. I missed that you're a Linux user.

For that, the default install location is /usr/bin, and your profile
location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey.

Smith

On 09/13/2023 10:51 AM, NFN Smith wrote:
> Richard Owlett wrote:
>> On 09/12/2023 04:36 PM, NFN Smith wrote:
>>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>
>>>
>>> Two things that you have to account for: one is in installing the
>>> second version to a different folder.  The other is in making sure
>>> you have a separate profile for the second version.
>>
>> That is pretty much what I thought I had done.
>> The only difference in the rest of your post should only be due to my
>> OS being Debian.
>
> Right.  I missed that you're a Linux user.
>
> For that, the default install location is /usr/bin, and your profile
> location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey.
>
> Smith

Unfortunately, for some fine details of _my_ goal, "your profile
location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey" is true for both SeaMonkey version
2.49.4 (what's on this machine) and current release version 2.53.17 .

My sticky wicket is that the Profile Manager window for both will
display the *IDENTICAL* selection of profiles. For my situation even the
*possibility* of opening a profile with an incompatible SeaMonkey
version must be absolutely prevented. Right now that requirement is met
by using two physically separate machine. [my tests when resolving my
problems using were done on a secondary machine with version 2.53.17]

Now I need to research how to:
1. duplicate the folder structure under the profile associated with
my former email provider on current machine to the profile
associated with my new provider on the SeaMonkey 2.53.17 system.
2. import the mail tagging rules.
3. import the mail filtering rules.
4. import my bookmarks while hopefully improving its structure.

Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 09/13/2023 10:51 AM, NFN Smith wrote:
>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>> On 09/12/2023 04:36 PM, NFN Smith wrote:
>>>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>>> Two things that you have to account for: one is in installing the second
>>>> version to a different folder.  The other is in making sure you have a
>>>> separate profile for the second version.
>>>
>>> That is pretty much what I thought I had done.
>>> The only difference in the rest of your post should only be due to my OS
>>> being Debian.
>>
>> Right.  I missed that you're a Linux user.
>>
>> For that, the default install location is /usr/bin, and your profile
>> location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey.
>>
>> Smith
>
> Unfortunately, for some fine details of _my_ goal, "your profile location is
> $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey" is true for both SeaMonkey version 2.49.4 (what's on
> this machine) and current release version 2.53.17 .
>
> My sticky wicket is that the Profile Manager window for both will display the
> *IDENTICAL* selection of profiles. For my situation even the *possibility* of
> opening a profile with an incompatible SeaMonkey version must be absolutely
> prevented. Right now that requirement is met by using two physically separate
> machine. [my tests when resolving my problems using were done on a secondary
> machine with version 2.53.17]
>
> Now I need to research how to:
>    1. duplicate the folder structure under the profile associated with
>       my former email provider on current machine to the profile
>       associated with my new provider on the SeaMonkey 2.53.17 system.
>    2. import the mail tagging rules.
>    3. import the mail filtering rules.
>    4. import my bookmarks while hopefully improving its structure.
>
>
>

The only safe and conveniant way is to tuck SeaMonkey into a virtual machine.
The profile manager and OS specific code was never designed to handle
different versions.

FRG

On 09/16/2023 07:02 AM, frg wrote:
> Richard Owlett wrote:
>> On 09/13/2023 10:51 AM, NFN Smith wrote:
>>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>>> On 09/12/2023 04:36 PM, NFN Smith wrote:
>>>>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Two things that you have to account for: one is in installing the
>>>>> second version to a different folder.  The other is in making sure
>>>>> you have a separate profile for the second version.
>>>>
>>>> That is pretty much what I thought I had done.
>>>> The only difference in the rest of your post should only be due to
>>>> my OS being Debian.
>>>
>>> Right.  I missed that you're a Linux user.
>>>
>>> For that, the default install location is /usr/bin, and your profile
>>> location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey.
>>>
>>> Smith
>>
>> Unfortunately, for some fine details of _my_ goal, "your profile
>> location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey" is true for both SeaMonkey
>> version 2.49.4 (what's on this machine) and current release version
>> 2.53.17 .
>>
>> My sticky wicket is that the Profile Manager window for both will
>> display the *IDENTICAL* selection of profiles. For my situation even
>> the *possibility* of opening a profile with an incompatible SeaMonkey
>> version must be absolutely prevented. Right now that requirement is
>> met by using two physically separate machine. [my tests when resolving
>> my problems using were done on a secondary machine with version 2.53.17]
>>
>> Now I need to research how to:
>>     1. duplicate the folder structure under the profile associated with
>>        my former email provider on current machine to the profile
>>        associated with my new provider on the SeaMonkey 2.53.17 system.
>>     2. import the mail tagging rules.
>>     3. import the mail filtering rules.
>>     4. import my bookmarks while hopefully improving its structure.
>>
>>
>>
>
> The only safe and conveniant way is to tuck SeaMonkey into a virtual
> machine. The profile manager and OS specific code was never designed to
> handle different versions.
>
> FRG

Thank you, I hadn't considered a virtual machine as for years I've
always had spare laptops handy for my experiments. I had worked out my
panix.com connection issues on a separate physical machine with a
current OS and SeaMonkey 2.53.17 .

frg wrote on 16/9/23 10:02 pm:
> Richard Owlett wrote:
>> On 09/13/2023 10:51 AM, NFN Smith wrote:
>>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>>> On 09/12/2023 04:36 PM, NFN Smith wrote:
>>>>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Two things that you have to account for: one is in installing the
>>>>> second version to a different folder.  The other is in making sure
>>>>> you have a separate profile for the second version.
>>>>
>>>> That is pretty much what I thought I had done.
>>>> The only difference in the rest of your post should only be due to
>>>> my OS being Debian.
>>>
>>> Right.  I missed that you're a Linux user.
>>>
>>> For that, the default install location is /usr/bin, and your profile
>>> location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey.
>>>
>>> Smith
>>
>> Unfortunately, for some fine details of _my_ goal, "your profile
>> location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey" is true for both SeaMonkey
>> version 2.49.4 (what's on this machine) and current release version
>> 2.53.17 .
>>
>> My sticky wicket is that the Profile Manager window for both will
>> display the *IDENTICAL* selection of profiles. For my situation even
>> the *possibility* of opening a profile with an incompatible SeaMonkey
>> version must be absolutely prevented. Right now that requirement is
>> met by using two physically separate machine. [my tests when resolving
>> my problems using were done on a secondary machine with version 2.53.17]
>>
>> Now I need to research how to:
>>     1. duplicate the folder structure under the profile associated with
>>        my former email provider on current machine to the profile
>>        associated with my new provider on the SeaMonkey 2.53.17 system.
>>     2. import the mail tagging rules.
>>     3. import the mail filtering rules.
>>     4. import my bookmarks while hopefully improving its structure.
>
> The only safe and conveniant way is to tuck SeaMonkey into a virtual
> machine. The profile manager and OS specific code was never designed to
> handle different versions.
>
> FRG

FRG, if Richard were to use two separate Desktop Icons, rather than the
Profile Manager, would he be safer??

That is as part of the Installation process, does SeaMonkey go looking
for any and all previously set-up Profiles or can the newer version of
SM be installed AND the new Profile set up so that that is the ONLY
profile that version knows about??

(Thanks to the Version Update process, it's been yonks since I've
installed from scratch!!
--
Daniel

On 09/17/2023 06:04 AM, Daniel65 wrote:
> frg wrote on 16/9/23 10:02 pm:
>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>> On 09/13/2023 10:51 AM, NFN Smith wrote:
>>>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>>>> On 09/12/2023 04:36 PM, NFN Smith wrote:
>>>>>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Two things that you have to account for: one is in installing the
>>>>>> second version to a different folder.  The other is in making sure
>>>>>> you have a separate profile for the second version.
>>>>>
>>>>> That is pretty much what I thought I had done.
>>>>> The only difference in the rest of your post should only be due to
>>>>> my OS being Debian.
>>>>
>>>> Right.  I missed that you're a Linux user.
>>>>
>>>> For that, the default install location is /usr/bin, and your profile
>>>> location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey.
>>>>
>>>> Smith
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, for some fine details of _my_ goal, "your profile
>>> location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey" is true for both SeaMonkey
>>> version 2.49.4 (what's on this machine) and current release version
>>> 2.53.17 .
>>>
>>> My sticky wicket is that the Profile Manager window for both will
>>> display the *IDENTICAL* selection of profiles. For my situation even
>>> the *possibility* of opening a profile with an incompatible SeaMonkey
>>> version must be absolutely prevented. Right now that requirement is
>>> met by using two physically separate machine. [my tests when
>>> resolving my problems using were done on a secondary machine with
>>> version 2.53.17]
>>>
>>> Now I need to research how to:
>>>     1. duplicate the folder structure under the profile associated with
>>>        my former email provider on current machine to the profile
>>>        associated with my new provider on the SeaMonkey 2.53.17 system.
>>>     2. import the mail tagging rules.
>>>     3. import the mail filtering rules.
>>>     4. import my bookmarks while hopefully improving its structure.
>>
>> The only safe and conveniant way is to tuck SeaMonkey into a virtual
>> machine. The profile manager and OS specific code was never designed
>> to handle different versions.
>>
>> FRG
>
> FRG, if Richard were to use two separate Desktop Icons, rather than the
> Profile Manager, would he be safer??

That's a good description of what I tried.
I created a new directory and extracted SeaMonkey's TAR file to it.
My OS is Debian 9.13 with MATE as desktop.
I have two launcher icons on the Panel with command:
1. for original SeaMonkey being
"/home/richard/Downloads/seamonkeydown/seamonkey/seamonkey -p"
2. for new SeaMonkey being
"/new-seamonkey/seamonkey/seamonkey -p"

Clicking either gives the same selection of profiles :{

>
> That is as part of the Installation process, does SeaMonkey go looking
> for any and all previously set-up Profiles or can the newer version of
> SM be installed AND the new Profile set up so that that is the ONLY
> profile that version knows about??
>
> (Thanks to the Version Update process, it's been yonks since I've
> installed from scratch!!

Richard Owlett wrote on 17/9/23 9:36 pm:
> On 09/17/2023 06:04 AM, Daniel65 wrote:
>> frg wrote on 16/9/23 10:02 pm:
>>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>>> On 09/13/2023 10:51 AM, NFN Smith wrote:
>>>>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>>>>> On 09/12/2023 04:36 PM, NFN Smith wrote:
>>>>>>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Two things that you have to account for: one is in
>>>>>>> installing the second version to a different folder. The
>>>>>>> other is in making sure you have a separate profile for
>>>>>>> the second version.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That is pretty much what I thought I had done. The only
>>>>>> difference in the rest of your post should only be due to
>>>>>> my OS being Debian.
>>>>>
>>>>> Right. I missed that you're a Linux user.
>>>>>
>>>>> For that, the default install location is /usr/bin, and your
>>>>> profile location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey.
>>>>>
>>>>> Smith
>>>>
>>>> Unfortunately, for some fine details of _my_ goal, "your
>>>> profile location is $HOME/.mozilla/seamonkey" is true for both
>>>> SeaMonkey version 2.49.4 (what's on this machine) and current
>>>> release version 2.53.17 .
>>>>
>>>> My sticky wicket is that the Profile Manager window for both
>>>> will display the *IDENTICAL* selection of profiles. For my
>>>> situation even the *possibility* of opening a profile with an
>>>> incompatible SeaMonkey version must be absolutely prevented.
>>>> Right now that requirement is met by using two physically
>>>> separate machine. [my tests when resolving my problems using
>>>> were done on a secondary machine with version 2.53.17]
>>>>
>>>> Now I need to research how to: 1. duplicate the folder
>>>> structure under the profile associated with my former email
>>>> provider on current machine to the profile associated with my
>>>> new provider on the SeaMonkey 2.53.17 system. 2. import the
>>>> mail tagging rules. 3. import the mail filtering rules. 4.
>>>> import my bookmarks while hopefully improving its structure.
>>>
>>> The only safe and conveniant way is to tuck SeaMonkey into a
>>> virtual machine. The profile manager and OS specific code was
>>> never designed to handle different versions.
>>>
>>> FRG
>>
>> FRG, if Richard were to use two separate Desktop Icons, rather than
>> the Profile Manager, would he be safer??
>
> That's a good description of what I tried. I created a new directory
> and extracted SeaMonkey's TAR file to it. My OS is Debian 9.13 with
> MATE as desktop. I have two launcher icons on the Panel with
> command: 1. for original SeaMonkey being
> "/home/richard/Downloads/seamonkeydown/seamonkey/seamonkey -p" 2. for
> new SeaMonkey being "/new-seamonkey/seamonkey/seamonkey -p"
>
> Clicking either gives the same selection of profiles :{

Ah, well that seems to answer my other question below!! ;-(

>> That is as part of the Installation process, does SeaMonkey go
>> looking for any and all previously set-up Profiles or can the newer
>> version of SM be installed AND the new Profile set up so that that
>> is the ONLY profile that version knows about??
>>
>> (Thanks to the Version Update process, it's been yonks since I've
>> installed from scratch!!

--
Daniel

Daniel65 wrote, on 17 Sep 23 09:06:

[snip]

> Ah, well that seems to answer my other question below!! ;-( > >>> That is as part of the Installation process, does SeaMonkey go>>>
looking for any and all previously set-up Profiles or can the newer>>>
version of SM be installed AND the new Profile set up so that that>>> is
the ONLY profile that version knows about??
But might it be possible, after installing both versions (and before
starting to use them) to manually edit-out selected 'bits of knowledge'
from each version's files so they would no longer 'know' about that
'other version'? If that 'knowldge acquisition' happens at installation
only, and isn't re-done every time (or periodically), then it might work...

--
Best,

s) alexyu

alexyu wrote on 18/9/23 12:47 am:
> Daniel65 wrote, on 17 Sep 23 09:06:
>
> [snip]
>
>> Ah, well that seems to answer my other question below!! ;-(

>>> That is as part of the Installation process, does SeaMonkey go
>>> looking for any and all previously set-up Profiles or can the
>>> newer version of SM be installed AND the new Profile set up so
>>> that that is the ONLY profile that version knows about??

> But might it be possible, after installing both versions (and before
> starting to use them) to manually edit-out selected 'bits of
> knowledge' from each version's files so they would no longer 'know'
> about that 'other version'? If that 'knowldge acquisition' happens
> at installation only, and isn't re-done every time (or periodically),
> then it might work...
>
Another possibility is ..... in SM 2.49.1, go to Tools -> Switch Profile
and select the Profile that you want SM 2.49.1 to use.

Then close THAT version of SM, give the system time to make sure SM is
fully closed (go and make a cup of tea, maybe), then start SM 2.53.17
and go to Tools -> Switch Profiles and select the Profile that you want
SM 2.53.17 to use.

Hopefully, then, both versions of SM will remember which Profile YOU
want to use with which version!
--
Daniel

On 09/18/2023 04:51 AM, Daniel65 wrote:
> alexyu wrote on 18/9/23 12:47 am:
>> Daniel65 wrote, on 17 Sep 23 09:06:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>> Ah, well that seems to answer my other question below!! ;-(
>
>>>> That is as part of the Installation process, does SeaMonkey go
>>>> looking for any and all previously set-up Profiles or can the newer
>>>> version of SM be installed AND the new Profile set up so that that
>>>> is the ONLY profile that version knows about??
>
>> But might it be possible, after installing both versions (and before
>> starting to use them) to manually edit-out selected 'bits of
>> knowledge' from each version's files so they would no longer 'know'
>> about that 'other version'?  If that 'knowldge acquisition' happens
>> at installation only, and isn't re-done every time (or periodically),
>> then it might work...
>>
> Another possibility is ..... in SM 2.49.1, go to Tools -> Switch Profile
> and select the Profile that you want SM 2.49.1 to use.
>
> Then close THAT version of SM, give the system time to make sure SM is
> fully closed (go and make a cup of tea, maybe), then start SM 2.53.17
> and go to Tools -> Switch Profiles and select the Profile that you want
> SM 2.53.17 to use.
>
> Hopefully, then, both versions of SM will remember which Profile YOU
> want to use with which version!

*I DOUBT IT*
If I correctly read posts by NFN Smith on 9/12 and 9/13, the location of
the profiles.ini file is *HARD* coded in SeaMonkey's executable.

See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profiles.ini_file

Richard Owlett wrote:
> That's a good description of what I tried.
> I created a new directory and extracted SeaMonkey's TAR file to it.
> My OS is Debian 9.13 with MATE as desktop.
> I have two launcher icons on the Panel with command:
>    1. for original SeaMonkey being
>       "/home/richard/Downloads/seamonkeydown/seamonkey/seamonkey -p"
>    2. for new SeaMonkey being
>       "/new-seamonkey/seamonkey/seamonkey -p"
>
> Clicking either gives the same selection of profiles :{

One further step -- rather than using just the -p, add the actual name
of the profile to go with that. That was something I explicitly
mentioned in a previous posting.

Smith

Richard Owlett wrote, on 18 set 23 08:31:

> On 09/18/2023 04:51 AM, Daniel65 wrote:
>> alexyu wrote on 18/9/23 12:47 am:
>>> Daniel65 wrote, on 17 Sep 23 09:06:
>>>
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>>> Ah, well that seems to answer my other question below!! ;-(
>>
>>>>> That is as part of the Installation process, does SeaMonkey go
>>>>> looking for any and all previously set-up Profiles or can the newer
>>>>> version of SM be installed AND the new Profile set up so that that
>>>>> is the ONLY profile that version knows about??
>>
>>> But might it be possible, after installing both versions (and before
>>> starting to use them) to manually edit-out selected 'bits of
>>> knowledge' from each version's files so they would no longer 'know'
>>> about that 'other version'?  If that 'knowldge acquisition' happens
>>> at installation only, and isn't re-done every time (or periodically),
>>> then it might work...
>>>
>> Another possibility is ..... in SM 2.49.1, go to Tools -> Switch
>> Profile and select the Profile that you want SM 2.49.1 to use.
>>
>> Then close THAT version of SM, give the system time to make sure SM is
>> fully closed (go and make a cup of tea, maybe), then start SM 2.53.17
>> and go to Tools -> Switch Profiles and select the Profile that you
>> want SM 2.53.17 to use.
>>
>> Hopefully, then, both versions of SM will remember which Profile YOU
>> want to use with which version!
>
> *I DOUBT IT*
> If I correctly read posts by NFN Smith on 9/12 and 9/13, the location of
> the profiles.ini file is *HARD* coded in SeaMonkey's executable.
>
> See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profiles.ini_file

Yes, the location of the profiles.ini file is hard-coded in SeaMonkey's
executable -- but you can edit the CONTENTS of the profiles.ini file
using Notepad (or any other), specifying the actual location of the SM
profile itself; for example:

[Profile0]
Name=Default User
IsRelative=0
Path=N:\SeaMonkey\xxxxxxxx.default
Default=1

for a SM profile physically located in a "N:\SeaMonkey" directory, with
a "xxxxxxxx.default" profile name.

In that directory, there should be ANOTHER "profiles.ini" file which
includes:

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=xxxxxxxx.default
Default=1

This has been working for me for several years, now, using SM 2.49, but
I imagine you should be able to set up several profiles, for several SM
versions, and this would assure that each one uses the correct
profile/version.

I have a setup with two OS's (WXP & W7) on separate partitions on one
dual-boot disk, and I have SM and FF on both, with just one profile (on
a non-standard location) for each 'set' (one for both SM's, one for both
FF's. I also periodically copy select data from one set to the other,
but that's secondary here.

This setup is intended to have a seamless browser/email experience on
the two OS's (because I use each one for different purposes, but want to
have that possibility). Also, this setup uses SM 2.49.5 and FF ESR
52.7.4 and is expected to 'stop there', since I have dozens of AddOns I
want to keep using, and most of them will no longer work on newer
releases (yes, even SM 2.53).

When I first implemented this, I knew that some files in the Profile
used 'physical' addresses but, since the Profile would be accessed by
any OS in any order, I hoped that SM/FF would automatically handle this
(a behavior I noticed during previous tries towards this setup), and it
seems to work flawlessly (except for a few Extensions) so far.

Several years back, frg had told me that "SeaMonkey was never designed
to work that way", and that's to be expected; but I also saw that
nevertheless it DOES "work that way" for me. I imagine that, on start,
SM/FF 'take a look around' to see in what 'environment' exactly they're
running, and then make adjustments to their 'system files' to reflect
that; I don't know if there are potential pitfalls with such a setup,
but have noticed that even the Extensions which use 'physical addresses'
seem to work fine, too, so it feels like it's safe -- but maybe I'm
missing something.

On the decision to keep SM 2.49.5 as the last one, that's because I want
to keep the most compatibility possible between WXP and W7 versions of
SM/FF, and SM 2.53 only works in W7 (plus, it seems to break several
Extensions which are very important to me).

Hope that helps...

--
Best,

s) alexyu

On 09/18/2023 10:13 AM, NFN Smith wrote:
> Richard Owlett wrote:
>> That's a good description of what I tried.
>> I created a new directory and extracted SeaMonkey's TAR file to it.
>> My OS is Debian 9.13 with MATE as desktop.
>> I have two launcher icons on the Panel with command:
>>     1. for original SeaMonkey being
>>        "/home/richard/Downloads/seamonkeydown/seamonkey/seamonkey -p"
>>     2. for new SeaMonkey being
>>        "/new-seamonkey/seamonkey/seamonkey -p"
>>
>> Clicking either gives the same selection of profiles :{
>
> One further step -- rather than using just the -p, add the actual name
> of the profile to go with that.  That was something I explicitly
> mentioned in a previous posting.
>
> Smith
>
Yeah. BUT, working towards slightly different goals.
I need to access differing *SETS* of profiles depending on which version
of SeaMonkey was launched.

In other words I need two distinct profile.ini files.
I will run:
1. SM 2.53.17 on my secondary machine with at least Debian 10.
2. SM 2.49.4 on my primary machine using Debian 9.13 .
If updating Debian wasn't on my TODO list it would have been possible to
consider running SM as a new user on my current machine.

I'm ending this thread and moving on to learning how to export a profile
from an old SeaMonkey version in a form acceptable to a current version.

See my reply today to NFN Smith.

On 09/18/2023 10:22 AM, alexyu wrote:
> Richard Owlett wrote, on 18 set 23 08:31:
>
>> On 09/18/2023 04:51 AM, Daniel65 wrote:
>>> alexyu wrote on 18/9/23 12:47 am:
>>>> Daniel65 wrote, on 17 Sep 23 09:06:
>>>>
>>>> [snip]
>>>>
>>>>> Ah, well that seems to answer my other question below!! ;-(
>>>
>>>>>> That is as part of the Installation process, does SeaMonkey go
>>>>>> looking for any and all previously set-up Profiles or can the
>>>>>> newer version of SM be installed AND the new Profile set up so
>>>>>> that that is the ONLY profile that version knows about??
>>>
>>>> But might it be possible, after installing both versions (and before
>>>> starting to use them) to manually edit-out selected 'bits of
>>>> knowledge' from each version's files so they would no longer 'know'
>>>> about that 'other version'?  If that 'knowldge acquisition' happens
>>>> at installation only, and isn't re-done every time (or periodically),
>>>> then it might work...
>>>>
>>> Another possibility is ..... in SM 2.49.1, go to Tools -> Switch
>>> Profile and select the Profile that you want SM 2.49.1 to use.
>>>
>>> Then close THAT version of SM, give the system time to make sure SM
>>> is fully closed (go and make a cup of tea, maybe), then start SM
>>> 2.53.17 and go to Tools -> Switch Profiles and select the Profile
>>> that you want SM 2.53.17 to use.
>>>
>>> Hopefully, then, both versions of SM will remember which Profile YOU
>>> want to use with which version!
>>
>> *I DOUBT IT*
>> If I correctly read posts by NFN Smith on 9/12 and 9/13, the location
>> of the profiles.ini file is *HARD* coded in SeaMonkey's executable.
>>
>> See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profiles.ini_file
>
> Yes, the location of the profiles.ini file is hard-coded in SeaMonkey's
> executable -- but you can edit the CONTENTS of the profiles.ini file
> using Notepad (or any other), specifying the actual location of the SM
> profile itself; for example:
>
> [Profile0]
> Name=Default User
> IsRelative=0
> Path=N:\SeaMonkey\xxxxxxxx.default
> Default=1
>
> for a SM profile physically located  in a "N:\SeaMonkey" directory, with
> a "xxxxxxxx.default" profile name.
>
> In that directory, there should be ANOTHER "profiles.ini" file which
> includes:
>
> [Profile0]
> Name=default
> IsRelative=1
> Path=xxxxxxxx.default
> Default=1
>
> This has been working for me for several years, now, using SM 2.49,  but
> I imagine you should be able to set up several profiles, for several SM
> versions, and this would assure that each one uses the correct
> profile/version.
>
> I have a setup with two OS's (WXP & W7) on separate partitions on one
> dual-boot disk, and I have SM and FF on both, with just one profile (on
> a non-standard location) for each 'set' (one for both SM's, one for both
> FF's.  I also periodically copy select data from one set to the other,
> but that's secondary here.
>
> This setup is intended to have a seamless browser/email experience on
> the two OS's (because I use each one for different purposes, but want to
> have that possibility).  Also, this setup uses SM 2.49.5 and FF ESR
> 52.7.4 and is expected to 'stop there', since I have dozens of AddOns I
> want to keep using, and most of them will no longer work on newer
> releases (yes, even SM 2.53).
>
> When I first implemented this, I knew that some files in the Profile
> used 'physical' addresses but, since the Profile would be accessed by
> any OS in any order, I hoped that SM/FF would automatically handle this
> (a behavior I noticed during previous tries towards this setup), and it
> seems to work flawlessly (except for a few Extensions) so far.
>
> Several years back, frg had told me that "SeaMonkey was never designed
> to work that way", and that's to be expected; but I also saw that
> nevertheless it DOES "work that way" for me. I imagine that, on start,
> SM/FF 'take a look around' to see in what 'environment' exactly they're
> running, and then make adjustments to their 'system files' to reflect
> that; I don't know if there are potential pitfalls with such a setup,
> but have noticed that even the Extensions which use 'physical addresses'
> seem to work fine, too, so it feels like it's safe -- but maybe I'm
> missing something.
>
> On the decision to keep SM 2.49.5 as the last one, that's because I want
> to keep the most compatibility possible between WXP and W7 versions of
> SM/FF, and SM 2.53 only works in W7 (plus, it seems to break several
> Extensions which are very important to me).
>
> Hope that helps...
>