Installing the online Help
For the BMC PATROL consoles, the online Help for the product is automatically installed when you install the console KM package to the console. For PATROL Central Operator consoles (either Microsoft Windows Edition or Web Edition), the online Help for the product is automatically installed when you install the KM package to the console server.
If you plan to install the UNIX version of the product on a PATROL console for UNIX, do the following:
- #Install the UNIX version of the Help Browser separately, if it is not already installed.
- #Set the environment variables.
- #Review additional considerations.
Installing the UNIX version of the Help browser
The browser that is required for the UNIX version of PATROL Help on PATROL version 3.x is Netscape Navigator version 7.0.00. However, on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform, you must run Netscape Navigator version 4.x to display the online Help.
You must install Netscape Navigator on the computer where the PATROL console resides. You can install Netscape anywhere on your UNIX computer as long as the binary is in the path.
Setting the environment variables for the browser
For the online Help browser to run correctly, the LANG, PATH, and PATROL_BROWSER environment variables must be set correctly. The following sections describe these variables.
LANG variable
For Netscape Navigator to run correctly, the UNIX LANG environment variable must be set to C. Otherwise, you might experience product failures.
Type of shell |
|
Export command for LANG variable
Bourne |
|
LANG=C
export LANG
Korn |
|
export LANG=C
C |
|
setenv LANG=C
PATH variable
The PATROL user account PATH variable must contain the location of the directory that contains the Netscape files. If the directory that contains the Netscape Navigator files is not in the path, add the directory to the PATROL user account path.
Type of shell |
|
Export command for PATH variable
Bourne |
|
PATH=$PATH:/netscape_location
export PATH
Korn |
|
export PATH=$PATH:///netscape_locatio//n
C |
|
setenv PATH=$PATH:///netscape_location//
PATROL_BROWSER variable
When BMC PATROL starts the online Help browser, it uses the command in the PATROL_BROWSER environment variable. By default, the PATROL_BROWSER environment variable contains the following command.
Type of shell |
|
Export command for PATROL_BROWSER variable
Bourne |
|
PATROL_BROWSER=netscape -display $DISPLAY -install -iconic
export LANG
Korn |
|
export PATROL_BROWSER=netscape -display $DISPLAY -install -iconic
C |
|
setenv PATROL_BROWSER=netscape -display $DISPLAY -install -iconic
To use different arguments, set the value of PATROL_BROWSER to the appropriate string.
Reviewing additional considerations for using online Help for UNIX
When you select online Help from the PATROL console on a UNIX system, it takes a few seconds for the Help browser to launch. During the launch process, window items are displayed in the following order:
- The Netscape Navigator icon
- A browser window that contains the Help
The following issues might affect your installation:
- Because of its file-locking mechanism, Netscape Navigator displays warning messages when it is invoked multiple times within the same user account. It does, however, continue functioning.
- By default, when Netscape Navigator starts, it uses a private color map. As a result, you might experience color flashing on your workstation. If so, you can set the value of PATROL_BROWSER so that the colormap option is not specified. However, changing this value could cause some subsequent color requests to fail and the online Help to display improperly.
- The Exceed for Windows NT X Window Server product by Hummingbird Communication Ltd. might not always display the Help files correctly.
Consult your Netscape Navigator documentation for specific platform requirements and restrictions.