[sf-lug] (forw) Re: Personal Security Management from Mozilla

[Rick Moen]

Redirecting back onto the mailing list, as Bobbie seems to have
accidentally fallen off it into private e-mail.

Please, folks, respond to mailing list posts -on- the mailing list.
(If you actually need a private side-conversation, please explain why.)

As a tip, use your Reply-All command to respond publicly, _not_ your
mailer's Reply-Sender command.


----- Forwarded message from Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com> -----

Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 08:02:24 -0700
From: Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com>
To: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
Subject: Re: [sf-lug] Personal Security Management from Mozilla

Thanks Rick for you input.
The message demanding PS shows up with the PCLOS 2014.04 version of
Thunderbird
In a window designated Alert it says:

"Could not initialize the application's security component. The most likely
cause is problems with files in your application's profile directory.
Please check that this directory has no read/write restrictions and your
hard disk is not full or close to full. It is recommended that you exit the
application and fix the problem. If you continue to use this session, you
might see incorrect application behaviour when accessing security features."

Then when I dismiss the Alert, Thunderbird showed up but with message.
about PSM which has disappeared for some reason.

I have not been able to use Tb for 4 days now since the crash after the
latest
 updates on Sunday.  I am using the gmail facility behind the dslextreme
address
and I hate it.

Sooner use Mutt and I may if this goes on much longer.

Bobbie Sellers



On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 12:11 AM, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:

> Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):
>
> > Has anyone heard of this PSM stuff from Mozilla or know where I can
> > get it?
>
> PSM (Personal Security Manager) is a set of high-level libraries that
> applications can call to implement cryptographic operations, such as
> signing, signature verification, setting up SSL/TLS connections, and
> certificate management.
>
> PSM, in turn, makes calls to low-level cryptographic routines in NSS,
> Network Security Services (which is Mozilla's equivalent to OpenSSL's
> libssl library bundle).
>
> Distros sometimes package PSM separately from Mozilla apps themselves.
> The package name tends to be something like 'mozilla-psm' -- but there
> might be naming variations from distro to distro.
>
>
> However....
>
> You didn't explain the reason for your question.
>
> Are you perhaps using a Mozilla program (e.g., Thunderbird or Firefox)
> and said app threw up a dialogue saying something like this?
>
>   Incorrect Response
>
>   This document cannot be displayed unless you install the Personal
>   Security Manager (PSM). Download and install PSM and try again, or
>   contact your system administrator.  The site responded to the
>   network request in an unexpected way and the browser cannot continue.
>
> If it's Firefox, try loading this page using Firefox and see what it
> says: http://browserspy.dk/psm.php   The reason I suggest doing so is
> that the underlying reason for the above-cited diagnostic message is
> almost _never_ actually PSM being uninstalled.
>
> The above-cited message can be caused by overly prohibitive firewall
> settings, or by a badly configured or corruped app profile, or by weird
> local changes that the user has made in about:config screens.
>
> One worthwhile check is to try creating a different user profile in
> (e.g.) Firefox, and see if the problem goes away when using that
> profile.  If so, then your problem is a bad user profile, and not any
> actual absence of PSM software.
>
>
> Sometimes, users on LUG mailing lists ask what I call 'iceberg
> questions', where 8/9 of the (vital) underlying facts remain
> figuratively underwater and invisible.  The point is that it's very much
> in your interest to not just ask 'Wheat is Mozilla PSM and where do I
> get it?', but also say _why_ you are asking that question.  Otherwise,
> you are likely to get absolutely correct but completely useless answers
> - on account of (in essence) asking the wrong question.
>
> And, please, when you see a diagnostic messsage and need help, please
> cite the diagnostic message, verbatim.  Thanks.
>
>
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----- End forwarded message -----