Build Date: Wed Nov 29 05:40:24 2023 UTC
Your persona is the crime, and your life appears to be the punishment.
-- Lionheart
Displaying PDF Files in Mozilla
2005-11-08 18:50:52
At some point, my Mozilla browser stopped displaying PDF files. When I first installed it, I could view PDF files in a tabbed browser window just fine, but somewhere along the upgrade path viewing PDFs just stopped working.
I've been using Mozilla since the pre-v1.0 days, and I've upgraded through every stable version since the first one came out, and a few of the alpha and beta versions as well. At some point along the way with all of those upgrades, Mozilla stopped displaying PDF files. I could click a link, and the window would show the PDF file in the location bar, but the screen would be blank. My only option at that point would be to right-click the link to the PDF file, save the file, and then use Konquerer to open the file with KPDF or Acrobat Reader. Annoying.
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Mozilla and its associated files. No luck. I'd tried changing the embedded file associations for .pdf files using KDE's File Associations tool, but Mozilla doesn't use those settings.
Checking the Help | About Plugins menu option showed that Mozilla used a shared library file called nppdf.so for displaying .pdf files. Checking the system for that file I found:
# locate nppdf.so
/opt/mozilla/lib/plugins/nppdf.so
/opt/MozillaFirefox/lib/plugins/nppdf.so
/usr/lib/browser-plugins/nppdf.so
/usr/X11R6/lib/Acrobat7/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so
Since I also have Firefox installed, and since I can display .pdf files in Firefox, I checked the library files:
# ls -al /opt/mozilla/lib/plugins/nppdf.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 129611 2004-06-08 12:58 /opt/mozilla/lib/plugins/nppdf.so
# ls -al /opt/MozillaFirefox/lib/plugins/nppdf.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 2005-06-09 11:36 /opt/MozillaFirefox/lib/plugins/nppdf.so -> /usr/X11R6/lib/Acrobat7/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so
# ls -al /usr/X11R6/lib/Acrobat7/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 878568 Jul 27 15:10 /usr/X11R6/lib/Acrobat7/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so
Looks like Firefox uses the library that comes from Adobe, but Mozilla is using its own copy, from June 2004. Can it use the copy from Adobe? Let's try moving the old shared library out of the way and creating a symbolic link from the Adobe version of the library to the place where Mozilla expects to find the file:
# mv /opt/mozilla/lib/plugins/nppdf.so /opt/mozilla/lib/plugins/nppdf.so.orig
# ln -s /usr/X11R6/lib/Acrobat7/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so /opt/mozilla/lib/plugins/nppdf.so
# ls -al /opt/mozilla/lib/plugins/nppdf.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 Oct 27 09:02 /opt/mozilla/lib/plugins/nppdf.so -> /usr/X11R6/lib/Acrobat7/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so
# ls -al /opt/MozillaFirefox/lib/plugins/nppdf.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 Jun 9 11:36 /opt/MozillaFirefox/lib/plugins/nppdf.so -> /usr/X11R6/lib/Acrobat7/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so
After stopping and re-starting Mozilla the problem was solved.
T O P S T O R I E S
Gary Busey definitely involved in a hit and run accident
Gary Busey was definitely involved in a hit-and-run accident, but won't face any charges because he's rich and famous. (More...)
Gary Busey allegedly involved in Malibu hit-and-run
"Sir! You hit my car! I need your information!" the woman yelled at Gary Busey driving a battered Volvo station wagon before he sped off. (More...)
Health and Human Services officials spend a year on pot
After a yearlong, comprehensive, thorough, complete investigation into the effects of marijuana usage, Health and Human Services (HHS) officials recommended that it be moved from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to Schedule III, meaning that the HHS no longer considers cannabis to be a drug with high abuse potential and no medical value. (More...)
If you've ever wondered what actual bullshit looks like, just check the back side of Lee Meyers' decommissioned police cruiser. Lee chopped the top of the passenger side of the car off so he could take his full-grown Watusi bull, named Howdy Doody, for joy rides around his home town of Neligh, Nebraska. Since the car doesn't have bathroom facilities Howdy Doody just craps all over the back and side of the car whenever he feels the need to let one go. (More...)
Self-righteous assholes block highway to Burning Man
A group of self-righteous assholes converted exactly zero people to their cause by blocking the highway to Burning Man this week. The group, which used a flimsy trailer, some lengths of chain, and a few folding chairs to block the road, put up signs including "Burners of the World Unite," but none of the burners stopped in traffic wanted to unite with them for anything. (More...)
How much force does it take to pull out nose hair?
Have you ever pulled out a nose hair and felt like part of your brain came with it? Have your eyes watered from the extreme pain? Did you wonder how much force it took? Would you pull out 50 more hairs afterwards, using precise measuring instruments, to determine the answer IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE? (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
Canadians Not So Different After All
Nobody wants to be prejudiced. But sometimes you can be biased and not even realize it. I think many Americans are biased in this way against Canadians. I never really stopped to think about it, but I myself used to be this way. I guess I thought that Canadians were "stuck-up" — you know, smarter and better cultured than us. But then I got educated about Canadia. (More...)
High Availability Guinness Stress Test
All too often we forget the incredible depth of technology behind the weekly ritual of TNiPN@*. We tend to only become aware of the strategy of High Available Guinness (HAG) when it rises to the forefront during a complete and utter venue failure. Yet we should all be super grateful that this system exists. (More...)
On the Implementation of a Grocery Bag And Overforestation Initiative
Patient Joab and his evil cohort, Patient Steve, develop a proposal for the plastic-v.-paper problem that EVERYONE can be happy with. An EXCLUSIVE from Spock Mountain Research Labs! (More...)
Pigdog brings you SETI astronomer Seth Shostak to bring you the truth about Ay-leens (More...)
WE'RE STILL TOTAL LOSERS JESUS
Mr. Bad, Tjames Madison, and various other Pigdoggers of all stripe take on the makers of JERKCITY in a PIGDOG INTERVIEW DEATHMATCH. (More...)
A Nobel Prize-Winning Author Describes Liquor
Curled up cozy with a good book? All warm and snuggly and thinking about friends far away? So am I, reading the greatest story by the greatest writer -- when he suddenly starts waxing philosophical about liquor! (More...)
