Build Date: Thu May 14 14:30:11 2026 UTC
We’re living in a parallel universe. Unfortunately it’s the one where Spock grows a beard.
-- Baron Earl
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
The Crossroads are real and The Blues is a place; The enduring myth of Robert Johnson (More...)
California Glory Hole attracts huge crowds
A glory hole at Napa's Lake Berryessa is drawing huge crowds. According to Chris Lee, the general manager for the Solano County Water Agency, the glory hole hasn't been active since 2019, and only restarted operations on Feb 4. (More...)
Republican State Senator busted after soliciting a teenage girl
Republican State Senator Justin Eichorn of Minnesota was arrested for soliciting a teen girl on Monday just hours after he introduced a bill proposing "Trump derangement syndrome" (TDS) as a form of mental illness. (More...)
Parents claim measles is not that bad after having only one child die
The parents of a Texas girl who died from the measles are defending their decision not to vaccinate their daughter. "She says they would still say 'Don't do the shots,'" an unidentified translator for the parents said. "They think it’s not as bad as the media is making it out to be." (More...)
Delusional rich man tries to fire town staff
"I'm mayor now" said write-in mayoral candidate and founder of Pirate’s Booty Snacks Robert Ehrlich after losing the election for Mayor of Sea Cliff, NY. Then he tried to take over the Village Hall and fire everyone. (More...)
Musk claims Xitter security is staffed by idiots
Earlier this month Xitter experienced a massive outage. In an interview, Musk told Fox Business that he believes the attack came from "IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area." (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
It’s election night. My wife and I are holed-up in this hotel that my political party has rented out for the evening. Outside, people are being violently beaten for whom they voted for. Is this South Africa? Perhaps we’re in Haiti or some Southern state during the 60’s. Of all the places where this sort of thing happens, it’s mind-boggling that we are in Portland, Maine. (More...)
One of our star reporters was sent to Comdex by his employer. El Destino reports live from the biggest, geekiest trade show in the world. (More...)
A Day in the Life of a Beverotologist
It was starting to look like a very boring Saturday, trapped as I was in the suburban wastelands of the outer Bay Area, so I called my Able Assistant (AA) and proposed that we perform some Spocktail field tests. For some time I've been working on creating the quintessential cinematic beverage and even tho' SMRL does most of its testing during nocturnal hours, this seemed an opportune time to roll up the sleeves of our labcoats and get some science done. While the beverotology creation tested this day (The Neurotoxin) must be deemed a success, this article focuses more the journey of the experimenters, rather then the science of beverotology. (More...)
Brother Wayne Lays Down the Truth
Flesh interviews Wayne Kramer of MC5. (More...)
It was early in May last year when I first heard about Spock Mountain Research Labs. I was working on a story about a Hungarian scientist's new approach to nucleopeptide synthesis when I got a call from my friend Albert. (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...)
