Author Topic: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8  (Read 25131 times)

ivan

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Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« on: January 09, 2019, 05:55:09 pm »
Today I found a problem with ff 38.8 - I am unable to download any PDF document, yet I can do so with my Linux box or win XP in a VM.

Digging around in options I find the Applications tab has no applications listed and no way to add any (see attachment) yet the 'mimeTypes.rdf file is in the profile and appears to have everything listed.  Even the PDF Download add on that works with ff 17.0.11 does not work.

Is there a way to get the ability to download PDF documents back or do I have to fire up a Linux box every time to do that?


Dave Yeo

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2019, 08:56:32 pm »
With Firefox closed, try deleting/renaming handlers.json from your profile.
You could also try toggling your SET MOZ_NO_RWS setting in config.sys or on a cmd line.

edit, seems we don't have the handlers.json file. Perhaps try moving mimetypes.rdf out of the way or at worse, swap it with one from a new profile.
Here the applications tab is populated so it seems to be a profile problem there. It gets populated when you click a link and choose download or whatever I believe.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2019, 09:03:02 pm by Dave Yeo »

David Graser

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2019, 09:33:33 pm »
Can FF be setup to use Lucide or does it already use Lucide?

Dave Yeo

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2019, 09:44:37 pm »
Can FF be setup to use Lucide or does it already use Lucide?

If Lucide is set as the default PDF application, Firefox should use it. RWS helps here but it is somewhat buggy and usually turned off. Firefox really degraded in its handling of helper applications.

ivan

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2019, 10:10:00 pm »
Hi Dave,

I did the delete mimeTypes.rdf, it got recreated at next start (reduced from 63K to 4.8K) and still nothing in the Applications tab and the popup for how to deal with a file does not appear any more.  I assume the next thing is to try a new profile but raises the question of how do I migrate all the e-pub books that I have in the old profile to the new one.

Hi David,

I don't have a default program set for PDF files, sometimes I use Lucide and sometimes I use GSView depending on content. Lucide is good for reading text and GSView is excellent for drawings and engineering diagrams.

David Graser

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2019, 10:19:29 pm »

Hi David,

I don't have a default program set for PDF files, sometimes I use Lucide and sometimes I use GSView depending on content. Lucide is good for reading text and GSView is excellent for drawings and engineering diagrams.

Can you show pics on the difference on how Lucide renders an engineering drawing and GSView renders one?  I am curious.  Gregg has done an excellent job on improving Lucide.  I have beta 10 which worked great.  However, it has improved more since then.

Dave Yeo

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roberto

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2019, 11:01:55 pm »
Are you reload? in the firefox.

ivan

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2019, 12:19:17 am »
Hi David,

There are three main things in GSView that beat Lucide.
1) much better zoom increments.
2) the ability to set a scale for a drawing and take measurements from it.
3) the ability to set a DPI value for the display.

As an example, towards the end of last year I needed to work with some A0 size drawings that were emailed to me. Lucide wouldn't open them (something to do with problems creating thumbnails I think). GSView had no problems and I could zoom in and take the necessary measurements whicj saved me having to setup a windows box to run AutoCad.

Sorry no pictures, those were sensitive commercial drawings.

BTW, I am not trying to put down Lucide, in fact it is my PDF reader of choice for equipment manuals and SF stories I have in PDF format.


Hi Dave,

I have the first of your urls bookmarked from when I setup the Linux box.  Reading the second one, it appears that all I have to do is copy the epub dir to the new profile and put the correct extension in the extensions dir.


Hi roberto,

I assume you mean did I restart Firefox.  Yes I did since you can't make the changes with FF running and to because I changed the SET MOZ_NO_RWS setting I also rebooted the computer.

Dave Yeo

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2019, 02:06:47 am »
Hi Ivan, someone pointed out your problem may be in content-prefs.sqlite. Brutal fix is moving it out of the way. Subtle fix is using a sqlite3 editor such as the sqlite manager extension and deleting the prefs table containing a bad path, probably from a crash while downloading to %TMP% and a leftover .part file.

ivan

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #10 on: January 10, 2019, 09:40:29 pm »
Hi Dave,

that wasn't it either.  I am now fighting to get a new profile up and running with several of my extensions.  The ones that were in the extension directory as xpi files were no problem but the one I need ix in a directory and looks like it is an unzipped xpi file.  Do you think it might work if I zipped that dir up and gave it an xpi extension?  Job for tomorrow, been out all day and still have to cook dinner ;)

When I get this new profile working I will try and get ff45 running - at the moment all it does is peg out 2 of the 4 processors for 45 seconds then switch to the other two for the same length time then wash and repeat.  The only way to stop it is to kill the process.  The fun and games using an AMD processor - it never used to be like that with OS/2 (I'm not changing to Intel processors considering all the problem they are having)

ivan

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2019, 06:44:01 pm »
Hi Dave,

Almost success.  I have got it downloading PDF documents but restoring the epub library is a right PITA (still on going with about 300 more to go).  Another PITA is the fact that Mozilla appears to no longer offer any addons for any version before 60 esr which made it almost impossible to get an en_GB dictionary that would install.

Now if I can get FF 45.9 to actually run on a Ryzen processor based system (I know the Linux FF 60 does on my Ryzen based box) I will be a happy camper.

Thanks for all your help.

Dave Yeo

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2019, 07:19:50 pm »
Hi Ivan,
Yes the extension situation is now crappy, Mozilla acting like asses removing all the legacy add-ons. Sometimes Google will find older versions. You could try zipping up to make an XPI, never tried. Also check in your old pref.js for any references to the extension, adding those preferences might be needed.
As for your problems with FF45, I can't imagine your processor mattering unless it didn't support some instructions such as an Athlon with SSE2. I did build this for Dariusz, https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/dry-comm-esr31/downloads/firefox-45.9.0.en-US.os2.PhenomII.zip.
More likely a library problem. Had a crash the other day and when the system came up, neither SM or TB would load anything and sat there with a core at 100%. Eventually traced it down to NSS which I had to downgrade and then upgrade to fix. Not sure what was wrong exactly but just reinstalling it wasn't enough.

Pete

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #13 on: January 11, 2019, 08:56:12 pm »
Hi ivan

In the past I have unzipped xpi files to edit install.rdf - to let the extension install on a newer Seamonkey than listed in the install.rdf - and then zipped the files back into xpi and installed without problems.

Obviously I cannot say that it works for all extensions but it has for the few that I tried.


Regards

Pete

Doug Bissett

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Re: Unable to download PDF documents with FF 38.8
« Reply #14 on: January 12, 2019, 05:54:04 pm »
I have been following this thread, trying to figure out what the problem is. I can download PDF (and other) files , with no troubles.

I am running ArcaOS 5.0.3, with Firefox 45.9.0. Firefox has ZERO add-ons (which is probably the key to success), and one plugin (Open H264...), that says it "will be installed shortly", but never does. It seems that it isn't needed anyway.

When I click on a PDF file, it opens for read, in a new window in Firefox. At the top of the window, there are buttons, and one of them is Download (sometimes, you need to expand the menu selections, with the far right button, to see the Download button). After it is downloaded, I use Lucide to read/print/edit (when it has edit fields) the PDF file.

You can also RMB on the download link, and select "Save Link As...", without opening it for read (normal download procedure).

Have I missed something? What else do you want to do?