12 replies to this topic

[RoyalScam]

Howdy!
I was reading about the Dual SSM 2044 VCF boards in the WIKI and noticed that when I clicked on the PDF of the schematic the tab in Firefox (3.0.10) reads fetch.php (application/pdf Object) and essentially nothing happens.  My workaround was to open the link in IE tab (it's a plugin) and it displays fine.  I'm just curious if I might have something configured wrong in Firefox.

Thanks,

Dean
RoyalScam

BTW same behavior on the MB6582 Wiki

[nILS]

The Adobe Reader 9 plugin in Chrome says: "The file is damaged and could not be repaired." When downloaded it does worlk though. Odd ;)

[audiocommander]

The PDF http://www.midibox.o...4_schematic.pdf downloads or opens fine for me and seems to be okay - (Safari on a Mac).

I guess that Firefox or an extension you installed may have troubles with the ":" in the file path?
It also works fine on Firefox 3.0.10.

Regards,
Michael

btw, here's a link to the wiki-page:
http://www.midibox.o...?id=ssm2044_pcb

[stryd_one]

Royal: Sounds like the PDF reader is not correctly associating with that MIME type (which it obviously recognises, judging by that error)

Chrome is a beta so I won't start bugshooting that...

But My FF works fine there... sorry mate, I think it might be your machine that's broken.. :(
A few basic things: What PDF reader do you use? What OS? Any plugins you have installed? Does it work OK if you disable the browser plugin, so that it downloads and then reads the file in the standalone reader?

[seppoman]

Uhm, strange - I know it did always work in FF, but I just checked it and my FF 3.0.9 also does this fetch.php thing and doesn't show the file. so either the problem came in one of the newer FF versions or from an updated Wiki soft? (I didn't install any new FF extensions or special Acrobat version etc)

S

[stryd_one]

Err, that's quirky :/

As a workaround I guess you can right-click... 'Save Link As...' and then open the file? Or is that broken too?

[seppoman]

Yes at least that works ;)

s

[stryd_one]

Can you view PDFs online at other sites? I'm guessing so...

If it's not a hassle...could any of you try uninstalling+reinstalling your PDF viewer of choice, to see if it fixes up the mime types in FF?

[nILS]

Chrome is a beta so I won't start bugshooting that...

Yep, at least google has the guts to call it beta. Unless other companies who'd call it "Vista" ;)

[stryd_one]

Yep, at least google has the guts to call it beta.

Amen!!

[RoyalScam]

OK, You're gonna love this,

I had some time today so, at S1's request, I uninstalled and reinstalled Adobe reader ver. 9.1.0 and great! it worked!  A few minutes into my session Adobe updater asked to update to 9.1.1 I allowed it.  Now the thing was hosed again.  So I uninstalled /reinstalled 9.1.0 and it was still hosed.  Why I decided to keep clicking on the link( http://www.midibox.o...4_schematic.pdf ) I won't know, but it worked after about three clicks, and now it seems to work in about 1 in 3 tries. I since updated to 9.1.1 and so far it's still behaving the same way.

My stuff;

Windows XP SP3
Firefox 3.0.10
    plugins
              Adobe Acrobat
              IE Tab plugin
              Microsoft DRM
              Windows Presentation Foundation
              JAva
              Shockwave
              Quicktime 7.6


As for right-click save that works, and disabling the browser plugin also works, go figure, and as I said earlier, right-click open in IE tab works. Just odd behavior.

Thanks!
RoyalScam

[stryd_one]

I can't think of any app that employs online updates, that hasn't had major troubles with them. Java is the #1 candidate, but flash and acrobat are definitely high on the list. I recommend you to only install these toys from pre-downloaded full installers (not the type that download the files from the internet to install them, the big one that needs no net connection to work), and after installing them, immediately disable the online updater. Doing so will avoid troubles like this one. Don't even get me started on the f***ing mess that the java updaters make on your machine.......


Another classic misbehaviour is the fact that these tools rarely uninstall correctly (read: completely) and instead leave behind files and, most notably, registry entries. To compound the matter, the installers tend not to overwrite existing settings with 'known-good, out-of-the-box' settings, instead preferring your existing (in this case, broken) settings. As such, while uninstall/reinstall can be educational, it doesn't always fix stuff. Damn.

Some software shops even go to the extent of supplying a "real" uninstaller, which actually does a full (read: complete) uninstall, and has to be separately downloaded (Symantec comes to mind). If the software you're having troubles with doesn't have such a tool provided (or you can't find it - eg, the symantec uninstaller used to be highly secret and not available unless you held an enterprise license worth several tens of thousands of dollars) then you can go the manual route - searching the registry (use Registrar Lite, not regedit.exe - hot tip!!) and removing the entries as needed, and manually deleting program files/common files/etc. Beware that if you do this stuff you might just trash your PC.


If the preventative measures I've suggested are too late (like this one) or the manual cleanups don't work or are too risky, then your only real option is to file bugs with the project in question. If you're an advanced user, you will probably be alone in reporting the issue, so it will look minor, and you can expect to be largely ignored, then spend weeks on testing to prove to the devs that the problem really is with their software, then be asked to completely reinstall your system to a reformatted drive, which will fix the problem and they'll probably blame some other app, then you'll be largely ignored for some time afterwards and maybe get a fix in the next minor release, if you're lucky....


Don't you wish all software was written by TK? I sure as f*** do!!!

In the meantime... try the 'manual uninstall', and turn off your updates this time ;)

[stryd_one]

Not sure if this is related, but maybe the wiki is out of whack... Twinnie?

I noticed that someone had edited/broken the front page, so I went to revert it, but noticed that the last edit was by an IP address, not a username - strange...

Then when I saved the page I was returned this error message:

Fatal error: Call to a member function getUserData() on a non-object in /home/midibox/public_html/dokuwiki/inc/common.php on line 1287