Ubuntu/Firefox problem

foofi22

Hi

I currently use Ubuntu 9.04 with the latest version of Firefox. I m currently having issues using a particular website (there may be others but this is the one I am interested in)

The site in question is http://anonym.to/?http://sports.williamhill.com/bet/EN/betlive/all

I want to access the live betting section of the site, however in Ubuntu the main live betting window is not visible. So this means I have to switch over to XP which is very annoying. I know it does work using Ubuntu, just not for me!

I've updated flash to the latest version with no success.

Any help greatly appreciated.

fwor

Have you tried removing adobe-flashplugin in Synaptic and then reinstalling it? And making sure that you are allowing active content and cookies for that site?

As a much easier alternative to having to run up another OS, you could just install another browser under Ubuntu. There are several, such as Epiphany, which will quite happily co-exist with FF.

I've just tried that site with Epiphany and it displays fine provided you permit Java/Javascript and allow cookies.

foofi22

Thanks, I will give all of those suggestions a try when I get home.

foofi22

An update...

I gave fwor's suggestions a try with no success. I installed both Opera and Epiphany, which although both very nice (;)) they still didn't display the live scores/betting app.

However I then ran Firefox from the terminal using 'sudo firefox' and then it worked! Just running firefox causes the same problems as before.

Is it bad to run firefox in this way?

With this evidence can anyone think why it wasn't working in the first place?

fwor

foofi22 wrote: »

Is it bad to run firefox in this way?

In terms of security theory - it is definitely not a good idea to run FF as root. If malware were to run something you didn't want it to, it too would run as root, and could do anything it wanted on your system. It would completely bypass the most fundamental security feature of Linux (that the user has no rights to alter core kernel files).

Having said that, most malware would be trying to manipulate the components of a Windows-based system, which would not exist on yours. So unlikely to cause harm if done just for testing.

It certainly looks to be a permissions problem, but strange that it's true for other browsers as well. It would be interesting to see whether your user is the owner of the hidden directory called .adobe in your home directory but, if not, it's hard to think how it came to install like that.

Has the system had an unusual pattern of users - e.g. a history of having users added and deleted, or of extensive changes while logged in as root?

mr_fishbulb

Are you running no script? I went to that site and had to allow scripts before the betting window came up

foofi22

Thanks fwor.

There is indeed a hidden .adobe folder in my home directory, it contains an 'Acrobat' and 'Flash_Player' folder.

There has only been one user on here. The only changes I really do to it are the automatic updates.

foofi22

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

Are you running no script? I went to that site and had to allow scripts before the betting window came up

I do have it installed however I have had it disabled while I've tried to get this live betting to work!

fwor

foofi22 wrote: »

There is indeed a hidden .adobe folder in my home directory, it contains an 'Acrobat' and 'Flash_Player' folder.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, if you right-click on the folder (and two sub-folders) choose Properties and select Permissions, are you shown as the owner, with Create and Delete file rights?

Presumably in FF you've enabled Java and Javascript in Preferences, Content and cookies in Privacy?

foofi22

I'm shown as having create and delete rights on both folders.

I have enabled Java, Javascript and all cookies allowed.

fwor

There is a Higher Power at work, trying to tell you something...

Then again, I had a similar problem with FF (wouldn't run Flash and had a serious memory leak) earlier this year on a system that I had distribution-upgraded several times from earlier Ubuntu releases, which I was never able to fix.

The only solution for me was to reinstall the OS, though I was pushed into that step by Thunderbird lunching my email inbox and user profile...

Actually, it's not as bad as it sounds, as for a normal user, all you should need to backup and restore is your /home directory. Ok, perhaps it is as bad as it sounds. Sorry we didn't find a fix!