I'm running Slackware 10.1 with KDE 3.4. Relevant applications include Pat V's official Firefox 1.0.1 build and the official acroread version 7. This problem has lasted two days, since I reinstalled my system to upgrade to the new KDE (and Slackware).

Formerly, with the nppdf.so plugin in the appropriate directory, I could view pdf files within firefox. Now, whether I symlink or copy nppdf.so, the behavior is broken. Firefox loads a blank page within the tab, as though it tries to render the pdf, but doesn't do anything. The tab is completely blank--neither any components of the acroread application nor the pdf are visible.

I'm suspecting that it may not be an issue with Slackware, KDE, Firefox, or acroread, but rather, it may have something to do with the way I copied the ~/.mozilla configuration files from my previous installation. However, I was rather conservative with that, and I don't think I copied anything that has to do with acroread. Does anyone know what's going on?

Edit->Preferences->Downloads->Plug-ins does not display anything pertaining to nppdf.so or acroread. I've tried both ~/.mozilla/plugins and /usr/lib/firefox/plugins. Same exact behavior.

there are 2 "nppdf.so"s
/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so ...and
~/.mozilla/plugins/nppdf.so
check that they are executable
and the symlink
ln -s /usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin/acroread /usr/X11R6/bin/acroread
hope this helps

Everything is as you described, but it still doesn't work. This might be a firefox problem.

It works fine for me on CentOS and Slackware 10.1 using Firefox 1.0.2.

I used to have this problem with Firefox and Acrobat on Windows (I can't use Linux at work ). It was fixed after I reinstalled Acrobat. Is that an option for you?

if you start firefox from the command line and try to view a pdf file, does it give any error message?t

Yes, it does. I'm not sure why trying this hadn't occurred to me, but thanks for the idea.

What am I supposed to read from this?

I am using Slackware 10.1 and the plugin works fine for me, in firefox 1.0.2, galeon, epiphany, opera and konqueror.

I launched acroread from the command line, however, and I do not get any errors. That must be the key.

I just upgraded to firefox 1.0.2. Same problem

Hi,

I have a similar problem - Adobe Acrobat 7 seems to read the page but all
I see is a grey blank page.

My configuration is Slack 10, Kernel 2.4.26 and using Mozilla 1.7

I saw that Acrobat started as I had just created a new User ID and was
trying Acobat for the first time - it came up with the message about accepting terms and conditions.

su -c '
#as root
rpm -ev mozplugger
#change version number as needed
cp -s /usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so /usr/lib/firefox-1.0.2/plugins/
'

Hi,

Concerning the problem that, with Acrobat Reader 7.0, some people get just a blank grey screen when trying to read PDF files:

PDF is handled by the nppdf.so plugin, and there is a new one specifically for Acroread 7.0; if Firefox is finding the older one, you get the grey screen.

First, find out where Firefox is looking for nppdf.so by examining the file ~/.mozilla/pluginreg.dat. In my case, Firefox was looking for it as /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/nppdf.so, but your system may differ. Wherever it is, as root, move it out of the way and instead
add a symbolic link to /usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so. For example:

# cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins (or wherever)
# mv nppdf.so /tmp (we're being cautious here, not deleting yet)
# ln -s /usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so

and then restart Firefox. If it's OK, you can zap that old nppdf.so

What's the difference? The old one constructs a specific command line, starting (eg):
acroread -display :0.0 ....etc....
that acroread 7.0 doesn't accept, so it emits a usage message to standard error and exits -- hence the grey screen.

Dr_P_Ross: You missed one thing that my commands handle. "mozplugger" conflicts with the acrobat reader plugin, causing pdf documents not to display at all. If mozplugger is installed, trouble will had no matter how many times people reinstall and/or copy over nppdf.so. I don't know if there is a way to configure mozplugger to use the acrobat reader plugin successfully.

Hi,

I'm running Fedora 3, firefox 1.0.2 and just managed to get the Acroreader 7.0 working after jumping through some hoops.

First, copy the relevent nppdf.so file into your firefox plugins directory. (not new news here)

Secondly, if you take a look at "aboutlugins" in your firefox address bar, you will probably find that mozplugger and acroreader are both configured to display pdf files. And this seems to create a conflict resulting a null display in firefox for any pdf files. So, we have to configure the mozplugger to ignore pdf.

Do a "locate" on mozpluggerrc; you'll probably find it as: /etc/mozpluggerrc. Log on as super user and open mozpluggerrc in your favourite text editor. Search for the "pdf" character string to find the section in the file pertaining to control of pdf files. It will probably look something like the following:
--------------------------------------------------
application/pdf: pdf: PDF file
application/x-pdf: pdf: PDF file
text/pdf: pdf: PDF file
text/x-pdf: pdf: PDF file
repeat swallow(acrobatreader) fill: acroread -geometry +9000+9000 +useFrontEndProgram -tempFileTitle acrobatreader "$file"
repeat swallow(documentShell) fill: acroread -geometry +9000+9000 +useFrontEndProgram "$file"
repeat noisy swallow(Xpdf) fill: xpdf -g +9000+9000 "$file"
-------------------------------------------------------------------

COMMENT OUT THESE LINES!! Use the "#" character at the beginning of each line to do so.

Not done yet, one more final step to perform. If you do a "man mozplugger" you'll find the final step at the bottom of the man page, in the "BUGS" section. You have to delete the file named, "pluginreg.dat" in ~/.mozilla/firefox/ for the changes to the mozpluggerrc to take effect. Voila, you should have a working Acroreader 7 for firefox.

I have the same exact problem
Firefox 1.0.3, running Debian Sarge