Hello everyone,

The problem I am experiencing on my laptop (HP Pavillion zv5000) which runs UbuntuStudio 9.10 (this problem also occurred with Ubuntu 9.10, before I upgraded to Ubuntu Studio) is that whenever I view a video on Firefox, be it YouTube, Metacafe, and generally any site where you can see online videos, the video glitches a lot, and after a few seconds Firefox grays out, and is not responsive, which means I either have to Kill Firefox.
I am running Firefox 3.5.7 with the Ubuntu Firefox modifications 0.8 pack added. In the preferences, on the content tab the Enable Java button is not ticked. The following is the list of plugins I have on Firefox:

DivX Web Player 1.4.0.233 Enabled

IcedTea Java Web browser plugin 1.6.1 Disabled

Java plugin 1.6.0_15 Disabled

Quicktime plugin 7.2.0 (Totem 2.28.2) Enabled

Shockwave flash 10.0 r42 Enabled

VLC Multimedia plugin (compatible Totem 2.28.2) Enabled

Windows media player plugin 10 (compatible; Totem) Enabled

Thanks in advance for your help girls and guys, hope I didn't tire you too much.

Alex

Just a guess, see if Java works on your system at all, it should. That may, or may not have anything to do with FF not showing you videos. Here is a link for a fast test...

-->http://www.javatester.org/version.html

There is a box in the middle, near the top that should show the installed and working Java version you have. If it does not show you the version, then something is wrong with java.

I have seen FF on my system turn grey. Most often if I give the system, say 30 sec. the grey goes away, and I can continue. Not sure what causes it. I'm running a security program called msec that runs, periodically, and the greying usually happens around that time. So, there may be more than one cause.

Any reason why you do not have java enabled in FF?

Hey Cliff,

Thanks for the link. I enabled Java and the problem still persists. I can't remember why I disabled it in the first place, maybe I did it to see if it would cure the problem. Anyhow, enabling Java doesn't seem to change anything. Especially on YouTube, the videos are virtually unviewable when I press play, and FF grays out. When I press pause however, everything returns to normal! I forgot to mention that earlier. So maybe it has something to do with the Flash Shockwave player (that's what it's called right?) that YouTube and other sites use?

Thanks for your help Cliff, I appreciate it!

I'm running the same version of Shockwave as you are. Youtube works fine for me. I know that doesn't help fix what is wrong with your system. For what it's worth, here are my plugins, and versions...

Divx Web Player version 1.4.0.233
Java Plug-in 1.6.0_17
Shockwave Flash 10.0 r42
Skype Buttons for Kopete ( doesn't show aversion )
VLC Multimedia Plugin ( compatible Totem 2.28.1 )
Windows Media Player Plugin 10 (compatible; Totem)

Hey Cliff,

I uninstalled the 10.0 r42 version of shockwave from synaptic and installed the latest 10.0 r45 version, again from synaptic and it partially solved the problem. By partially I mean that online videos only glitch slightly, and Firefox doesn't gray out any more.

Thanks for your help man, have a lovely day!

Alex

r45 is the latest from Adobe. I'm glad you at least partially solved it.