I have Mandriva LE installed. It looked pretty good until I ran Firefox 1.02. If I try to browse a URL with a PDF file, it attempts to run Acrobat Reader, and freezes the entire Desktop. I have to hit ALT+CTRL+DEL to access the log out window to shut the frozen mess down.

I went to file associations and checked, and pdf files are NOT set for Acrobat Reader. Kghostview or Xpdf are.

Firefox Preferences has no obvious place to set this application default.

So, I assume this is another of those incredibly (expletive deleted) items that somewhere in an obscure script file it calls out Acrobat Reader, much as default browser (from links in e-mail, for example) call-outs are stored.

Any ideas? A browser which can't look at many URL's is useless. I can try to remember to select the HTML option, but who wants anyone to know that you have to do that?

Thanks for any tips.

(Yes, I attempted to search, here as well on google.)

I had a similar problem, and what i did was download the PDF files to my PC and from there open it with Kghostview. Kghost is the default viewer of PDF files for KDE (I think..).

Or, you can get Acrobat Reader for Linux here: http://www.savewealth.com/support/acrobat/linux/ . Install it and see if it works.

Or if you want to download straight from Adobe's page and not from a mirror, the URL is www.adobe.com just look for Acrobat Reader.

Hope this helps

I think mozplugger is installed by default. Check /etc/mozpluggerrc and comment out the lines that invoke acroread. This is what I did to mine to get xpdf to work in Firefox.
----
text/x-pdf: pdf: PDF file
# repeat swallow(acroread) fill: acroread7 -openInNewWindow "$file"
# repeat swallow(documentShell) fill: acroread5 -geometry +9000+9000 +useF
rontEndProgram "$file"
repeat noisy swallow(Xpdf) fill: xpdf -g +9000+9000 "$file"
# repeat noisy swallow(gv) fill: gv --safer --quiet --antialias -geometry
+9000+9000 "$file"
----
Solved the problem for me.

#2, it already has acrobat reader, that is what freezes. I realize I could re-install, but will not have access to download for some weeks, due to early am trip to Mexico tomorrow.

#3, yes, I guess I could do that, but prefer that only as a last resort, it is better to find a solution. See folllowing posting to see what I call a fix.

#4, that sounds like exactly what I needed to know, where it is called out. Will try when I get a chance. Thanks so much.

I also have this problem of freezing. After running an strace on acroread7, I noticed that it was looking for files in my $HOME that were not there. However, after running the strace, my box froze and I never got the full dir. I will do it again and see what exactly it is missing. But I think that this is the direction to look in.

In the past week I have switched several times between 2005 and 2006 and now I am using the new December members' issue. So I am a bit muddled but...

I think KGhostview is part of KOffice - it opens various kinds of files. I have removed KOffice to get rid of KGhostview in one of the above distro's, but in another I had KGhostview installed but not KOffice, and KGhostview was not included in the 'uninstallable' softwares. I also removed Xpdf successfully, leaving Acroread7 in control so the when I double-clicked on a downloaded pdf file it opened in Acroread7.

I don't usually open pdf files that I have not downloaded so I don't know the answer to that. However don't you have to download Acroread7 as an extension to Firefox for this function? Maybe that's what you did?

I just looked at the firefox website and this is on offer:

***# 'PDF Download', (3.9 stars, 56914 downloads)
Allows to choose if you want to view a PDF file inside the browser (as PDF or HTML), if you want to view it outside Firefox with your default or custom PDF reader, or if you want to download it!***

They don't offer Acroread7.

Acroread7 comes with the powerpack versions, but is added-on to the other 2 readers which seems to be what causes the problem. You've got 3 softwares trying to do the same job.