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I'll be trying a few more tests, but I think the correct thing to do at this point is to acknowledge that Firefox 3.0 has showstopping bugs, go back to Firefox 2, and then wait for the new version of Firefox 3.
That's what I did, went back to FF2. I didn't really see any noticeable improvements with 3 anyways. I had some crashes with a few sites that I don't get with FF2.
That's what I did, went back to FF2. I didn't really see any noticeable improvements with 3 anyways. I had some crashes with a few sites that I don't get with FF2.
Back to FF2 here also. Just wasn't worth the hassle.
I think I'm going to as well. I can't get a firefox-config or .pc files from building 3.0 so that means librsvg, vlc, totem, Open Office and others are broken with regards to building external plugins.
I like the new look but am dissapointed development wise. mozldap also seems to be broken with an ldap only client like Slackware has.
I use thunderbird, not GMail, but I followed steps 1 & 2 to set up GMail and then I had the option of choosing Thunderbird as the default.
How to do this.
1. In about:config
set "gecko.handlerService.allowRegisterFromDifferentHost" to true
set "network.protocol-handler.app.mailto;" /usr/bin/thunderbird
2. Run this in address line
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","http://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")
3. Firefox will ask permission to add this as default mailto handler..say yes
Click on a mailto link or right click to send page, Firefox will ask which application to use, choose thunderbird and set as default.
I can't get a firefox-config or .pc files from building 3.0 so that means librsvg, vlc, totem, Open Office and others are broken with regards to building external plugins.
I don't know about firefox-config, but the sources for the .pc files are now in the xulrunner directory instead of the mozilla directory. So I think you have to build xulrunner to get them.
I maintain the Firefox3 package for Linuxpackages.net, and I am seeing the same problems with the binary release from mozilla.org on a Slackware 12.1 system.
1. Thunderbird no longer opens when I click on a mailto: URL. The preference setting in firefox.js is correct, which is:
What do you get? What I see is that a box comes up giving me a choice to select thunderbird or Yahoo Mail. I can check a box to have it remember. I haven't tried T-bird since I don't use it currently, but the Yahoo Mail works for me. I need to test this with a fresh profile and a fresh user, however, as I may get different results that way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyz
2. The Preferences -> Applications panel is empty.
These are probably related in some way.
I have a default Slackware 12.1 system, which is KDE only. I then built orbit2, gconf, gnome-mime-data, and gnome-vfs, since I've read some articles that indicated that those GNOME packages need to be installed.
Nothing changed. Clicking on a mailto: URL still yields nothing, and the Applications panel is still empty.
I really need to solve this, as Slackware users depend on my packages.
Where does the Applications panel retrieve its information from? How can I debug this to determine why no action is being taken when I click on a mailto: URL?
I appreciate any help you can provide.
Thanks,
Ken Zalewski
It is not strange that the Applications panel is empty with a new profile, but it is strange that it is empty after you have added some handlers. All of this (which apps handle mailto's, tar files, whatever), by the way, is handled by the mimeTypes.rdf file.
Even in FF 2 I found the interface for modifying file type handlers lacking. You pretty much had to begin opening a file and then browse for you app to open it, and then check the 'Always do this' box (still true in FF 3). It would be much easier to just Add an entry in the Applications menu, but you couldn't do this in FF 2 either.
This is where the MIME Edit extension helps. I have heard that it can work for FF 3, so it will surely be a necessary addon for users who want to tweak their file type handlers. This is especially true in light of the empty Applications menu bug. You will probably need to add entries to your ~/.mailcap file as well for some special file handling.
Maybe patching firefox/defaults/profile/mimeTypes.rdf is what your package needs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dugan
I'll be trying a few more tests, but I think the correct thing to do at this point is to acknowledge that Firefox 3.0 has showstopping bugs, go back to Firefox 2, and then wait for the new version of Firefox 3.
Showstopping bugs? I'm not a Mozilla Developer, but I wouldn't call these "showstopping" bugs. They are more annoyances than anything and can be worked around.
I use thunderbird, not GMail, but I followed steps 1 & 2 to set up GMail and then I had the option of choosing Thunderbird as the default.
How to do this.
1. In about:config
set "gecko.handlerService.allowRegisterFromDifferentHost" to true
set "network.protocol-handler.app.mailto;" /usr/bin/thunderbird
2. Run this in address line
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","http://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")
3. Firefox will ask permission to add this as default mailto handler..say yes
Click on a mailto link or right click to send page, Firefox will ask which application to use, choose thunderbird and set as default.
I don't know about firefox-config, but the sources for the .pc files are now in the xulrunner directory instead of the mozilla directory. So I think you have to build xulrunner to get them.
Hey... Thanks for the heads up. I think I do remember hearing something about that. I also remember above mentioned plugins searching for an xulrunner-config file as a last ditch effort to locate mozilla sources. If I can get that sorted, I suppose ldap support isn't all that necessary and I might stick with 3.0....
As you recall, I am using Firefox 3 (binary distribution from mozilla.org) on a Slackware 12.1 system. Here are the steps I took to fix it:
1. Built and installed the following GNOME packages:
orbit2, gconf, gnome-mime-data, gnome-vfs, intltool, libbonobo, and libgnome
2. Commented out the line in /usr/lib/firefox/defaults/pref/firefox.js that sets network.protocol-handler.app.mailto to "/usr/bin/thunderbird".
3. Deleted the compreg.dat file in my Firefox profile ($HOME/.mozilla/firefox/...)
4. Restarted Firefox.
The compreg.dat file will get regenerated, and if you peek at that file, you'll see libmozgnome.so and libnkgnomevfs.so listed in there. Those are the two components (shared libs) in /usr/lib/firefox/components/ which depend on the GNOME libs, and those two components are probably responsible for providing the functionality necessary to populate the Applications panel.
The Preferences -> Applications panel is now populated with some entries, including the mailto entry. I can then set the mailto content type to /usr/bin/thunderbird (or use Yahoo, or whatever).
I find it disturbing that it takes SEVEN Gnome libs to provide functionality in Firefox3 that amounts to a simple hash table with storage and retrieval.
Slackware 12.1 ships with a package called shared-mime-info, from freedesktop.org, which is supposed to be desktop-independent. Maybe Firefox should be making use of the freedesktop.org standard.
Based upon my suspicions that these problems were linked to the mimeTypes.rdf file, I replaced that file in a fresh firefox profile with one from a profile that had mailto support properly working. The fresh profile then had correct mailto support for Thunderbird! By using many diffs I determined the specific lines that produced the behavior we want.
Don't edit your Firefox files while Firefox is open. Close it first and then make your changes.
Now when you click on a mailto link you should get a dialog box to choose between thunderbird in addition to the default yahoo. It is important to note that if you used the Official Slackware Firefox package (or used a similar thunderbird patch that is in that package) you will have two thunderbird mail entries to choose from. Only the new one will work. To get rid of the broken one you have to delete the
line from prefs.js in your profile and the firefox/defaults/pref/firefox.js file. Basically, the old thunderbird patch no longer seems to work (for now), so just don't use it.
By the way Gmail support can easily be added to the mimeTypes.rdf as well.
A Patch to do it all...Thunderbird, Gmail, and Yahoo mailto Support
I made a patch that will basically replace the mimeTypes.rdf file from the firefox installation. It adds Thunderbird and Gmail mailto support (while still including the Yahoo support) and you should be given the option to select which one to use when clicking on a mailto link.
Here is how to use it
Code:
cd /path/to/firefox
patch -p1 < /path/to/mozilla-firefox-mimeTypes-fix.diff
Now all new profiles (and old ones if you remove their original mimeTypes.rdf file) will have the mailto support.
Here is the actual patch. Note that the gmail lines are similar to the yahoo lines.
Thanks again dugan for mentioning xulrunner. Still building/testing but that looks like it'll solve my woes. It installs some pkgconfig files, namely mozilla-plugin.pc, which should sort the plugin issues with other packages. I have a sneaking suspicion that if you build firefox against the standalone xulrunner source, you might also wind up with a /usr/bin/firefox-config as well.
I'm building xulrunner as a part of firefox with the extra --enable-application= arguement and with the standalone xulrunner source to see which is best. Really a shame they split all this stuff up since 2.x......
That's probably was was causing the behavior for me that I mentioned earlier. Nice hunting on your part. I don't suffer from this "bug" you guys are talking about, presumably since I build from source, but nice to know anyway.
The patch looks like a nice addition. I'll probably use it myself. Thanks.
Just tried building a Firefox 3.0 package for Slack 12.0, and it looks like it's working OK.
The only modification I did was to comment out the lines that applied the Thunderbird patch. The first time I tried a mailto link, the pop-up dialog appeared, and I had to add the /usr/bin/thunderbird option (and saved the setting). After that, all mailto links work as per usual.
After this I noticed that the following is now in the ~/.mozilla/firefox/<random chars>.default/mimeTypes.rdf file:
Yea. I have no problems either. It's because we build from source. This seems to be an official binary problem as far as I'm aware.
I think regis_n_bits actually just built the firefox package from the slackBuild (binary repacking).
The problem, as I said earlier, is that the old thunderbird patch no longer works in Firefox 3.0 (mail handling changed). The patch I submitted in my last post can be used in a slackBuild or on a installed firefox package. If the old thunderbird patch was used you have to undo it, unless you want more than one thunderbird entry (one being broken).
No compiling whatsoever is needed to fix this. I think you know this, but I just want to make sure others are clear on this.
Getting the Application menu to work properly may be a different story, however, and I am disappointed to see that Firefox may be so dependent on GNOME components.
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