The problem began quite simply by trying to view the website at URL www.cbs.com.

This site has a selection menu (Shows, Video, Community, etc.) and below the menu header line a Flash animation display. On my browser, Iceweasel 2.0.0.12, using Flash Player 9.0.115.0 when you mouse over the menu selection items on the menu bar the menu structure itself appears behind the Flash animation. My operating system is Debian etch with all available updates as of 02/25/2008.

I believe that the functionality which allows this Java script controlled menu structure to appear on top of the Flash animation is the WMODE parameter set in source code of the web page.

Using the following link to test my Iceweasel browser/Flash Player combination it is easy to determine that the menu structures remain behind the Flash animation regardless of the absence of the WMODE parameter or whether WMODE is set to “transparent” or “opaque”.

http://www.communitymx.com/content/s...wmodetrans.htm

Testing with IE and Firefox on MS Windows 2000 reveals that without WMODE set the menus remain behind the Flash animation and when WMODE is set to “transparent” or “opaque” the menu structure appears on top. The “transparent” option simply allows you to see what is below the Flash animation in the DHTML layers.

Debian support says this is not a problem with Iceweasel and says it is a possible problem with XORG Composite Extension not being enabled.

In response I added the following to the end of xorg.conf for my userid:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

This had no effect on the menu structure appearing behind the Flash animation.

My current version of xorg is 7.1.0-19

The problem exists for both Iceweasel and Epiphany browsers on my copy of Debian etch.

My processor is a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz on a Dell Optiplex GX620 with the Intel 945GZ chip set.

Anyone with any ideas how to solve the riddle of the hidden menus is encouraged to reply?

Got no solution, but I also have the problem on etch with Swiftweasel and Iceweasel.

I never use the flash plug-in and never install it. On both Iceweasel and Mozilla the menu you are talking about is there and fully functional. Below the menu is an error message:

You must have the Flash Player installed.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

The web page designer has made the error message almost unreadable by using a lousy color scheme.

I suggest that the person who designed the web page simply screwed up by overlaying the flash area on top of the menu.

--------------------
Steve Stites

It is indeed true that when Flash Player is not installed the java script menu structure will appear on top. The truth is that without Flash Player you simply miss too much of the web content. Flash Player has become the primary method of providing video content on the web. I cannot remember when I last encountered a web site that required another method for viewing video content (e.g. Real Player).

There is one exception ABC, Discovery and several others have changed to Move Networks video distribution medium which at this time essentially cuts out the open source community. Move Networks (www.movenetworks.com) provides near high definition video but only to Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh OS/X clients. I complained to ABC and I hope others will as well.

Flash is also quite common for other web content and particularly so for European content.

Follow the following thread regarding my experience with Flash Player installation foe Iceweasel:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...anetch-611255/

When Flash auto installed in Iceweasel I thought I was having some kind of Bill Gate's Monopoly induced flash back.

I could be wrong, but I think these are just poorly-written webpages. That is, they test out okay against IE, and that's all they care about. I'd be interested to see if they render properly on Firefox on win32.

might also want to try changing the name of Iceweasel to Firefox in about:config

search general.useragnet.extra.firefox
change from Iceweasel/2.0.0.12 to Firefox/2.0.0.12

My suspicions at first were that the web page (www.cbs.com) was not properly coded. I do not believe this to be the case. The CBS web page and WMODE test page indicated above function properly under Windows 2000 on both IE and Firefox.

The following two links provide some coding insight into a web page using WMODE. I am unclear about z-index and how it relates.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=612985

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewto...sid=5a138fd504

Why might this be an issue?

I can do without the dancing turtles selling raisins.

----------------------
Steve Stites

Hello,

I'm having a similiar problem too, either in firefox or iceweasel, i'm using debian etch, flash player 9.
try www.netoptics.com, there should be a 'menu' appears if you mouse over the main menu, but it's overlapped by flash.

I think I read it's a Flash bug.
www.netoptics.com works fine here in konqueror (but not in iceweasel).