New AA Reader 7.x but need help with setup

As I remember you should not have to do any linking or any set-up. The acroread and plugin packages get configured during their install by Synaptic (apt-get).

Close any/all instances of FireFox.

Open FireFox.

Go to this site:
http://www.georgetown.edu/students/student-aid/sample.pdf

or this one (which is much larger)
http://public.itrs.net/Files/2001ITRS/Test.pdf

and let us know what happens.

Al

I followed your instructions and nothing happened. With each PDF you gave me all that happens is the arrow pointer and teeny watch stay on a blank screen. I wait and wait and wait and finally hit Ctrl-Esc to kill 2 acroreads and Firefox. This is the only way to get out of this freeze-up of Firefox.

Now the new Reader 7.x is fine as a stand alone. I can open that (but still not read anything in it) but it's not linked to Firefox for some reason.

Incidentally, Synaptic Package Manager put my new Acrobat Reader 7.x into:
/usr/lib/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin/acroread

Perhaps this problem has to do with old 5.x plug-ins causing some problem- I don't know. Maybe I should remove the acroread and acroread-plug-ins packages and start all over. What do you think?

Two different people in the Yahoo MEPIS group told me to do the following:

- guy #1:

In the Firefox menu, select Edit > Preferences,
go to Downloads and if available select the .pdf filetype,
click on the Change Action button, then chase down your new reader
application under /usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin/acroread.
Click "OK" and "OK" and you now should be using the new reader.

[Stan's comments for Mepis.org forum readers: I did as he told me but that didn't help. Of course I used /usr/lib/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin/acroread instead of what he thought it would be for my new acroread 7.0]

However, I have also seen some installations that somehow plugin the
reader so it open within the Firefox application. This may be related
to the acroread-plugin package, but to be honest, I don't setup my
Adobe Reader that way.

Maybe someone else can offer alternatives to this technique.

............

- guy #2:

The easiest way is to open a pdf with firefox, and
when it asks which program to use, browse to the
acroread executeable and tell it to always use that
one. You can also go to the Edit:Preferences menu and
use the download tab, and configure your firefox to
use Acroread. The other option is to copy the Acrobat
plugins to your ./mozilla/firefox/plugins directory.

[Stan's comments: I haven't done this copying for the reason below.] [Incidentally, I count 26 new files having 'plug-in' in /usr/lib/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Reader/intellinux And there are 7 files having 'plug-in' in /usr/share/ I don't know if these latter ones were there from 5.x or came in with 7.x.]

Since I have a dial-in connection, I didn't get all of the latest Acrobat Reader 7.x files in one session-- I had to do the downloading over 3 sessions, 2 consecutive days. [I suppose many people are downloading 7.x now.] I'm certain that the new plug-ins were installed *before* I got the latest acroread 7.x which was the last to be downloaded in a session earlier today. Maybe this explains why things are screwed up, why nothing works as it should.

Do you think I should just start all over again by removing all packages, then download first the main acroread package and later (if another session is required) download the plug-ins?

Stan

In FireFox enter:
about:plugins
and see if there is anything about PDF files.

You should see something about Acrobat 7.

I'd probably reinstall. You only need 3 packages:

acroread
acroread-plugins
mozilla-acroread

All are version 7.0-0.9 on my machine. I obtain them from the
ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/
repository. Make sure this is checked in the Synaptic, Settings, Repos screen.

If you are on dial-up you might want to download all three of them and then install them later with dpkg -i xxxxxxxx.deb

TTBOMK, you can't just download with Synaptic. But you can with Kpackage so try that if you wish. Download them to your Documents folder and install them after you get them. You can go to a terminal and do: man dpkg

apt, Synaptic, Kpackage are just 'front-ends' to the dpkg system in Debian distros.

Don't panic. We'll get you through this. Can I assume you have installed the latest version of Mepis: 3.3.1? I hope so. If not, that's what you should be using.

Al

In Firefox, I checked about:plugins and I get:

Adobe Reader 7.0
File name: nppdf.so
The Adobe Reader plugin is used to enable viewing of PDF and FDF files from within the browser.

MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
application/pdf Portable Document Format pdf Yes
application/vnd.fdf Acrobat Forms Data Format fdf Yes
application/vnd.adobe.xfdf XML Version of Acrobat Forms Data Format xfdf Yes
application/vnd.adobe.xdp+xml Acrobat XML Data Package xdp Yes
application/vnd.adobe.xfd+xml Adobe FormFlow99 Data File xfd Yes

Before going to the above to see if the 7.x plugins were there, I first removed the 3 packages of 7.x: acroread, acroread-plugins, and mozilla-acroread. Then I used Kpackage to download and install them. [I didn't put them first into my Documents folder. Why is this important to do?]

I'll download them now using Kpackage and I'll put them this time into my Documents folder (if that will work out for me).

Maybe I'm having so much trouble because I don't reboot my computer after installing packages. Does one have to reboot to get things to work properly?

And yes, I'm using SM 3.3.1-1 (for some time now).

Stan, still puzzled

I just used Kpackage to uninstall the 3 packages, then I changed the Kpackage cache folder from /home/Stan/.kpackages to /home/Stan/Documents. Next I downloaded the 3 thinking they'd be saved in /home/Stan/Documents but there's nothing there except some documents I put there long ago.

I suppose I don't know how to use Kpackage correctly, to make it put packages into some directory for use later.

How is it done? Please explain with details.

[Again, I did no reboot after removing the 3 packages and no reboot after downloading them to what I thought would be the holding folder.]

[BTW, two days ago I had also downloaded a package called pdfscreen 1.5-6-- this allows one to create and view PDF documents. Thinking that this installed package was causing the problems for me I removed it when I removed the other 3 main packages a short while ago.]

Thanks,

Stan

You keep doing stuff.... removing this, installing that, changing the cache folder.

I'm trying to help but I can't do it if you don't want to follow the instructions.

Personally I think you have a really screwed up Mepis and I'd re-install the darn thing and than NOT MESS WITH IT except to install the three acroread files with Synaptic or Kpackage.

From about:plugins it looks like you have acroread installed but I don't know why it does not work... but considering how much you have tinkered with things it's no wonder.

Linux is a very simple operating system. Things belong in certain places and most of the time if you just follow the instructions things work well and don't break.

Al

Fixing this was a simple matter of deleting what you told me a while ago to do: delete (or rename) the acroread 5.x. I did that and the new 7.x works fine now.

[Incidentally, I changed the Kpackage cache folder - changed to Documents - because you Al told me to do that.]

I'm sorry you got upset in trying to help me. Anyway, thanks again for the help.

Stan

So deleting the 5.0 is the key? Well I didn't know that. On my Mepis system I have both 5 and 7. But I have the Debian version and not the Mepis version of 7.0. (Mepis came with 5.0 as I remember.)

As for changing the Kpackage cache, I doubt that is what I said because for one I don't use Kpackage and for two didn't even know it HAD a cache, much less how to change it It stick to Synaptic as I've not had any problems with it.

I wasn't upset, I was just exasperated and frustrated because I was trying to help but you were like a 'moving target.' Anyway, all's well that ends well.

Al

I of course didn't know it at the time but I was having all those problems with Adobe Reader 7.x because of a known, reported problem for Linux users, and I only discovered the info about this problem last night: there's some big flaw in 7.x when used with Firefox. See:

http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/acroread.html [Scroll down to what's just below.]

http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/acroread.html#linux-ar7-embed

Embedded PDF files do not display when using Adobe Reader 7.0

It has been reported that PDF files embedded in web pages will not display when using the Adobe Reader 7.0 browser plugin, due to it not passing the correct options to acroread.
Adobe Reader 7.0 Plugin doesn't work with Mozilla 1.8 cycle builds

This is a known issue, which was reported to Adobe during beta testing. There's no known solution at this time.

[end of info from PlugInDoc.mozdev.org]
............

My 7.x only worked briefly and probably only because, though I had thrown into the Trash all remnants of 5.x, some 5.x file in the Trash must have allowed my 7.x to work. I emptied my Trash and 7.x would no longer work.

So I and others will just have to wait for a new, improved version of 7.x to come out.

[I looked at Help in my Firefox to see if it states what build cycle I'm using. I only see this in Firefox Help:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7. Gecko/20050610 Firefox/1.0.4 (Debian package 1.0.4-3)]

Since your Reader 7.x works Al, I suppose you have some Firefox which is not in the Mozilla 1.8 cycle build series.

Stan

I have no problem with FF using acroread 7.0 as a plugin. I'm using (from FF Help/About screen):

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7. Gecko/20050610 Firefox/1.0.4 (Debian package 1.0.4-3)

I don't know what a "pdf embedded in a web page" is. Can you give me an example URL? My definition of a plugin is where FireFox opens a pdf in the FireFox space and does not prompt you for anything.

What happens when you click on this:

http://www.georgetown.edu/students/student-aid/sample.pdf

Does it load automatically or does it prompt you or does it just hang?
Al

I suppose "pdf embedded in a web page" would be all the PDF links found here:
http://www.dds.ga.gov/FormsandManuals/index.aspx#Manuals I can't produce or read any of these because my 7.x still is broken, but I know what should happen. Clicking on any of those manuals causes the PDF to appear inside a new FF page. Right?

I found a great deal of discussion about this 7.x problem in two Linux forums. It seems people having far more experience I have with Linux are encountering the same problem I have. Here are the two forums where this is being discussed:

There are 3 pages of discussion here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=304983&highlight=adobe+reader

and in

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=290631&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=firefox+adobe+reader

From what I can understand and gather, the problem has to do with one's path, with something wrong with the connection/link between FF and Adobe 7.x, and the presence of some old (5.x) file somewhere.

In the first URL given above there is this posting:

Dr_P_Ross

(post #12)

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.

[end of this post]

-----------

And in the 2nd URL above, there's this from "Guest":

I had this same problem [of a blank page] when I installed version 7.0 of adobe reader in my home directory in Linux. I eventually tracked down the cause to the existence of another 'acroread' in my path. it seems like this problem is caused (in my case anyway) by the plugin having trouble tracking down the correct adobe reader executable.

[end of posting by "Guest"]

------------

I'd like to look over my path but don't know where or how to do this. [I know that a path is something like /usr/lib/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nnpdf.so
But I figure there's some other important PATH I have to inspect.

Where do I find it? I figure that like PATH in Windows, some basic, important PATH in Linux has some listing of executables. Yes, is that right? Where is PATH?

You asked about that Georgetown PDF URL you gave me. I copied http://www.georgetown.edu/students/student-aid/sample.pdf to an email message and sent it to myself. Then, with FF closed, I clicked on it. FF opens and the page is blank with the word "Done" at the bottom-- this is what happens to others having this same problem. If I highlight what's in the URL box -- the same address ending with the above PDF -- and hit the FF reload button, FF freezes. As I told here before, I then have to hit Ctrl-Esc to get the KDE System Guard-Process Table, kill *two* acroreads and FF to get out of this frozen state.

I know others have fixed this problem. I just don't know enough about PATH and the creation of scripts (symbolic links) to fix this. I hope you can offer some more tips/help.

Stan