156314 - Acrobat plugin fails to display PDF attachments in message window

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(MailNews Core :: MIME, defect)

Description

[Scott Moorhouse]

If the Acrobat Reader plugin (nppdf.so) is configured to handle the
application/pdf content type, and the user tries to open an attachment to an
E-mail with content type application/pdf, the plugin attempts to launch and the
Acrobat splash screen appears.  However, the plugin crashes/hangs/loops instead
of displaying the content of the pdf in the message window, which instead turns
grey.

Something creates a file in /tmp called file(random alphanumeric chars) which is
empty.  lsof shows that acroread has this empty /tmp file open.  strace shows
that acroread is attempting to do reads and is receiving EAGAIN errors on some
open file descriptor.

While attempting to diagnose this problem I discovered that a file with MIME
type APPLICATION/pdf (in all caps) gets by the plugin and launches Acrobat to
display the contents of the pdf -- so evidently the attachment is being properly
downloaded from the server.

Mozilla is configured so that the Acrobat plugin also displays linked pdf
documents inline properly.

Similar behavior observed on Linux and Solaris.

Comment 1

[Rainer Bielefeld]

I can confirm that bug with WIN98 starting with 
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.2a) Gecko/20020906
Until 1.1 I had no problem.
I do not think that it is a profile-problem: I can test it with the older
mozilla versions on my pc: RC3 for 1.0 and mozilla 1.1 open PDF withour problem,
my actual mozilla does not open PDF- attatchments.

Steps to reproduce:
1. select emai with pdf- att.
2. doubleclick on pdf- file in attatchment-pane
3. expected: Acrobat reader (5.0.5) opens pdf in mail window

The severity is higher than normal!
   actual: Adrord32 will be startted , but before the Acrobat Reader
   splash screen appears, executing of the readeer seems to be stopped.

Comment 2

[Rainer Bielefeld]

Seems to be no longer a Problem:
WFM with Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.2a) Gecko/20020913

General WFM?

Comment 3

[Lassi A. Tuura]

Problem still exists 1.4a, I cannot display any pdf attachments in mozilla, it
always opens acroread.  Exact version: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US;
rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030401.  Mail message is from IMAP server in case it matters.

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

See bug 236435.

Comment 5

[Mike Taney]

My statements are online on at my financial institution, when I click the link it opens a new tab and shows the link opening, then says "Done" with a blank screen.  No error comes up. Worked on 2.0, just upgraded to 3.0 RC 1

Comment 6

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to comment #5)
> My statements are online on at my financial institution, when I click the link
> it opens a new tab and shows the link opening, then says "Done" with a blank
> screen.  No error comes up. Worked on 2.0, just upgraded to 3.0 RC 1

Anything in the error console ?

If you install ViewAbout : http://www.rumblingedge.com/2009/02/10/viewabout-13/ can you select the About:plugins page ? And tell us what you see for pdf/acrobat ?

Comment 7

[Mike Taney]

Bug apeared in 3.0 RC1, I have not experienced any problems with PDF since installing public 3.0 a long time ago (on 3.0.7 now).....  I have no further information on the errors.

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Mike, are you in Firefox?  This bug is about Thunderbird.

Comment 9

[Mike Taney]

My apologies for that, I forgot what this was all about since I posted 10 months ago.  I don't use Thunderbird anymore, moved to a gmail accound and just use the web interface.  Sorry I can't be of more assistance.