697698 - Pdf pages no longer loads if changing application handling pref on Linux

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 675642

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[Virgil Dicu [:virgil] [QA]]

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:10.0a1) Gecko/20111027 Firefox/10.0a1
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0

Found on Firefox 8 Beta 5, reproducible on Ubuntu 11.10 and 11.04 (x86_64 and x86)

After changing the pref from Edit-Preferences-Applications for "pdf", pdf pages no longer load online. Instead a blank/black page is displayed. After restarting Firefox, pdf pages load properly once again.
 
STR:
1. Install Adobe reader.
2. Launch Firefox with a new profile.
3. Load http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040ez.pdf?portlet=3 in a new tab.
4. Close the tab.
5. Toggle the option from preferences/Applications for pdf.(Always Ask->Use Adobe reader or the other way around)
6. Load http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040ez.pdf?portlet=3 again in a new tab.
7. Repeat steps 5-6 again or load the page consecutively in three tabs.

Actual result: after step 6 or Nightly-step 7, loading pdf pages lead to a blank or black page in Firefox.

Expected result: pdf page should load properly.

I can easily reproduce it on Firefox 8Beta5 with the first 6 steps. Sometimes, on nightly however, needed step 7 to reproduce the issue. (usually after the second or third repeat of steps 5-6 I could get a blank/black page)

I could reproduce this in a Minefield build too.(Firefox 4).

Comment 1

[Scott Talbert]

Hi Virgil, since you are on x86_64, you are using nspluginwrapper, correct?  If so, I suspect changing the application handling preference may not be related to the problem you're seeing.  I suspect you'd see the same results if, instead of step 5, you wait for 30 seconds instead.  Do you see the same result?

Comment 2

[Virgil Dicu [:virgil] [QA]]

Hi. Yes, that's true. Waiting for 30 seconds does the trick. Pdf page turns black. I'll mark this as a duplicate for bug 675642. This seems to be the same old issue, then. Hopefully, someone will take a look on that in the future.

Comment 3

[Scott Talbert]

I have been trying to look into it.  It seems to be a very tricky issue to resolve, unfortunately.