Outside the Beltway

Bleg: Firefox Eating Pictures!

James Joyner
21

Comments

Since installing Firefox 3.03 recently, I’ve noted that images on OTB display only intermittently.  I thought I had solved the problem by clearing the cache but it has now reappeared.   Others have noted the same problem with Firefox.

Anyone have a solution to the problem, aside from switching browsers?

UPDATE:  Chris Lawrence seems to have identified the culprit:  the Feedly extension for Firefox.  He, Steven Taylor, and myself all had it and started experiencing issues when Firefox forced us to install the 3.03 upgrade.

Categories

Tags

, ,

21 responses to “Bleg: Firefox Eating Pictures!”

  1. Alex Knapp Avatar
    Alex Knapp

    Anyone have a solution to the problem, aside from switching browsers?

    Umm…. switch browsers? I like Chrome, myself. Oh, you said something besides that. I don’t know. I stopped using Firefox after 3.0 came out because it slowed down my computer like crazy.

  2. ronbailey Avatar
    ronbailey

    If you have Ad-Block or Ad Block plus installed, you might want to check your ad filters. Both plug-ins will block images based on file names; if the missing image has the word “ad” or “advertisement” in it’s name I will almost guarantee that that is what’s going on.

  3. 186 Avatar
    186

    What Operating System are you using?

    Linux / Ubuntu has an issue with firefox and flash files.

  4. Triumph Avatar
    Triumph

    If you think Firefox’s penchant for eating pictures is bad, wait until Obama becomes president and he unleashes his Hitler-esque plan to sell the US out to terror.

    Gliches in web browsers will seem quaint at that point.

  5. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    I like Chrome, myself. Oh, you said something besides that. I don’t know. I stopped using Firefox after 3.0 came out because it slowed down my computer like crazy.

    I installed Chrome at the office and like it. Unfortunately, it crashes every time I try to install at home and I basically gave up on it, since I prefer a seamless experience.

    What Operating System are you using?

    XP

  6. Bithead Avatar
    Bithead

    James;
    Process of elimination;
    Try your browser with other WordPress blogs.
    I run WP myself.
    Do the pictures still get eaten by your browser?

  7. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    Try your browser with other WordPress blogs.

    I haven’t noticed it elsewhere. Then again, I haven’t done anything unusual at OTB that would/should have sparked this, either.

  8. Bithead Avatar
    Bithead

    Hard to figure.
    See, I’ve seen my own site get really funky on jpg placement. Also had it utterly refuse to do YouTube embeds without the WP plugin I threw in a bit back. Both those problems went away with the new theme and CSS.

    I’m thinking your problem is along those lines somewhere.

    I suspect, tight as your CSS is on this site,(And your CSS is valid, too… I’ve checked) you’re looking at an undocumented feature, involving the interplay with the CSS and the browser.

    That said, I’m running 3.x at home, and have not noted the problem you’re talking about, your site or mine. Are you running “gears” in your browser?

  9. Dave Schuler Avatar
    Dave Schuler

    I doubt it’s a Firefox problem per se. I’m running Firefox 3.0.3 and have no problem with img’s at OTB.

  10. utka Avatar
    utka

    It happened to me, too. In my case, it turned out that one of the Add-On extensions, RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin, was causing the problem. Go to Tools -> Add-Ons -> Extensions, disable the RealPlayer plugin, and restart the browser may fix your problem.

  11. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    I use Firefox 3 at work on WinXP, and at home on Linux, never had a problem on your site or any others. What extensions are you running? Also, can you be more specific about what you mean by “eating”? Are they showing the place-holder image, not being rendered, or not even in the HTML?

    Linux / Ubuntu has an issue with firefox and flash files.

    Should read: Flash has issues with Linux/Ubuntu. Or, just that Flash has issues in general.

  12. Matt Avatar
    Matt

    I too use firefox without any issues here =/

  13. sam Avatar
    sam

    What Operating System are you using?

    Linux / Ubuntu has an issue with firefox and flash files.

    Linux Flash has problems centering on the ALSA sound driver. There are workarounds that are spelled kludge. You can follow the “progress” of the resolution of the bug here. There doesn’t seem to be a problem if you use a dedicated sound card rather than onboard sound (and so don’t use the ALSA driver).

    As to James’s bleg…well, I use Opera on Linux, but I also use it on my wife’s XP box. I recommend giving it a try. I’ve never encountered the problem James mentions with the Windows version of Opera.

  14. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    Linux Flash has problems centering on the ALSA sound driver. There are workarounds that are spelled kludge.

    I hadn’t heard that before, I have no sound problems and I’m using ALSA with my built-in Intel. Mostly my problem with flash is that it either makes Firefox consume 100% of my CPU, or crashes it. Mostly I just run with Flashblock, so it doesn’t bother me.

  15. Chris Lawrence Avatar
    Chris Lawrence

    Hmm, I’m having problems with Firefox 3.0.3 on this site on OS X. Maybe there’s something funky going on with HTTP pipelining or something on OTB’s server.

  16. Chris Lawrence Avatar
    Chris Lawrence

    Here’s one problem: when I try to view your headshot, I get the following error:

    “You don’t have permission to access /wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/joyner_bio_80x80.png on this server.”

    Seems like a permissions thingy.

    Is that the problem you’re seeing or is there another one?

  17. Dyre42 Avatar
    Dyre42

    I’m running Firefox 3.03 on an XP system and haven’t noticed any picture problems.

  18. Bithead Avatar
    Bithead

    “You don’t have permission to access /wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/joyner_bio_80x80.png on this server.”

    Ouch. Sounds like WP isn’t allowing access to the database, based on a permissions issue with the “About the author” plugin.

  19. sam Avatar
    sam

    I hadn’t heard that before, I have no sound problems and I’m using ALSA with my built-in Intel. Mostly my problem with flash is that it either makes Firefox consume 100% of my CPU, or crashes it. Mostly I just run with Flashblock, so it doesn’t bother me.

    It’s not a sound problem, per se, Michael. Because of the way Flash interacts with the ALSA driver, it will hang my browser to the point where I have to open a terminal and kill the browser with extreme prejudice (simple kill won’t work). I can still use flash on a one-only basis, so, in Opera, I just turn off the plugins via the quick preferences menu, then turn them on when I want to really see something. The bug is pretty well described at the link, and it seems to infect all flavors of Linux.

  20. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    Because of the way Flash interacts with the ALSA driver, it will hang my browser to the point where I have to open a terminal and kill the browser with extreme prejudice (simple kill won’t work).

    Wow, I’ve never had it that bad, never even had to resort to the terminal. But like I said, I usually don’t run the flash plugin, especially now that I can get all my YouTube videos through Totem.

  21. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    Ouch. Sounds like WP isn’t allowing access to the database, based on a permissions issue with the “About the author” plugin.

    Permissions on the database, or on the filesystem? That looked like a file access error.

Latest Posts