Firefox no longer follows some links and no longer opens ESPN3 player [Solved]

[Ditzian]

Firefox has stopped streaming when I want to watch ESPN3 sports, although my Windows laptop does this just fine.  Firefox also no longer follows some links, but Opera, on the same computer, opens those links properly.  However, a quick check of Opera shows that it, too, does not stream ESPN3.  The viewer opens, but there is no indication that the buffer is filling, and nothing further happens.  This is true for both Opera and Firefox.

I am using Firefox 9.0.1, PCLinuxOS  2011, I guess, and KDE4.

Help would be appreciated.  Is this a Java issue?

Jan

[djohnston]

It's a bit slow to start, but ESPN3 is working here in Firefox. The player says it is "powered by COX", which is my ISP. Don't know if that varies by carrier or not.

Do you have a link?

[Old-Polack]

Ditzian:

What you are missing, from FF

[Old-Polack]

And from Opera:

[winestein]

Did u install a hosts file in /etc? Cuz that can be the prob here. You can test by moving the hosts file out of /etc to somewhere else as root of course  make sure all firefox windows are closed   then open firefox and try site, if this method works then its a hosts file issue also the host file has gotten corruped on my system many times by goin into the control center and looking at hosts file there and i even cancelled so theres a glitch in there
 
 

[Ditzian]

winestein:  I did not add to a hosts file. I just checked and there are several hosts files, some with the default line 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost, one with only comments, and one that is not a text file.  hosts.allow, hosts.deny, hosts.equiv, and hosts.lpd are comments.  There is a hosts file in etc/shorewall but when I click it pclos asks me what to use to open it, so it is not executable nor is it text.

O-P: I get the Watch ESPN and event schedule graphics and the search box, with a black screen below it, then below that a Scores line graphic, and below that thumbnails of available games, none of which links do anything, such as bring up the game, which is what they are supposed to do.  Actually, even getting this far should have brought up the game that I selected at the initial screen. 

djohnston:  I get the graphic: Powered by Windstream, which is my ISP.  I know that they have subscribed to ESPN because: (1) it used to work, (2) they said they subscribed in an e-mail last year, and (3) it works in Windows.

Jan

[winestein]

it would only be called hosts   but if you don't a have that file   then move those 4 hosts files some where else temporarily and make sure firefox is closed then open it try that site, if it  works  move the files back one at a time, each time closing firefox and opening the site to see if it works cuz one of those 4 hosts files can be corrupted

[Ditzian]

it would only be called hosts   but if you don't a have that file   then move those 4 hosts files some where else temporarily and make sure firefox is closed then open it try that site, if it  works  move the files back one at a time, each time closing firefox and opening the site to see if it works cuz one of those 4 hosts files can be corrupted

I will do this, but it would be easier if I simply renamed the files, so that I have an easier time keeping track of them and where they belong.  Would this accomplish the same thing?  I would name them hosts.bak and leave them where they are.

Jan

[winestein]

yes that's fine to rename

[Ditzian]

I renamed all the hosts text files to hosts.bak, exited Firefox and restarted it, and the result was the same--no play on ESPN3.

Jan

[menotu]

Could try running Bleach Bit and do a quick "clean"

Firefox stuff (be careful if you want to keep cookies/passwords etc)

Mebbe also clean out

Flash
Java
KDE tmp and cache stuff
System tmp and cache stuff

My personal preference when I "clean" apps using Bleach Bit is to make sure they're all first closed down.

[Ditzian]

Could try running Bleach Bit and do a quick "clean"

Firefox stuff (be careful if you want to keep cookies/passwords etc)

Mebbe also clean out

Flash
Java
KDE tmp and cache stuff
System tmp and cache stuff

My personal preference when I "clean" apps using Bleach Bit is to make sure they're all first closed down.

Did this.  No success, except I got rid of 3.2 GB of garbage--the computer smells better now.

Jan

[djohnston]

Ditzian,

Create a new user account. Log out of your regular account. Log in as the new user. Start Firefox and go to the ESPN site. If the problem has disappeared, it's something in your user settings. If the problem persists, it's something in the system settings.

[Ditzian]

Ditzian,

Create a new user account. Log out of your regular account. Log in as the new user. Start Firefox and go to the ESPN site. If the problem has disappeared, it's something in your user settings. If the problem persists, it's something in the system settings.

New user, same result, no joy.

Can you give me more information about what system settings are and where I should look for them.  I went to PCLinuxOS Control Center and there are system service, but none of them struck me as applicable.  What am I seeking?

I began to look at the Firefox Preferences settings for applications, but then I realized that Opera failed the same way on espn, although it works for the links that Firefox does not follow. 

Jan

[djohnston]

Can you give me more information about what system settings are and where I should look for them.  I went to PCLinuxOS Control Center and there are system service, but none of them struck me as applicable.  What am I seeking?

Well, let's start here:

I am using Firefox 9.0.1, PCLinuxOS  2011, I guess, and KDE4.

Are you fully up to date? Enter the following in a terminal. You don't need root privileges.

rpm --version
apt-get --version

You should see RPM version 4.8.1 and apt 0.5.15lorg3.95. No one has yet asked what video card you are using and what driver is loaded for it. Look for that information in PCC>Hardware>Browse and Configure Hardware. Click the arrow to the left of Videocard in the left pane, then click the videocard shown to see the information.