Weird FIREFOX behaviour

[jac]

OK; this is tricky. I was trying to complete a form on-line using FIREFOX (it had always been OK before ...) I have used SuSE 10.1 without problem since installing it.

I noticed that all LOWER CASE key strokes were coming up on screen in an unreadable script, like an Asian language. Numbers, letters made no difference; they are all unreadbale. But UPPER CASE is as before ....
Before you ask, the keyboard is OK. And KONQUEROR and other applications are is OK.

This problem only affects FIREFOX. I removed it and re-loaded using the latest rpm files. No difference. Lower case comes up as gibberish.
Anyone seen this ? I tried changing fonts etc right the way across the board, but still FIREFOX makes lower case latters and numbers into gibberish.

jac

[oldcpu]

This problem only affects FIREFOX. I removed it and re-loaded using the latest rpm files. No difference. Lower case comes up as gibberish.
Anyone seen this ? I tried changing fonts etc right the way across the board, but still FIREFOX makes lower case latters and numbers into gibberish.

I don't know what is causing this, but I recommend you backup your bookmarks.html file and then change the name of the firefox config directories.

ie. After backing up your bookmarks.html go to:
" /home/jac/.firefox" and rename it to "/home/jac/.firefox-old" and also
"/home/jac/.mozilla" and rename it to "/home/jac/.mozilla-old"

Then try re-running firefox.

I recommend renaming (as opposed to deleting) so you can restore if need be.

Note when you re-isntalled firefox, it likely did not touch the config directories.

[jac]

So far partly successful, but I trashed the file system (how on earth ???) and only just got it back. Re-installing Firefox from the rpm file seemed to fix the lower case problem, but on creating a new desktop link, it has come back. Now to try again.

[jac]

OK; I can now run FIREFOX normally as long as I run it as root. If I run the programme as myself, I get a different home page (actually the standard default one) and still get the weird charaters in lowercase thing. So it has to be something that is specific to my user ID ?
I deleted everything I could find and reloaded FIREFOX 1.5.07. Same result every time. I give up ......................


(QUOTE=jac]OK; this is tricky. I was trying to complete a form on-line using FIREFOX (it had always been OK before ...) I have used SuSE 10.1 without problem since installing it.

I noticed that all LOWER CASE key strokes were coming up on screen in an unreadable script, like an Asian language. Numbers, letters made no difference; they are all unreadbale. But UPPER CASE is as before ....
Before you ask, the keyboard is OK. And KONQUEROR and other applications are is OK.

This problem only affects FIREFOX. I removed it and re-loaded using the latest rpm files. No difference. Lower case comes up as gibberish.
Anyone seen this ? I tried changing fonts etc right the way across the board, but still FIREFOX makes lower case latters and numbers into gibberish.

jac[/QUOTE]

[oldcpu]

OK; I can now run FIREFOX normally as long as I run it as root. If I run the programme as myself, I get a different home page (actually the standard default one) and still get the weird charaters in lowercase thing. So it has to be something that is specific to my user ID ?

Please re-read my post about how to rename the configuration files. I believe that should fix your problem.

Please note that user root and a regular user should have different configuration files.

Running firefox as user root is incredibly risky, and is just asking to be setup for someone to compromise your system.

[jac]

Looks as if I fixed it - but not the way I expected. I removed every trace of Firefox and then reinstalled from the latest rpm files. I installed it in my own directory area, not as root but as an ordinary user. Now the numbers and lower case letters appear in English ....
There must be an explanation, but I'll wait for the experts to figure it out.
Thanks for the help.
jac

[jac]

I spoke too soon. I have tried removing every trace of firefox and/or mozilla, including every config file, bookmarks, everything I can find. I have re-installed from rpm (1.5 version) and tarball (2.0 version) It works just fine - but ONLY if I deliberately run firefox as root.
As soon as I run it normally as a user, all lower (ONLY lower) case keyboard characters still appear in some weird language script. For example, in the home page, if I enter a Google search string in UPPER case, it appears in upper case, as you would expect.. If I use lower case, it is in some weird language - except if I run the programme as root - which I will not do except as a test..
Konqueror does not do this. No other programme does it; only firefox 1.5 or 2. Yes, I have tried downloading new copies, after deleting everything with firefox and mozilla in it.
Do I really have to completely re-install SuSE 10.1 ?? Looks very much like it ! And will that fix this problem ? Anyone know the answer ?

[gogalthorp]

I spoke too soon. I have tried removing every trace of firefox and/or mozilla, including every config file, bookmarks, everything I can find. I have re-installed from rpm (1.5 version) and tarball (2.0 version) It works just fine - but ONLY if I deliberately run firefox as root.
As soon as I run it normally as a user, all lower (ONLY lower) case keyboard characters still appear in some weird language script. For example, in the home page, if I enter a Google search string in UPPER case, it appears in upper case, as you would expect.. If I use lower case, it is in some weird language - except if I run the programme as root - which I will not do except as a test..
Konqueror does not do this. No other programme does it; only firefox 1.5 or 2. Yes, I have tried downloading new copies, after deleting everything with firefox and mozilla in it.
Do I really have to completely re-install SuSE 10.1 ?? Looks very much like it ! And will that fix this problem ? Anyone know the answer ?

If you follow oldcpu's instructions it should work. All the user settings for you are in your home directory. For root it is in roots home directory. You must rename the mozzila directories in your home directory as oldcpu said. This will force Firefox to recreate a new set of configuration files. This should fix the problem.

So far it seems you have done everything except what oldcpu told you to do. Also leave out 2.0, changing versions will only confuse things!

[jac]

OK, but removing ALL the mozilla.firefox config files should have worked just as effectively as re-naming them. There is no longer any bookmark file that I can find.

I simply deleted the files and installed from scratch ... No change. Running as root - no problem at all. Running as a user gives lower case gibberish for every keystroke.
.
Out of curiosity I just installed Nescape 7.2. No problem there - until I run it as a user. Then the lower case gibberish appears. So it is somewhere in the user config files, but NOT in any file named mozilla or firefox, and obviously not in any root config file.
This is a good one ..... thank goodness it has no effect on Konqueror. Now to try to track it down.....
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you follow oldcpu's instructions it should work. All the user settings for you are in your home directory. For root it is in roots home directory. You must rename the mozzila directories in your home directory as oldcpu said. This will force Firefox to recreate a new set of configuration files. This should fix the problem.

So far it seems you have done everything except what oldcpu told you to do. Also leave out 2.0, changing versions will only confuse things!