Ubuntu
firefox package

website text that should be black appears grey

Asked by Angela Hamilton

Hi. On websites, text that should be black is actually displayed as grey, and therefore very hard to read. How do I change this? I didn't get any joy from changing the appearance preferences. I am usuing Natty Narwhal and Firefox 4.0.1

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Eliah Kagan
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Revision history for this message
Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#1

Update your system in the Update Manager to see if the problem goes away. This should update Firefox to version 7.0.1. Firefox 4.0.1 is no longer supported, and contains numerous security vulnerabilities that put you at risk. It also contains stability and usability bugs, and you may well be suffering from one of them with this issue.

If that fixes the problem, you can mark this question as Solved. If not, then please open a Terminal window (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run this command, by copying it to the clipboard and pasting it into the Terminal:

lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy firefox; firefox -v; which -a firefox

Then select all the text in the Terminal (Edit > Select All), copy it to the clipboard (Edit > Copy), and paste it here.

In addition, please try logging in to your Ubuntu system with a different user account, and see if the problem occurs when you run Firefox. If you only have one user account, you can create a second one for testing purposes. Please note that I am not suggesting that using a different user account is a suitable solution--instead, this is a diagnostic step for determining where the problem lies.

Revision history for this message
Angela Hamilton (mrsideas) said : 		#2

Hi Eliah, Thanks for your response.

I have followed your instructions with the following results:

Upgrading my system did not solve the problem.

When I copied the command you sent me into the terminal window, this is what came back at me:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04
Codename: natty
Linux Hamilton 2.6.38-12-generic-pae #51-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 28 16:11:32 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
firefox:
  Installed: 7.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.11.04.1
  Candidate: 7.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.11.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 7.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.11.04.1 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-updates/main i386 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-security/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     4.0+nobinonly-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty/main i386 Packages
Mozilla Firefox 7.0.1
fourhamiltons@Hamilton:~$ firefoxfailed to create drawable

I created an additional user account and the problem still occurs when I log in with this account.

Regards

Angela

> To: <email address hidden>
> From: <email address hidden>
> Subject: Re: [Question #176972]: website text that should be black appears grey
> Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:25:55 +0000
>
> Your question #176972 on firefox in Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+question/176972
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Eliah Kagan proposed the following answer:
> Update your system in the Update Manager to see if the problem goes
> away. This should update Firefox to version 7.0.1. Firefox 4.0.1 is no
> longer supported, and contains numerous security vulnerabilities that
> put you at risk. It also contains stability and usability bugs, and you
> may well be suffering from one of them with this issue.
>
> If that fixes the problem, you can mark this question as Solved. If not,
> then please open a Terminal window (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run this command, by
> copying it to the clipboard and pasting it into the Terminal:
>
> lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy firefox; firefox -v; which -a
> firefox
>
> Then select all the text in the Terminal (Edit > Select All), copy it to
> the clipboard (Edit > Copy), and paste it here.
>
> In addition, please try logging in to your Ubuntu system with a
> different user account, and see if the problem occurs when you run
> Firefox. If you only have one user account, you can create a second one
> for testing purposes. Please note that I am not suggesting that using a
> different user account is a suitable solution--instead, this is a
> diagnostic step for determining where the problem lies.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+question/176972/+confirm?answer_id=0
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+question/176972
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.

Revision history for this message
Best Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#3

Try reinstalling Firefox, by quitting all Firefox windows and running this command (you can paste it into the Terminal while Firefox is open, then close Firefox, and then run it, if you like):

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get -y upgrade; sudo apt-get --purge --reinstall install firefox

Please make sure to copy that command from https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+question/176972 and not from your email, since if you copy it from your email, it will get split into two lines and be incorrect. (Even if it appears as two lines on Launchpad, if you select and copy the whole thing at a time, it will be copied as one line.)

If that doesn't help, then please create a screenshot showing the problem (to do this, reproduce the problem and tap the Print Screen key once), post it on the web (you could use a site like http://imageshack.us), and post a link to it here.

Revision history for this message
Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#4

(Also, if that doesn't work, please include all the text from the Terminal. This time, please include *all* of it, not just what happens after you press enter. You can use Edit > Select All and Edit > Copy in the Terminal to achieve this.)

Revision history for this message
Angela Hamilton (mrsideas) said : 		#5

Thanks Eliah Kagan, that solved my question.