Ubuntu
firefox package

Firefox 8 (Oneiric) can't open certain websites

Asked by Werner Kerler

I find that Firefox 8 can't open certain websites:
www.metmuseum.org www.511ny.org jp.trnslink.com.au

A dialog box says that they would be application/vnd.wap.xhtml+xml.
My system is desktop with Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric), language German.

Obviously the user-agent detection is incorrectly identifying
Firefox 8 as a mobile browser.

Firefox 3.6, Chromium and Explorer show these websites properly.
Thus the problem appears to be one of firefox 8 and not of the websites.

Apparently the useragent string of firefox 8 does not
always provide the necessary information.

According to whatsmyuseragent.com my user agent is:
Mozilla/5.0 (Ubuntu; X11; Linux x86_64; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0

This looks less elaborated than the user agents of the other browsers.

For example, for Firefox 3.6.17 on Ubuntu 9.10 I get
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; de; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110422 Ubuntu/9.10 (karmic) Firefox/3.6.17

and for Firefox 3.6.24 on Ubuntu 10.04 I have
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; de; rv:1.9.2.24) Gecko/20111107 Ubuntu/10.04 (lucid) Firefox/3.6.24

Apart from less information for firefox 8 the lower Gecko number und the
form of the rv number are puzzling.

The questions now are:
1) What precisely is the appropriate user agent for firefox 8 ?
2) How is it to be implemented in the system?

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Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

What is the output of:

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

Revision history for this message
Werner Kerler (werner-kerler) said : 		#2

Am 02.12.2011 14:56, schrieb actionparsnip:
> Your question #180722 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/180722
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> actionparsnip requested more information:
> What is the output of:
>
> lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy firefox
>

werner@pc4:~$ lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy firefox
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10
Codename: oneiric
Linux pc4 3.0.0-13-generic #22-Ubuntu SMP Wed Nov 2 13:27:26 UTC 2011
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
firefox:
   Installiert: 8.0+build1-0ubuntu0.11.10.3
   Kandidat: 8.0+build1-0ubuntu0.11.10.3
   Versionstabelle:
  *** 8.0+build1-0ubuntu0.11.10.3 0
         500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates/main
amd64 Packages
         500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-security/main
amd64 Packages
         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
      7.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu2 0
         500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main amd64
Packages

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

Your ID is:
Mozilla/5.0 (Ubuntu; X11; Linux x86_64; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0

And a good one is:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; de; rv:1.9.2.24) Gecko/20111107 Ubuntu/10.04 (lucid) Firefox/3.6.24

Try changing your ID to:
Mozilla/5.0 (Ubuntu; X11; Linux x86_64; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Ubuntu/11.10 (oneiric) Firefox/8.0

May help... (obviously backup the old one first)

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#4

It's a know issue, just change ua-string.
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+question/179908

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#5

Positive here to open the pages with e.g.
(X11; U; Arch; Linux i686; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0

(de)
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/wiki/User_Agent
Switcher-addon.
https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/user-agent-switcher/

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