Ubuntu
firefox package

Firefox Will Not Connect to Web - Karmic

Asked by Lawrence H. Bulk

I apologize in advance for the length of this thread but I hope someone can help me.

My wife and I have two Acer Extensa 5620-6419 computers. We have both been using Ubuntu since last year. With 8.04 'Hardy Heron' there was only one problem - the delete key wouldn't work - but that was quickly fixed via an update.

When 8.10 'Intrepid Ibex' came out, having read that clean installs were better than network upgrades, I wiped both of our computers with DBAN and installed 8.10. With that version, we had absolutely no problems.

I did do a network upgrade on my own computer to 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" and found one unique problem: while I could still burn CDs via an external drive, I could not burn DVDs with it; I could burn them with the computer's internal CD/DVD drive. (I tried several external drives and got thee same results with all.)

I then wiped my computer again and did a clean install; the same problem persisted (everything else worked fine,, however).

I posted several questions both here and on the Community forum about this problem with 9.04 (I even made a bug report here) but I never received even one helpful answer.

Now with "Karmic," I have a MAJOR problem. I did a network upgrade on my computer and the first night,, everything worked perfectly for several hours; anything I wanted to do, I could do. It is much faster, and appeared to be far better than any other version thus far. I had planned to try to burn a DVD with an external burner the next day.

But the next day, I could no longer get onto the internet with Firefox. This is very strange! Why all of a sudden when I had had no problems at all the night before? My internet connection is fine and I could even check (and get) updates via the Update Manager; I was even able to play certain internet radio stations whose URLs I had saved in my Music folder. Obviously I was connected! But I could not get on the web at all.

I did a clean install on my wife's computer - with similar results. At first our selected home page would partially download, but, after fiddling around a bit, it would not even do that.

I wiped my computer, did a clean install, and - the same thing.

Everything else works perfectly; updating is no problem.

What could be wrong?

In the mean time, I wiped both of the computers and I reinstalled 8.04 'Hardy Heron' on my wife's computer (and everything works perfectly, as it did last year) and I'll do the same on my own unit tomorrow.

Does ANYONE have any ideas concerning this major problem? What worries me is that, if this "normal" release cannot be fixed, will the next release which is a LTS be any better? Support for 8.04 ends in April 2011 and I'm getting concerned, having had problems with the last two releases.

I'm writing this from an Asus EeePC 1000/Linux machine so I hope you'll pardon any typos.

Thanks for reading this and thanks for any help anyone can provide,

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Ubuntu firefox Edit question
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Lawrence H. Bulk
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Revision history for this message
Shashank Sahni (shredder12) said : 		#1

What error does firefox show?
I am not sure but many a times these are IPv6 issues.

Revision history for this message
Liam Parker (liam-eliam) said : 		#2

Hello,

Can you add some more information to this post e.g.

Are you using ethernet / wireless?

Does ping / tracert to an internet address work?

Have you tried a different browser?

Revision history for this message
Lawrence H. Bulk (lhbcomm) said : 		#3

Thank you all for your replies. I wiped my wife's computer and reinstalled Ubuntu 8.04 'Hardy Heron' - but she HATED it (and told me so in no uncertain terms! We had both previously been using 'Jaunty').

So, having previously wiped my own computer, I decided to try to install 'Karmic' one more time - and this time it's working fine.

The only difference in my first installation (with which Firefox would not load any pages - even though my wireless internet connection was fine) and my second, current, installation is that I did NOT install a program called Ubuntu Tweak. We had been using this particular program for the past several months and had no problems with it but it may be conflicting with something in 'Karmic.'

In any case, there is no need for it; right in the Synaptic Package Manager (all included sources activated and with Medibuntu in the Software Sources as well as the Canonical ones) there is a program called BleachBit which does essentially the same cleanup things that Ubuntu Tweak did. It comes in two "flavors" - regular and "as root." I tried them both and they both work splendidly.

I have now spent the last four days playing around with this; I hope that this is it! (Of course I still have to install 'Karmic' on my wife's computer since I wiped 'Hardy' off it today - she had to go a WHOLE DAY computerless! Can you imagine?)

Thanks again!

Revision history for this message
Lawrence H. Bulk (lhbcomm) said : 		#4

I had thought this was solved - but it is not; see my later question # 88584 and/or Bug # 474629).

Revision history for this message
Lawrence H. Bulk (lhbcomm) said : 		#5

The problem appears to be solved thanks to suggestions by Actionparsnip and Wojox; here is a copy of what I wrote to them:

To Actionparsnip and Wojox:

As I said, last night Firefox was running like a champ. I shut down the computer (completely) several times and, when I started it up again, everything, including Firefox, was operating normally.

This morning, I turned on the computer and - nothing! with Firefox.

This is the strangest thing I've ever seen on ANY computer, regardless of the operating system.

So first, again, I followed your instructions, Actionparsnip. I ran the terminal instruction and, immediately after, and without trying Firefox, I shut down the computer.

When I restarted it, there was a "brand-new" Firefox - but it still would not load any pages (including Ubuntu pages today even though yesterday, when I was having the problem, it WOULD load them!)

So I then tried your suggestion Wojox - and Firefox immediately loaded up pages. It seems to be working perfectly now. Of course, I wonder what will happen tomorrow morning!

I hope this is the solution to the problem, though I can't understand why a Firefox "default" would cause this problem when it had never done so before. Nor can I understand why Firefox was working perfectly last night even though I had NOT changed the network.dns.disableiPv6 to True.

As I said, this is STRANGE but at least I know now how to "fix" the problem should it recur. (I hope I don't have to do this every day!)

Thanks again VERY much to both of you for helping me. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your consideration and concern.

Lawrence

P.S. I really love these forums; with only one exception, I have never failed to receive solutions to any problems or concerns I may have had in using Ubuntu.

Revision history for this message
HamilJF (john-hamilton) said : 		#6

Very interesting, but it would be even more interesting if 'Wojox' answers came up in these notes, because I think I may have the same problem

Revision history for this message
Lawrence H. Bulk (lhbcomm) said : 		#7

Here they are:

1. Type about:config in the address bar, press Enter.
2. Find network.dns.disableIPv6 in the list.
3. Right-click -> Toggle. Set to true
4. Restart your Mozilla application and try again.

This should fix the problem.