active x controls

Unfortunately, Active-X is a proprietary technology that is only compatible with Internet Explorer. You need to use Internet Explorer for Active-X controls to work. When visiting the site with Internet Explorer, you should see a security warning in a bar across the top of the web page that offers to install the needed control if you don't already have it.

First, from an ethical perspective, I recommend complaining to the entity that manages the website on the grounds that it is a severe hindrance to usability, for people that actually want to use their site. You could give them blanket excuses such as "I have a European version Windows 7 that does not have Internet Explorer" or "My IT department's security policy prevents the use Active-X controls". Then if they ignore you or refuse to fix their website, you have the following options:

1.) Install Internet Explorer in Linux, through Wine. This may or may not get Active-X working.
2.) Install a virtual machine and run Internet Explorer from the virtual machine.
3.) Setup your computer to use dual boot with Windows and run Internet Explorer from Windows.

Installing Internet Explorer in Linux through Wine can be difficult. The easiest way I know of is as follows:

First install Wine, then open up a terminal and enter the following:

wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
tar zxvf ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
cd ies4linux-*
gedit ui/pygtk/ies4linux-gtk.py

Add comments to lines 268-269 such that 267-269 reads as:

# Insert text and relocate scroll
#self.textbuffer.insert_with_tags(self.textbuffer. get_end_iter(), line, tag)
#self.textview.scroll_to_iter(self.textbuffer.get_ end_iter(), 0)

Save and quit gedit, then back in the terminal enter the following:

./ies4linux

Don't bother with the advanced button and make sure desktop is checked as menu has compatibility issues and IE7 doesn't work right yet. After you click [OK] in the .ies4linux window the status window will be blank. This is correct because we have commented out the lines that generated the text on the status window. Wait until [Cancel] changes to [Close] then close the window.

Internet Explorer 6 should now be installed.

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Currently running: Dell Inspiron 1420n w/ Ubuntu 10.10, Franken-HP media center w/ Ubuntu 10.04, Samsung Q1 UMPC waiting for me to finish troubleshooting a WUBI installation failure.
http://cyrusct.tk/linux.shtml http://cyrusct.tk/ubuntu.shtml