Odd WMP plug-in behaviour in Firefox

That looks good. But can I use Google Earth in Ubuntu?

 

There's always Marble: http://edu.kde.org/marble/

I'm not certain how it compares to Google Earth though.

Edit: Compared to G Earth, it's pretty unspectacular.

 

OK, I stand corrected. I downloaded it once a couple of years ago but decided it was a bit superfluous as I had VLC, WMP & QuickTime.

Sounds like you have it well *sussed.

I don't know much about KMPlayer, it looks pretty good though. However I think I'll stick with VLC for the moment.

Fair enough.


*sussed = 'figured out' (British slang)

 

OK thanks. Maybe Google will develop a Nix plug-in eventually. Isn't the Chrome OS based on Ubuntu (Gubuntu?)?

 

I have no idea, actually. I know it's 'nix based, but whether that's Ubuntu or not *shrug*. It is, however, these small details like Google Earth that keep me from going full-blown Linux.

 

I'm probably wrong about it being based on Ubuntu, but I do know it's Linux based.

I'd definitely miss Google Earth, apart from the fact that it is fun to use, it can be incredibly useful for finding places I need to get to. Does this mean that you can't get G Earth on a Chromebook?

 

Iirc, Earth uses Java, which is not supported (or wasn't) with Chrome OS. Whether that has changed I don't know.

Edit: Per the system requirements page http://earth.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=166094 , it's still a no go.

 

I think Google may have shot themselves in the foot with that!

 

Considering the OS is a chance to shove everything Google down a users throat, you're probably right. But, if there's a will, there's a way, and the OS does have "forks", in which supposedly Java is working. (found that out while meandering for info, on some random site) P.s, it is supposedly 'Buntu-based as well.

 

I'll be keeping an eye on Chrome OS but I have a feeling it won't really take off until it's developed more.

 

Of course, been using it since I first switched to Linux.

 

OK, thanks for the info. It looks good in Ubuntu. Are you running it on WINE or some form of emulator?

 

No, I don't use Wine. If I remember correctly I just added the Medibuntu repository, but it can also be downloaded from the GE site .. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GoogleEarth

 

OK thanks, considering Google Earth for Linux is still a beta it looks pretty good.

 

Download Google Earth for PC, Mac, or Linux

As Ocky says, no need for Wine at least for this.

OTOH, the GE plug-in (for browsers) is apparently not available for Linux:

 

Ocky, how did you get it to play in VLC? When I tried, Auntie was insisting on Real Player or the WMP thing.

 

OK thanks, for a while I was convinced that GE wouldn't run on Linux at all.

 

In future I won't be using Ubuntu, but will switch to Scientific Linux or Kubuntu as my main distro. (Not keen on Unity or Gnome 3)
Currently playing with/testing Kubuntu in VBox on SL 6.1 - very nice. Coming from Windows it may be a better option.

PS. When still using Windows (XP) I found AIMP to be an excellent media player.

 

This may be the answer to my original question, & may explain some odd anomalies in this player in Firefox & SeaMonkey that don't seem to affect Chrome or IE.

 

I tried to play the video on this BBC page. Neither Firefox 7 or SeaMonkey 2.4 will run the video on my notebook (Vista 32 bit). This time the pop-up displays everything but WMP. Both Firefox & SeaMonkey run the video perfectly on my desktop (Win 7 64 bit). Portable Apps Firefox won’t run them on my notebook either & the pop-up is just the same. Bizarrely, I have found that the portable Firefox runs WMP on a borrowed Toshiba laptop (Vista 32 bit) but not the Firefox 7 installed on the Toshiba. Not only that, the pop-up on the Toshiba claims it needs plug-ins (which won’t install) as happened to me once before on my notebook. The last time I had this problem I discovered that a clean install solved the problem, although SeaMonkey was fine if I remember. The Video runs in IE, Chrome, Iron & Opera.

My solution this time?

IE Tab

 

And once again, for me, using XP and Firefox 7, there was no problem at all viewing the video, with a choice given of using either the WMP plugin, Real plugin, or opening in a stand-alone player. I used the default WMP plugin option.

Allowed bbc.co.uk and bbcimg.co.uk thru NoScript, that's all. At which point I 'had lift-off'.

 

From what I have researched (& by that I mean surfed Duck Duck Go a little ) I believe that there have been some bugs in certain versions (11.0.6002.1831?) of WMP & plug-ins in the past. That or it's some Vista thing. It is an interesting point that your older system (XP) & my desktop (Win 7) seem fine yet both machines running Vista that I tried are having difficulties. What really confuses me though is why the Portable Apps Firefox (which needs np-wmp.dll manually pasted into its plug-ins folder) worked on the Toshiba laptop yet its own Firefox 7 on its Local disc refuses to find the plug-ins; exactly what happened to my notebook earlier. The Portable Apps Firefox wouldn't work on my notebook but the pop-up opened & showed a blank space where WMP should have been. The WMP version is the same on both (Vista) computers & both machines are more or less the same age. I honestly think it is just a failure to launch ... Houston we have a problem ... Vista thing LOL!

 

I don't know much what to suggest. My plugin is WMP 9, and I'm not very familiar with later versions.

You should go to 'aboutlugins' in Firefox on any machine having a problem, and at least make sure the three WMP plugin entries are listed there and enabled.

If your Win7 is 64-bit, maybe the problem is in the '64-bit' somehow.

Got any oddball extensions that could be interfering with plugin behaviours?
Seems about 90-95% of Firefox issues have to do with either a corrupted profile or an extension. Maybe your issues here are part of that other 5-10%, but one thing to try is disable all extensions, restart the browser, and see if it makes any difference.
If it fixes it, then re-enable extensions one at a time until the culprit is found.

That's about all I got.

 

Everything looks fine as far as I can see.

Sorry if I didn't make this clear, my Win 7 64 bit desktop opens the player fine, it is my Vista 32 bit notebook & a Vista 32 bit Toshiba laptop that it has a problem with.

Yeah, extensions are often the culprit. I've tried opening Fx in safe mode on both of the computers that are having the problem & there is no difference. SeaMonkey is having the same problem. Every other browser is fine. It may be an extension compatibility problem of some sort. I fixed it last time by a clean install, but that is going to be a bit of a drag every Firefox update. Or I could just start using another browser on my notebook. Thanks for the reply anyway.

 

This doesn't make me feel any better either.

"Double Trojan infects IE, Firefox in one swoop"