Weird Green Background in Firefox
Posted on January 24, 2008 in News | 19 Comments »
How to Fix
So it appears that there are two different fixes. One of them completely removes FireShot, and the second leaves FireShot installed. Both appear to work.
Fix #1
- Uninstall FireShot 0.31
- Restart Firefox
- Enter about:config in the address bar
- Search for any variables that contain fireshot (I think this is the one that is causing the problem: general.useragent.extra.fireshot)
- Right click on each one, and select reset
- If you want, re-install FireShot version 0.25
Fix #2
- Open the FireShot preferences
- Uncheck Add information about FireShot into user-agent string
- Restart Firefox
So a couple of my Firefox add-ons had updates this morning. I installed them all without even thinking about it, and my co-worker Adrian asked why I added the green background to my sIFR headings. I had no idea what he was talking about. He said he also had a Firefox add-on that was updated, FireShot.
I checked in Firefox on the Mac, IE, and another co-worker’s Firefox on PC, and none of them had the green backgrounds. I disabled JavaScript, and the green backgrounds went away. So something is going on with my sIFR headings. Weird.
Anyone else seeing the green backgrounds? Anyone know why?
AndreaJanuary 24, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Me too!
At work today, someone said he saw a weird green background on one of our sites in development, but only in Firefox. For most of the day, he was the only one with this issue! But just a few minutes ago, gmail crashed my browser (yet again, sigh) and when I restarted it, I was informed that I had extensions with updates. Would I like to install them? Sure!
FireShot was included as one of the updates add-ons, and my coworker confirmed that he also had this installed. FireShot must be the culprit!
However, disabling, then uninstalling FireShot did not solve my problems. I still see green backgrounds on every single sIFRized site I visit. I tried disabling the other extensions updated today: Colorzilla, Greasmonkey, and Download Statusbar… nope, green backgrounds still abound.
TrevorJanuary 24, 2008 at 4:05 pm
@Andrea-
Glad it’s not just me!
I started a discussion on the FireShot plugin page, and the author of the plugin says that it’s not FireShot. But now that I have others to validate, that’s good.
I even tried disabling ALL of my plugins, but it didn’t work. It appears that it is only sIFR that has the wmode set to transparent.
Let me know if you hear any way to fix it.
Adrian TurnerJanuary 24, 2008 at 9:53 pm
The old man has found the source. It’s FireShot .31 that is the culprit. I checked my version of FireShot and it was Fireshot .25. I checked your site, at home, and everything was fine. So I go run the update and FireShot .31 is installed and dang blasted… green backgrounds!
So what ever changed from .25 to .31 has put a monkey wrench in sIFR.
I uninstalled FireShot Version 0.31 and tried to re-install FireShot Version 0.25 the green backgrounds still showed up.
Jorge MichelJanuary 24, 2008 at 10:04 pm
I have the exact same problem. Upgraded from .25 to .31 and any flash with the parameter wmode=transparent is not working.
Let me know if you find a solution for this issue
Saludos
Dylan Smith – Digital advertising technologist and developer. » Blog Archive » Nasty wmode bug in Firefox 2January 25, 2008 at 8:55 am
[…] the FireShot Add-On After some Googling, I happened upon a useful post at Trevor Davis’ blog, discussing the green background issue with sIFR. It appears that many people started experiencing […]
TimJanuary 25, 2008 at 9:21 am
Glad you guys figured out the cause! I’ve been pulling my hair out since yesterday. Hopefully a fix will be found soon!
TrevorJanuary 25, 2008 at 9:23 am
@Tim-
Yeah, we found a fix. Check out the update at the top of the post. It may not be pushed out yet in the FeedBurner feed (even though I pinged them).
susboxJanuary 25, 2008 at 9:42 am
I suspect, this problem intersects with the bug described and fixed at http://screenshot-program.com/sup/art129.htm
Could you please confirm that?
TrevorJanuary 25, 2008 at 9:47 am
@susbox-
Hmm, I’m not sure. Our Firefox never crashed, and we were not having problems with Java. We were just seeing the strange green backgrounds on any flash movie that had
wmode=transparent. In my office, we are on FF version 2.0.0.11, not FF3b2.susboxJanuary 25, 2008 at 9:52 am
This is not important, just try. Thank you.
TrevorJanuary 25, 2008 at 10:03 am
@susbox-
I’m not really sure what you are asking me to do. I was able to fix the problem.
susboxJanuary 25, 2008 at 10:10 am
You fixed it by removing FireShot. I’m asking you to restore the problem and try fixing it in the way I described at http://screenshot-program.com/sup/art129.htm
I suspect, they might have common issue.
TrevorJanuary 25, 2008 at 10:25 am
@susbox-
Yes, that appeared to fix it as well.
AndreaJanuary 25, 2008 at 10:38 am
A fix! Thanks for the updates.
I was trying to figure out if there was any way to fix it within the code, that way any users coming to the site who happened to have FF and the latest FireShot installed wouldn’t see the bug.
So while I’m glad there’s a fix, I hope the issue is resolved in later versions of FireShot, because it’s a great tool.
susboxJanuary 25, 2008 at 11:17 am
Nice. Thank you.
The bug has been submitted to Mozilla’s developers.
Mark WubbenJanuary 26, 2008 at 4:48 am
Hi Trevor, thanks for figuring this out!
LibbyFebruary 1, 2008 at 6:58 am
Thank you so much for posting this. I can stop tearing my hair out now :)
Brendon KozlowskiFebruary 5, 2008 at 11:31 am
Oh man, I wish I saw this before I reformatted my PC. :( Thanks for the sleuthing, Trevor!
Now that this issue is worked out, I’m wondering, however, if anyone’s had an issue with any extensions and sIFR text completely disappearing when wmode is enabled. The flash is running, but unless I force a background color and disable wmode transparency, the entire flash object seems to be transparent (and text is not selectable within the UI).
Brendon KozlowskiFebruary 5, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Well, I uninstalled Firefox and removed my profile information before reinstalling. With a fresh install, the transparent sIFR is still completely transparent (invisible). I’m believe I’m running sIFR version 308, am about to try upgrading to the current nightly (r382)…
YAY! That did it. :) Ok, two out of two problems solved. Once again, thanks for the sleuthing, Trevor!