Adobe Reader plugin cannot be disabled

[Christine Liebig]

Binary package hint: firefox

I had disabled the Adobe Reader plugin in Firefox, but with a recent Firefox update (now 3.6.15) it was re-enabled. I disabled it again, but now every time I restart Firefox it is re-enabled.

My content-type preference for PDF type documents is set to "Always Ask" and I always prefer opening the file in Evince over having to read it within the browser.

The bug seems to be related to issues mentioned in Bug #481542, but is not a duplicate.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: firefox 3.6.15+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-23.41~lucid1-generic 2.6.35.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-23-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Mar 9 10:02:29 2011
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.15/firefox
FirefoxPackages:
 firefox 3.6.15+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.04.1
 firefox-gnome-support N/A
 firefox-branding 3.6.15+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.04.1
 abroswer N/A
 abrowser-branding N/A
InterpreterPath: /bin/dash
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox

[Chris-docu-track (chris-docu-track)]

User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: 3.6

Hi,

We have a PDF-Reader plugin that works great with Firefox 3.6 and have successfully supplied this to our clients for multiple years. We have been receiving many support emails and calls lately and I can confirm the following behaviour. If Adobe Reader and our PDF Viewer plugin are both installed the Adobe Reader plugin disable button doesn't work. Many of our users install both programs but unless Adobe Reader is completely uninstalled from the computer it will override user preferences and ignore the disable and infact if firefox is restarted and you go back into the Addin->Plugins menu the Adobe Reader plugin shows as still enabled. So obviously this is a bug that needs to be resolved and I am wondering when such a fix could be available?

Many thanks,
Chris Attrell
Sales & Support
Tracker Software Products
http://www.docu-track.com

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Install Adobe Reader
2.Install PDF-XChange Viewer: http://www.docu-track.com/download/PDFXVwer.zip
3.During installation accept PDF-XChange Viewer as default PDF Viewer and Dispaly in Browser options
3.5 Open an online PDF. (Adobe Reader plugin opens document)
4.Goto Tools->ManageAdd-ins->plugins and disable the Adobe Reader and accept; and Restart Firefox
5.First return to Tools->ManageAdd-ins->plugins and you'll see the Adobe Reader is still enabled. Close Firefox
6.In the Adobe Reader preferences uncheck the display in browser option and close reader
7. Again Open Firefox, Tools->ManageAdd-ins->plugins and you'll see the Adobe Reader is still enabled
8.Uninstall Adobe Reader and start firefox 3.6 and open online PDF (PDF-XChange plugin will finally be initiated)

Actual Results:
After Step 4. Adobe Reader has not been disabled.
After Step 6. Adobe Reader has not been disabled.
Only after uninstalling Adobe Reader completely can Firefox initiate the PDF-XChange Viewer plugin. Which works great

Expected Results:
After Step 4. Firefox 3.6 should show the Adobe Reader Plugin as disabled and initate the PDF-XChange Viewer Plugin for online viewing of PDF files

After Step 6. Firefox 3.6 should show the Adobe Reader Plugin as disabled and initate the PDF-XChange Viewer Plugin for online viewing of PDF files

Self explanatory.

[Yeren (yeren)]

I'm having a similar problem. I deactivated the acrobat plugin/ addon (and even removed it from the plugin directory), but it keeps coming back. A mayor annoyance, because every display of a pdf inside the browser or even only initiated through it crashes firefox.

[Yeren (yeren)]

for some reason disabling the plugin worked today. Maybe it requires just a few reboots of the system to really get rid of it, the plugin seems to be re-installed by acrobat/reader unless "show pdf in browser" is unchecked in _both_ adobe reader and adobe acrobat. Then, (at least one reboot later) it seems to be possible to toggle the add-in.
- suggested solution: Make Firefox User Preference take priority over the installs from third party programs. (Or, better: fix the underlying problem which is at least in bugs 400326 and 524642). [Unfortunately I guess the problem is caused by Adobe software or it's interaction with browsers, as internet explorer shows the same crashes when loading .pdf]
<all the latest versions of Acrobat and Mozilla installed..>

[Tyler Downer (tyler-downer)]

What version of reader is this with? 10?

[Yeren (yeren)]

this was of course with version 9.
Before switching to Chrome (due to the .pdf issues!) I found out that the acrobat plugin can only be deactivated from within the reader or acrobat (and it has to be deactivated in both if you have both!). (somewhere in the internet options of the adobe reader). Otherwise at every start of Acrobtat or the Reader the plugin comes back.. Unfortunately the settings are overwritten at every reader update...
I gave up on this, uninstalled the Adobe Reader (but kept Acrobat 9 which is too expensive to update) and moved over to Chrome. Problems solved.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Bugzilla-tf (bugzilla-tf)]

The "show pdf in browser" option is something inside Acrobat and I don't know why it fails to work.
We have tools/addon-ons/plugins and the helper application setting in options/applications.

Disabling a plugin via tools/addons/plugins works as expected in my current trunk build.

[theghost (theghost)]

I you want to get rid of the plugin permanently, because it is not removed by apt if you remove acroread, you have to delete it manually:

sudo rm /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/npwrapper.nppdf.so

That worked for me on Ubuntu 13.04

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Marking report as invalid:

1. Upstream report has never been confirmed
2. Plugin could have been disabled/removed from plugin preferences page
3. Adobe plugin not supported in Firefox 52 and later

[Sjw+bugzilla (sjw+bugzilla)]

Plugins are no longer supported https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/npapi-plugins