Re: [tlug] No video playback in Iceweasel

[CL <az.4tlug@example.com>]

On 11/27/2014 08:04 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> CL writes:
>
>   > I've tried killing all add-ons and just starting the video players, then
>   > adding the add-ons back one at a time to see which one is killing the
>   > video, but the video doesn't start with all other add-ons turned off,
>   > either.
>
> Start from the command line and see what warnings/errors you get.
> Warning: any GTK application is likely to spew so many uninterpretable
> warnings you'll think you have cat'ted core dump.
>
>   > I've tried completely stripping Iceweasel from the HDD and installing
>   > just the video players but that hasn't led anywhere, either.
>
> Well, no, I wouldn't expect your monitor to suddenly morph into a bus
> guide complete with 5-octaves higher than normal voice and a little
> flag, to be honest.  What do you mean by "not lead anywhere"?  Text of
> misleading error messages would be really nice, maybe someone has seen
> them before.  (Maybe the author of the confusing error message is
> watching.  Wouldn't that be cool?!)
>
> Any OS upgrades recently?  What are your SELinux and kernel capability
> settings?
Apparently, the correct answer to solving the problem is "Send a message 
to TLUG."

Short story long, before I could try any of the above, I re-checked the 
settings of every installed add-on I have to see if there were any 
possible conflicts that I'd missed before.  Didn't see anything 
obviously in conflict.

I then re-checked my super compact theme* settings and found that the 
programmer who'd designed it had posted a Mk. II version two days ago.  
He hadn't upgraded the existing design because he'd built a new coding 
template that he thinks will automatically follow changes that Mozilla 
adds on the fly.  So, I installed the new version and all of my playback 
problems went away -- on Cnet, Stratfor, Gizmag, ThinkGeeks ... and the 
two dozen, or so, other sites I tried before writing this mea culpa.

Anyway, I tried the Good Doctor's  command line start and got no 
relevant error messages.  At all.  The messages I _did_ get had nothing 
to do with any of this and were actually things I know how to fix, and did.

So, I decided to pop the top on a Heineken and call it fixed.

----------
To answer Travis, in it's last incarnation, I was seeing black 
rectangles where the video should have been.  When I permitted content 
from video providers (I use extremely strict initial NoScript settings 
and permit only what is absolutely needed on a page-by-page basis) I 
would occasionally see the turning arrow or the circle of dots that 
indicated content loading but then the box would go black again and all 
activity would stop.  Prior to that, there were a couple of other 
incarnations in which the progress bar would appear across the bottom 
a'la You Tube, and sound would play but no picture was seen.  This 
morphed into the first condition described above.
----------

* Metal Lion Australis Tiger, now Metal Lion Australis Tiger SP 2.0.2.0 
(programmer's name is Frank Lion, hence the hinky name).  On my 27型 
screen running in 1080P mode, it was good for an extra 2cm, or so, of 
vertical space over Default Theme.  Am also using Classic Theme Restorer 
and The Addon Bar (restored) which allow the elimination of one entire 
toolbar on top without losing any information.

--
CL