Running Firefox 3.x.x on Win-98 with Kex

#1 Guest_wsxedcrfv_*

Group: Guests

Posted 05 December 2010 - 08:47 AM

After a long time running Firefox 2.0.0.20, I've been playing around with some of the newer versions and not having much satisfaction. I've got KernelEx 4.5 RC 5 installed, btw. The installation goes fine, and when the program is started, all seems perfect. But after some browsing and opening a few extra instances (I do a lot of "open link in new window"), weird things start to happen to the FF interface (various control icons start to disappear or turn into noise, the color of title bars become inverted). When I install these versions of FF, I just run the install program. I don't un-install the old version, and I do nothing about "profiles" (I don't get asked about them during the install).

I searched for the early versions of FF 3 and I found and installed 3.0.19 and so far, so good (but I've barely started to use it).

One thing I notice about ALL the version 3's that I've been running is that if there is a graphic on the web-page I'm looking at (like a .jpg) then when I move the page up and down (using scroll wheel or slide bar) then there's a white line drawn across the image where it was being clipped by the top or bottom of the window. So if half of an image is currently in view, if I use my scroll wheel to move the entire image into view, then there will be a white line across the middle of image. The slower I scroll the page, the more white lines get drawn across the image. This I can't tolerate.

I think this white-line problem is talked about here:

https://bugzilla.moz...g.cgi?id=477236

But I'm not sure if or how it was resolved.

I did a search here in the win-98 forum for "firefox" but I don't see hardly any threads with firefox in the subject line, and the advanced search function doesn't give me the ability to search just the subject line. Am I correct that not too many people here use Firefox? Or are they sticking with version 2? Or does version 3.x work so well that nobody has posted any issues?

This post has been edited by wsxedcrfv: 05 December 2010 - 08:56 AM

#2 jaclaz

The Finder

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Posted 05 December 2010 - 09:23 AM

I guess you were looking for these :unsure:

:
http://www.msfn.org/...howtopic=146478
http://www.msfn.org/...howtopic=145812

jaclaz

#3 Svenne

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Posted 06 December 2010 - 01:30 AM

Install K-Ex 4.5 RC5 (no need to uninstall the old version, I think)
Install FF 3.6 or 4.0 beta.
Done.

#4 Guest_wsxedcrfv_*

Group: Guests

Posted 06 December 2010 - 04:39 PM

Well, I'm back to using 2.0.0.20. I can't find any 3.x version that doesn't cause graphics screw-ups. They happen little by little, and even bleed over to other applications, and they don't stop even if I close FF (I have to re-start). Must be some resource problem. Maybe a font problem in some cases.

Example - when I start FF 3.x, and start typing something in the location bar, the bar is supposed to open and show me the last few URL's that match what I'm typing. So FF 3.x does open a small drop-down list showing me the matching URL's, except that the list is printed in the upper left-hand corner of my desktop - outside the FF window and over-top any icons that are there. That's crazy.

And any bit-mapped graphics that are on the screen get a white-line across them where they were cut-off by the upper or lower edge of the FF window when I scroll them in and out of view.

So I must have some incompatible system file, perhaps an IE dll, or I don't know what. Maybe it's related to the number of installed fonts (that can cause a problem with Win-98 if I remember correctly). I do tend to go over-board with fonts when I install CorelDraw.

#5 Svenne

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Posted 07 December 2010 - 05:12 AM

You have Windows 98 SE with all the latest updates?

#6 jds

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Posted 02 January 2011 - 09:35 PM

The following thread implies some serious resource requirements for newer FF versions, which may be relevant to your stability problems : http://www.msfn.org/...post__p__949817

Beware the optimized alternative build of FF mentioned in the same thread requires a minimum P4 processor :
http://www.palemoon....html#CPUsupport (I don't know what the standard build of FF 3.X requires, you may want to check, but I should think if your processor wasn't suitable, you would be seeing "invalid instruction" errors.)

I seem to recall some people mentioning a 3.5.X version of FF working for them, whereas 3.6.X didn't (I don't recall the particular X's).

Finally, there's several mentions in the KernelEx thread about printing not working with FF 3.X, which is a serious limitation, as using IE as a workaround for printing is not acceptable, since this usually chops the right edge of web pages for me (and others I know). Not sure if this is a KernelEx limitation that will hopefully be addressed in the near future.

Joe.

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