Question

This isn't exactly a support question, but I pass it on in case it means something to someone. With the installation of 4.0.2 I note that the first time that I call on my test site with a Firefox browser, the view page is oddly corrupted. Basically, the page text block is displayed at the top of the page, and then the "header" block and the left bar menu block are displayed after it, at the bottom of the page.

This seems to be related to some error in loading and executing a Javascript command, but I foolish neglected to capture and write down the actual error. The thing is, after the first occurance the problem goes away (so far) and subsequent use of Firefox displays the pages correctly, even in a completely new session after the browser has been closed. Opera, OTOH, doesn't seem to do this, and I don';t think Explorer does either, but I keep forgetting where I put that.

Environment

-- MichaelBaum - 03 Apr 2006

Answer

It is possible that Firefox is interpreting some of the style sheets as text because the file starts with a comment. We are investigating at the moment if inserting

.twikiLeaveThisForFirefox {}

at the top of the stylesheet will solve the issue.

-- ArthurClemens - 03 Apr 2006

Just saw the same issue again, so this did not fix it.

-- PeterThoeny - 06 Apr 2006

I must wonder if the errors that get reported in FireFox 1.5 (view the javascript console) might have something to do with it.

-- SvenDowideit - 11 Apr 2006

As communicated earlier to the core team, this is the error reported by a user:

Error: The stylesheet https://twiki.org/p/pub/TWiki/PatternSkin/layout.css was not loaded because its =MIME type, "text/plain", is not "text/css".
Source File: https://twiki.org/
Line: 0

Which prompted me to check the Apache settings. All looks OK on TWiki.org. Apache has two ways to set the mime type:

• Mapping extension & mime with etc/mime.types
• Magic mapping with etc/magic file

The only relevant magic mapping for text/plain is for files starting with "/*", which is the case for the Pattern css files. Therefore we added the .twikiLeaveThisForFirefox {}, but this did not make any difference.

-- PeterThoeny - 11 Apr 2006

This occurs with Firefox 1.5.0.2 with both the Twiki.org website and my own converted from cairo site. Essentially, the left side bar separates from the text block on the right.

Strangely, konqueror 3.4.2 renders twiki.org cleanly on the 2nd load, but continues to separate the sidebar and text on my intranet version.

-- JerreCope - 17 Apr 2006

I have also seen this on t.o. and on a local 4.0.2 installation. There were no errors in the JS console. However shift+reload cured the problem for me.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 17 Apr 2006

i have seen this on twiki.org and a local 4.0.2 installation; i have seen this with FireFox 1.0.2/1.0.6/1.0.7 and 1.5.1

-- WillNorris - 19 Apr 2006

Ah. I've flushed my squid proxy cache and fixed my Firefox twiki.org display problem. I'll reconvert from cairo later. I noticed that using Firefox on another site did not have a display problem, so I tried the squid flush.

-- JerreCope - 19 Apr 2006

I have never seen it, since FF 1.0 through 1.0.7

-- RafaelAlvarez - 19 Apr 2006

Hold Shift and click the Reload button. This forces a complete refresh of the page, including style sheets. (reported in FirefoxStylesheetCachingProblem by PankajPant)

-- PeterThoeny - 20 Apr 2006

yes, but even when i do that, the problem still comes back. i've also emptied out my caches several times

-- WillNorris - 20 Apr 2006

Indeed, My cairo conversion remains perverted. Konquerer renders the same as Firefox. I'll try the manual upgrade next.

-- JerreCope - 26 Apr 2006

Converted my cairo wiki using the manual method. All looks fine now.

-- JerreCope - 26 Apr 2006

TWiki.org has been upgraded to Apache 2.2 - if you see this again, please tell us

-- SvenDowideit - 01 May 2006

seen again (on my second view even). only view is affected; not rdiff nor any other script. i'm beginning to strongly suspect the tags at the top of the view page. are there some page properties i can provide for debugging info when i encountered this again?

i upgraded from FF1.0.2/6/7 to FF1.5.1 because i thought it would fix the problem, but it doesn't. i'm no longer convinced it's a browser bug.

it happens to me so often that i routinely hold down the shift key for twiki.org

-- WillNorris - 01 May 2006

Could the stuff about mod_gzip under the heading Compression in this article have anything to do with why we were having these problems (or with IE re-requesting css files)? It's mostly about problems with IE but I wonder if a similar issue could affect Firefox.

-- SamHasler - 31 May 2006

I am wondering if this is still an issue? TWiki.org runs now TWiki 4. Please report if not fixed.

-- PeterThoeny - 31 May 2006

From IRC:

Flenser   are you aware that the twisty.js on twiki.org isn't currently working with Firefox? 
at least not mine   [10:10]
ArthurClemens   I'm not 
do you get js errors?   [10:10]
Flenser   let me check... 
Error: The stylesheet https://twiki.org/p/pub/TWiki04/TwistyContrib/twist.css was not loaded because its MIME type, "text/plain", is not "text/css". 
bah, that's the EerieWeirdnessWithFirefox bug 
not a problem with twisty 
sorry to bother you   [10:11]
ArthurClemens   but how come ff thinks it is text, not css?   [10:15]
Flenser   ah, I might have an answer for that 
I said this last week but it got lost in all the other chat: 
<Flenser> could the stuff about mod_gzip at the bottom of this article have anything to do with why we were having problems with IE re-requesting css files, or Support.EerieWierdnessWithFirefox: http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/webapps/serving-javascript-fast 
it's the bit under the heading Compression 
that's mostly about problems with IE but I wonder if a similar issue could affect FF

http://koala.ilog.fr/twikiirc/bin/irclogger_log/twiki?date=2006-05-31,Wed&sel=436#l432

-- ArthurClemens - 31 May 2006

Yes, it's still an issue. I got a weird one today where the twisty js code didn't appear to be working because the twisty css hadn't been recognised as the correct mime type.

-- SamHasler - 31 May 2006

OK, so after the TWiki 4 upgrade, the problem shifted from messed up page layout to not working twisty.

-- PeterThoeny - 01 Jun 2006

I haven't seen this problem since the upgrade - anybody still getting it?

-- SteffenPoulsen - 16 Jun 2006

Closing this. If anybody sees the problem again, feel free to re-open.

-- SteffenPoulsen - 26 Jun 2006

Re-opening this. I see the twisty issue once in a while on twiki.org. Using FF 1.0.7 on Win XP. Sometimes it works properly; sometimes I see "Hide attachments" and "Show attachments" next to each other with non-working link; sometimes I do not see the attachments at all (bad because extensions cannot be downloaded)

-- PeterThoeny - 26 Jun 2006

Could you report any javascript errors when this happens?

-- ArthurClemens - 27 Jun 2006

I will do once I can reproduce it again.

-- PeterThoeny - 27 Jun 2006

It's back both here and on a TWiki 4.0.4 I just installed. Linux and Windows Firefox 1.5.0.6 keeps refusing to load css files. MSIE works. Opera works. Has anyone really determined what causes this?

EXAMPLE:

Error: The stylesheet https://twiki.org/p/pub/TWiki04/PatternSkin/print.css was not loaded because its MIME type, "text/plain", is not "text/css".
Source File: https://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki04/TWikiReferenceManual
Line: 0

-- TWikiGuest - 11 Aug 2006

Not sure if this is relevant:

http://forums.sixapart.com/lofiversion/index.php/t42743.html

-- PeterThoeny - 11 Aug 2006

I just did some test with Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer, http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html, requesting https://twiki.org/p/pub/TWiki04/PatternSkin/print.css several times. Result: Most of the time text/css is returend, sometimes text/plain. Examples of both:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 22:47:38 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.0 (Unix) DAV/2
Last-Modified: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 21:48:51 GMT
ETag: "25359-7c0-e5c5f6c0"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 1984
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/css

and

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 22:47:08 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.0 (Unix) DAV/2
Last-Modified: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 21:48:51 GMT
ETag: "25359-7c0-e5c5f6c0"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 1984
Expires: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 22:46:19 GMT
Age: 48
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Now, what does Apache do to deliver sometimes one type, sometimes another? Apache's mime.types and magic file look OK.

-- PeterThoeny - 11 Aug 2006

I just put

AddType  text/css  .css

in the htdoc part of httpd.conf, but no luck. Still about once every 10 times the .css is delivered as text/plain

-- PeterThoeny - 12 Aug 2006

I am the same TWikiGuest that restarted this thread on 11 Aug 2006. I have a crude workaround. Add:

DefaultType text/css

to the <Directory "/var/www/twiki/pub"> entry in twiki_httpd.conf file. It may break something else, but it fixes the Firefox css errors in my case. I'll report any other side effects I find.

For example:

<Directory "/var/www/twiki/pub">
        DefaultType text/css
        Options None
        AllowOverride None
        Allow from all
[...]

BTW, FYI: I cannot register for some reason. I get sent the email, but the value in the URL provided is always invalid.

-- TWikiGuest - 18 Aug 2006

Hmm, the DefaultType text/css delivers all files as text/css unless specified. That probably has some side-effects.

On registration, please send me an e-mail with the details (if you recall, the exact error message).

-- PeterThoeny - 18 Aug 2006

I am unclear whether this is related. I run Firefox 1.07 on WinXP. The current release 4.04 behaves badly. never had this problem under 4.02. Problem description:

• Open firfox 1.07
• Open twiki.org
• Select Support in left bar
• Creates a message box:

Firefox has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience. ... Please tell Microsoft about this problem... I have not done that

There are 61 modules listed in the error report. Anyone else seen this? is it related to this problem?

-- BramVanOosterhout

-- BramVanOosterhout - 22 Aug 2006

Firefox 1.0x is not supported by pattern skin. But this sounds like a different problem.

-- ArthurClemens - 22 Aug 2006

Installed 1.5.0.6 and the problem appears to have gone away. I am adding this comment in a Firefox browser.

Thanks for your suggestion.

-- BramVanOosterhout - 23 Aug 2006

See LeftBarToLow for an observation about fixing file permissions to world readable.

-- ArthurClemens - 24 Aug 2006