I have a fresh install of suse10.0. One of the first things I did when I got online was to update Firefox. When I try to watch videos on AOL.COM it gives me the error "We're sorry, this feature requires Firefox 1.0.4+." Is not the newest version of Firefox 1.5.something or other? I downloaded the rpm from suse , right clicked it and installed w/yast. Was I supposed to unload or delete the old version first? I even booted a live cd (Wolvix) with Firefox 1.5 already on it. It gives me the same message. Guess I can't watch videos on AOL? Any help or an alternative browser suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks Drew

I'm using firefox 1.0.7 and use AOL.com all the time w/ no problems. AOL recently changed their sites to support firefox more. I get more features now like the sound of "you got mail" when you log into your mail. Pretty smart on AOL's part.

As for why you're having your problems, try renaming your ~/username/.firefox folder to .old-firefox and then launch firefox again. It'll start your firefox settings from scratch, but you can at least still have the old folder in case you need settings, bookmarks, etc.

Let me know if that helps at all.

I have used 1.0.7, 1.5 and 1.5.1 now on AOL.com, and all of them work fine in Windows and Linux.

You probably didn't get a correct install from the RPM is my guess. Happened to me a bunch where the damn thing kept installing and old version of FF even though it was a 1.5 installer. For me it was the wrong version of RPM(10.0 for 10.1 beta...not compatible FYI.) Check your about in FF, it will probably not show up as 1.5. You probably need to compile yourself, I had to.

Thanks everyone for response. I checked the version in the "about" and thru yast and they both say I have version 1.5.0.1. I went to opensuse.org and typed in "firefox" in the search box. It sent me to ftp.suse.com. The link said for 10.0 and I am using 10.0 OSS. I even have realplayer. I have watched videos at ifilm.com using realplayer (it lets you pick real,winmed,quick etc) no luck, same problem. It gives me the same error. Instead of showing video it says "requires firefox 1.0.4+" I'm still looking though. Googling away to avoid a total reinstall. Thanks!!! Drew

Hmmm... I would recommend trying mplayer plug in and media plugins/extensions for firefox, it sounds then as you have a more rare issue.

Same problem here as the originator. I can get around the problem with user agent and a sting like this
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)

or

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/125.5.5 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/125.12

if you install the windows version of firefox under wine 9.7, you'll be able to listen to the xm radio stuff, although you migth need oleaut32.dll (native).

I'm guessing those that watch aol.com videos on firefox are using windows. If you are watching them on linux, I would like to know how. All my research on activex leads me to believe it isn't possible. Maybe someone could set me straight on this. Thanks.

FireFox and Opera on Windows and Linux both have identical functionality on both OSes. Anything you can do to FF in Windows, I can do the same in Linux. If you can watch it, which in my case I can watch the videos on every browser on my Windows Box, and Konqueror, FireFox and Opera on my current Linux Setup on my laptop(Arch) and my Desktop(RR64, a Gentoo varient).

As for how, it is frighteningly simple, but compliacted to perform. You essentially just need to setup mime types for videos so they are all played by mplayer, rather than allowing the web standards which come preset to run. In Windows it doesn't matter, because FireFox and Opera can both call WMP. ActiveX plays literally no role whatsoever in video viewing.

Well if that is true could you tell me why I get this error then?

"We're sorry, this feature requires the Mozilla ActiveX Plugin. Click here to install"

Maybe you could tell me how to make Firefox run the activex content on that website. I already have mplayer installed along with several codec packages and the mplayer plugin for Firefox. I can play any other video (qt, real, wm) from any other site but this one.

If any one wants to give it a try go to "music.aol.com" and try to watch a video. There is a tab that is labeled "Videos". Or you could try the "Songs" tab and try to listen to some music, or you could try the "AOL Radio" tab and get a big error about not meeting os and browser requirements. If anybody knows a work around or can explain to me why there is no work around I would appreciate it greatly. thanks.

Never mind, I just had to look a little harder:

Is Firefox more secure than Internet Explorer?

Yes, Firefox and all other Mozilla-based products are more secure. Why? Here is a list of the most important reasons:

* It is not integrated with Windows, which helps prevent viruses and hackers from causing damage if they somehow manage to compromise Firefox.
* There is no support for VBScript and ActiveX, two technologies which are the reasons for many IE security holes.
* No spyware/adware software can automatically install in Firefox just by visiting a web site.
* Firefox doesn't use Microsoft's Java VM, which has a history of more flaws than other Java VMs.
* You have complete control over cookies.

www.mozilla.org

Hmmm I get a warning I did not used to get when visiting the site... "Please upgrade your browser...blah blah blah Latest IE or Netscape Naviagtor may be required for some content to work." I hit continue anyway, and it still works. I get that now in Opera, I didn't used to. In FF, I can still watch the videos, no error comes up. This is purely Flash, I don't see any activex warnings at all.(And I have a script which notifies me of all flash, ActiveX, and a few other "languages" and blocks them till I accept them, cept for ActiveX which I couldn't view, cause I don't have a plugin to do so, though see below, there is one)

If you for some reason need activeX, FF does have a plugin you can get to add some ActiveX funtionality. I have never tried it, but it may be worth it to you to try. Check for extensions, browse their website, you should be able to find it.

When I do get this message:

"We're sorry, this feature requires the Mozilla ActiveX Plugin. Click here to install"

The word "here" in "Click here to install" is actually a link. When I click it, Firefox acts like it is installing any other plugin. Then it tells me I need to restart my browser. When I click ok to restart the browser, the plugin that was supposedly "installed" disappears from the window.

When I restart Firefox, I am back to square one. One error message, and no plugin installed. No matter how many times I do it, it just doesn't install.

According to mozilla.org FF doesn't support activex, yet FF downloads and installs a plugin, then uninstalls it? Or maybe it wasn't ever installed. This is confusing to me because I started trying it with Suse, went to Slackware, and tried half a dozen live CDs. They all do this same thing to me.

Maybe this info will help solve my problem. Until then I'll be googling. Thanks!

It may not be adding the right one. The way FF adds plugins via web is passed off through mime types. It tries and sometimes is right, but it is far from perfect, especially on linux systems. It would be best to go through the "extensions" menu and browse the site adding the proper one you know you need in most cases.(Maybe this is just my experience as an FF beta tester since .6 - Phoenix)

Two extensions come up when I search for activex. Both require a version of Firefox on Windows. One of them even refers you to another website for the plugin. I get the same results trying to install the plugin from the website, that I did from aol.com.

I couldn't find anywhere on the site that said "Windows required", but all the OS references were to Windows. I am sure it said IE needed to be installed to utilize this plugin. My only hope is that it said it should run with Wine.

My conclusion is that this is a windows plugin. If AOL had an html version of music.aol.com, I think that would eliminate my problem.

You know, I could swear it didn't used to be a Windows only plug-in. I apologise for that. I still find it odd you need it, I just tested in Linux, and I don't need it. So... I am sorry, I am at a loss as to why it is even asking for it.

Edit: Just to narrow it down as far as possible, can you post a direct link to one you know for sure is doing it. Maybe we are just using different test pages.