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cannot open or download PDF Firefox 40

jamescobban
jamescobban
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I want to read the specifications of an IBM product described on the page http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=SP&infotype=PM&appname=STGE_ZS_ZS_USEN&htmlfid=ZSD03035USEN&attachment=ZSD03035USEN.PDF#loaded

This page looks at my browser, arbitrarily decides that there is no support for PDF, probably by checking for the presence of the Adobe plugin, and therefore fails to generate an <embed> for the PDF file. But it does include a link:

<a class="ibm-pdf-link" href="http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/zs/en/zsd03035usen/ZSD03035USEN.PDF">Download PDF File</a>

However when I click on this link nothing happens. I have the default option of using the builtin document viewer enabled.

So I then went and tried a number of other PDF documents on the web. For example the PDF documents on my own web site, which used to work fine, say http://www.jamescobban.net/Newsletters/Newsletter2015_06.pdf. The browser opens a window that says about:blank and nothing happens.

How can I download or view PDF documents using FF 40?

I want to read the specifications of an IBM product described on the page http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=SP&infotype=PM&appname=STGE_ZS_ZS_USEN&htmlfid=ZSD03035USEN&attachment=ZSD03035USEN.PDF#loaded This page looks at my browser, arbitrarily decides that there is no support for PDF, probably by checking for the presence of the Adobe plugin, and therefore fails to generate an <embed> for the PDF file. But it does include a link: <a class="ibm-pdf-link" href="http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/zs/en/zsd03035usen/ZSD03035USEN.PDF">Download PDF File</a> However when I click on this link nothing happens. I have the default option of using the builtin document viewer enabled. So I then went and tried a number of other PDF documents on the web. For example the PDF documents on my own web site, which used to work fine, say http://www.jamescobban.net/Newsletters/Newsletter2015_06.pdf. The browser opens a window that says about:blank and nothing happens. How can I download or view PDF documents using FF 40?

Chosen solution

Apart from the issue that more and more web-sites are explicitly asking the browser whether it has the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader plugin, which is not available on Linux, I got this to work.

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jamescobban
jamescobban Question owner
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Chosen Solution

Apart from the issue that more and more web-sites are explicitly asking the browser whether it has the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader plugin, which is not available on Linux, I got this to work.