Odd firefox amazon behavior

[stevea]

Short description:
On some amazon.com, amazon.ca ,amazon,uk.co pages when viewing with firefox, the page redirects to a black screen with one white pixel in the middle.

Only happens with Firefox, Chrome doesn't redirect.
It often requires that cookies are enabled (a dubious choice), but not always
---
To reproduce the problem requires following a link to amazon so ....
A: Go to this wiki page about a book and click on reference #4, a link to amazon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernist_Cuisine

B: The browser initially shows this webpage and it looks fine
http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuis.../dp/0982761007

C: Within a few seconds it redirects to this page ... presumable associating my account info/history ... .but it displays a black screen with a single white pixel in the center.
http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuis.......((possible acct info omitted))

If I cut everything in the URL after the 'uedata/....' then it displays OK w/o any redirect.


Chrome stops at step2 w/o redirect.


Does anyone else see this ?

[Adunaic]

I tried several times and I do not get redirected. I am running Fedora 16, Firefox 16.0.1.
I tried it with and without my extentions enabled (ad-block, no script, flash block etc.)

Then only advice I can offer is: Bug unreproducable. Error must exits between keyboard and chair.

Sorry, always wanted to write that. Any more info on your setup/versions?

[Dan]

Running:
F16/E17
Firefox 16.0.1
Noscript 2.5.9
Adblock plus 2.1.2

No existing account for Amazon
All initial script options allowed temporarily on Amazon.com

Results:
No redirect. Site stable.


I have noticed over the last several weeks (since updating to 16.0.1) that Firefox needs to be shut down and restarted occasionally. (1~3 times per day) Usual symptoms include failure of one or more plugins, and/or lock up of both running common Mozilla products.

[marvin_ita]

Tried with F17 and Firefox 16.0.2

I can see in the location bar that Firefox tries to reload something, but it doesn't redirect to another page. For the notes, I tried as non registered user, since I have no Amazon account.

May I suggest you to try with a blank account and see if the problem persists? (just launch firefox from command line with 'firefox -ProfileManager')

[nonamedotc]

Firefox 16.0.2-1 on F17 x86_64 with adblock plus addon. Amazon account not logged in. History/cookies cleared.

No redirection. Site stable.

May be it was bug (for a short period of time) and incidentally you hit it at the right time?

[stevea]

Originally Posted by Adunaic

I tried several times and I do not get redirected. I am running Fedora 16, Firefox 16.0.1.
I tried it with and without my extentions enabled (ad-block, no script, flash block etc.)

Then only advice I can offer is: Bug unreproducable. Error must exits between keyboard and chair.

Sorry, always wanted to write that. Any more info on your setup/versions?

Always a possibility of user error - but I have it on 2x F17 x8_64 systems.

Happens with AdblockPlus enabled or disabled. SpellChecker is the only other common plugin.
The Amazon account info is in the FireFox authentication/passwd list.
firefox-16.0.2-1.fc17.x86_64

Originally Posted by marvin_ita

Tried with F17 and Firefox 16.0.2

I can see in the location bar that Firefox tries to reload something, but it doesn't redirect to another page. For the notes, I tried as non registered user, since I have no Amazon account.

That's what I see when the cookies are off in the (unreliable) case where it fails to redirect.
The URI bar sort of 'blinks' but fails to redirect.

May I suggest you to try with a blank account and see if the problem persists? (just launch firefox from command line with 'firefox -ProfileManager')

Good idea.
firefox -ProfileManager: the problem persists, same symptoms.
If I su to another user account (with no amazon account) then start firefox there is no redirect and the display is fine.

Originally Posted by nonamedotc

Firefox 16.0.2-1 on F17 x86_64 with adblock plus addon. Amazon account not logged in. History/cookies cleared.

No redirection. Site stable.

May be it was bug (for a short period of time) and incidentally you hit it at the right time?

No - it's been going on for months. No temporary glitch.


Thanks all.

So it appears the Amazon account connection is a critical part of the problem.

Anyone got another idea ?

[marvin_ita]

Originally Posted by stevea

Good idea.
firefox -ProfileManager: the problem persists, same symptoms.
If I su to another user account (with no amazon account) then start firefox there is no redirect and the display is fine.

Did you create a new blank profile when you started firefox with -ProfileManager?
If so, that should be the same as start firefox as another user, since no cookies and temporary files are shared between the two profiles...

Other things you can try:
-logout from amazon and try to open that page as guest user to see if the problem is due to some setting in your amazon account or to cookies in the browser.
-After that, if you haven't did already, delete cookies and temporary files from your firefox standard profile (ctrl+shift+del)

[Dan]

Come to think of it, I ran into something similar last year. I ended up ditching the .macromedia folder, and one other (which I don't immediately recall) and the problem corrected itself.

EDIT: The other folder was the .adobe folder.

[stevea]

Well - I did an actual login to amazon (something I rarely do) and then I diddled a few account parameters, like not saving a history. Now it works. Had to do it from both systems and delete the old cookies.

My current hunch is that it created a bad webpage on the fly based on some bogus history (or similar). Very unclear.

BTW Other people have reported the black screen with a central white dot from amazon uedata, but mostly when using some special packages I've never heard of.

Think I'll give it a couple days before I mark it solved. Thanks all.