[SOLVED] My Firefox got invaded

[zaivala]

Apparently some popup got into my Firefox (3.0.x), although I approved no such. On every screen, either I have some little box floating across the screen asking me to click on it, or I get slow page loads with lots of black flashes.

Being a newbie, I tried to uninstall and reinstall... but Add/Remove Programs won't let me uninstall.

I also tried using Seamonkey, but that won't let me install my plugins without being Root. So for now I'm back in ******* until someone can help.

Any ideas?

[Keen101]

You could try reinstalling using synaptic package manager.

>System >Administration >Synaptic

If that doesn't help try to do a "complete removal" from synaptic since that will remove configuration files. (It should only remove firefox, and maybe java, but if it say's it's also going to remove ubuntu-desktop then don't do it.)

That is a really weird issue. I've never heard of that before, not even on windows.

[maddog46113]

Try this, note you will lose all data in firefox and have to reinstall flash and all the addons but its worth it to get firefox back to normal.

Open Terminal

sudo apt-get remove firefox --purge

Then type the following:

 sudo apt-get install firefox

Then to reinstall flash:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

[Toshibawarrior]

Depends on which webpages you visit...Somehow some pages (most likely promotional, pornographic and torrent sites) have a way to infiltrate some pop-ups into Firefox independently of which add-ons you use. You can try what Keen101 suggested, but if you keep visiting those kinds of sites expect some pop-ups to come along.

I've got these pop-ups from guitar tabs sites and vacation booking sites with stupid promotional banners and pop-ups that say "Click Here You WoN!" and stuff like that. It happened to me in XP, on Vista and here on Ubuntu too...

Hope this helps!

[zaivala]

Truth be told, I visited a porn site a friend mentioned over the weekend, and that's when the trouble started. I don't do that hardly at all, and had never been to this site before (word of warning: it was redtube.com). If there is an easier way to purge the demon, please let me know.

[zaivala]

Try this, note you will lose all data in firefox and have to reinstall flash and all the addons but its worth it to get firefox back to normal.

Open Terminal

sudo apt-get remove firefox --purge

Then type the following:

 sudo apt-get install firefox

Then to reinstall flash:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

Thank you for this. I will do that if, after hearing back from toshibawarrier, it is my last resort, which I fear it may be.

Moss

[adobrakic]

try installing adblock plus!

[zaivala]

try installing adblock plus!

Already did, it didn't stop this one.

[scorp123]

Guys,

Removing and installing a program again in order to "fix" it is Windows-thinking and is not likely to help here. So you guys better drop your old habits.

Fact is that the program is doing fine, it functions as intended. So why do you want to remove it??? The fact that it shows a stupid pop-up has nothing to do with the program itself but rather with the user's settings.

So in order to reset the program it should be enough to simply erase the user's Firefox settings and then start it again ... that would give this user a clean new profile:

Warning: This command will completely wipe your Firefox settings!

rm -rf ~/.mozilla

Installing and reinstalling is overkill ... and it's not likely going to help anyway if you're not taking care of the user settings in ~/.mozilla ... And no: a "apt-get --purge remove" only removes system-wide settings, user settings are not taken care of.

[zaivala]

Guys,

Removing and installing a program again in order to "fix" it is Windows-thinking and is not likely to help here. So you guys better drop your old habits.

Fact is that the program is doing fine, it functions as intended. So why do you want to remove it??? The fact that it shows a stupid pop-up has nothing to do with the program itself but rather with the user's settings.

So in order to reset the program it should be enough to simply erase the user's Firefox settings and then start it again ... that would give this user a clean new profile:

Warning: This command will completely wipe your Firefox settings!

rm -rf ~/.mozilla

Installing and reinstalling is overkill ... and it's not likely going to help anyway if you're not taking care of the user settings in ~/.mozilla ... And no: a "apt-get --purge remove" only removes system-wide settings, user settings are not taken care of.

Sorry for the Windows thinking -- but if you'll note, I DID ask how to fix it WITHOUT reinstalling it. I have been all through the Preferences panel, and there's nothing to clear popups which have loaded -- that I can see. And help is appreciated.