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Bug #1124

closed

Incorrect Content-Type header from mirror.catn.com leads to problems downloading via Internet Explorer

Added by - Raal almost 10 years ago. Updated over 9 years ago.

Status:
Closed
Priority:
Normal
Category:
-
Target version:
-
Start date:
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Tags:

Description

Ci-infra bugs are now tracked in redmine. Copied from bugzilla bug #88913
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Category:Infrastructure
https://redmine.documentfoundation.org/projects/infrastructure
https://redmine.documentfoundation.org/issues/1106
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On several occasions, installation problems reported on the mailing list have turned out to be due to Internet Explorer's behaviour of giving the downloaded installer .man extension instead of .msi. On attempting to run the installer, Windows then complains that it doesn't know what to do with a .man file.

While there is probably not much that LibreOffice can do to fix this, one user recently encountering the problem commented "why can't they save everyones time by saying at the outset that their software only downloads via certain browsers".

Sounds like a reasonable suggestion to me - a note on the downloads page about this behaviour of Internet Explorer, and how to work around it. Perhaps only displayed if Internet Explorer is detected. Various options to suggest for a workaround:
- Use Save > Save As when Internet Explorer pops up the download bar, and change .man to .msi before downloading, rather than letting it download to a default name and location.
- Rename the .man file to .msi after downloading (but note that this also requires changing an option in Windows Explorer to show the extensions in the first place!)
- Use a different web browser.

Steps to reproduce:
1. From Internet Explorer (I'm using version 9) go to http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-still/ (fresh version 4.4.0 doesn't seem to download anything at all at the moment, but I think that's happened before when the download page has preempted a new version)
2. Click the button to download the current version
3. When the download bar (at the bottom of Internet Explorer) shows, click "Save"
4. The installer is downloaded to a default location, with a .man extension

At step 3, it is possible to:
3. When the download bar (at the bottom of Internet Explorer) shows, click the arrow next to "Save" and select "Save As"
4. Change the extension from .man to .msi
5. Click save
6. The installer is downloaded to the specified location, with a correct .msi extension.

However, many people probably just click "Save" and get a .man file downloaded to a default location and, even if they do use "Save As" to choose where the download goes, may not realise the extension needs to be changed.

Actions #1

Updated by Mark Bourne over 9 years ago

Followup in the original bugzilla bug found that this was a specific mirror:

http://mirror.catn.com/pub/tdf/libreoffice/stable/4.3.5/win/x86/LibreOffice_4.3.5_Win_x86.msi

Including an incorrect header:

Content-Type: application/x-troff-man

I've just checked that mirror again (with an updated link, since the original is no longer provided) and it seems to be OK now:

http://mirror.catn.com/pub/tdf/libreoffice/stable/4.4.2/win/x86/LibreOffice_4.4.2_Win_x86.msi

Includes:

Content-Type: application/octet-stream

and correctly downloads as a .msi file in Internet Explorer.

Actions #2

Updated by Dennis Roczek over 9 years ago

  • Status changed from New to Closed
  • Assignee set to Christian Lohmaier

So, as it seems to be fixed I closing the ticket. If it is still existing please reopen the ticket (just for the case: Cloph I assign the ticket to you!)

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