How to get Java to work in Firefox

[km4hr]

I'm a long time Linux user but I'll be darned if I can get Java applets to work in Firefox on Centos5.

I download/executed the jre ".rpm" file from Sun.

I created the symbolic link as follows.

#cd /usr/lib/firefox-1.5.0.9/plugins
#ln -s /usr/java/jre1.6.0/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so .
#ls -l
libjavaplugin_oji.so -> /usr/java/jre1.6.0/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

I stopped/started Firefox.

Ran Sun's Java test at the following site.
http://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml

Test fails!

I give up. What am I missing?

Do I need to download another jre? Maybe IBM's will work?

Java block is checked in Edit-Preferences->Content.

[gerald_clark]

Try putting the symlink in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
instead.

[km4hr]

Thanks gerald. But still no joy.

I assume java works for others. If so, where did you get your Java runtime? Did you change anything in Firefox config?

[gerald_clark]

You are running 32 bit firefox, right?
If not, search the forms for the plugin wrapper.

[michaelnel]

On my CentOS 4.5 workstation, my firefox is in /usr/local/firefox. I use the following link in /usr/local/firefox/plugins:

libjavaplugin_oji.so -> /usr/java/jdk1.5.0_11/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

It works fine.

If you bring up firefox and put in the url "about:plugins" does the java plugin show?

[km4hr]

[quote]
michaelnel wrote:
On my CentOS 4.5 workstation, my firefox is in /usr/local/firefox. I use the following link in /usr/local/firefox/plugins:

libjavaplugin_oji.so -> /usr/java/jdk1.5.0_11/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

It works fine.

If you bring up firefox and put in the url "about:plugins" does the java plugin show?[/quote]

Yes. "about:plugins" does display the plugin version that I have installed.

I see you're running CentOS 4.5 and not CentOS 5. Maybe there is no CentOS 5 java plugin yet. The installation instructions on Sun's site are clearly out of date. They talk about checking Tools->Options->Java. That doesn't even exist in Firefox 1.5.0.9. So maybe their plugin is out of date also. That's why I'd like to know if anyone using CentOS 5 is able to run java applets.

I wonder if it's possible to download Java plugin source and build it myself? I dunno.

Is java plugin available in any of the CentOS repositories? I looked but I didn't see anything.

This is over my head. I'm lost!

[michaelnel]

I don't really see how CentOS 4.5 vs 5.0 makes a difference here. What's really involved is Firefox and Java, regardless of the CentOS distribution level.

BTW, I am using Firefox 2.0.0.4, but I have never seen Java fail to work on any version of Linux when the plugin shows up in about:config.

You've got me baffled on this one.

[WhatsHisName]

Having not upgraded any systems from jre-1.5 to jre-1.6, I decided to have a look at this one.

After downloading/running the i586 package, I noticed that the rpm was unpacked, but was not installed, so I ?rpm -ivh ...? and it installed without issues. Haven?t seen that happen before.

Then removed the old jre package and:

[code]# [b]cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins[/b]

# [b]rm libjavaplugin_oji.so[/b]

# [b]ln -s /usr/java/latest/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so[/b][/code]
Note the link to ../latest/... Nice feature for future use.

As with jre-1.5, using jre-1.6 with firefox.i386 works fine.


And back to gerald_clark?s question: ?You are running 32 bit firefox, right??

[code] # [b]uname -rpmi[/b]

2.6.18-8.1.6.el5 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64

# [b]yum list installed firefox jre[/b]

firefox.i386 1.5.0.12-1.el5.centos installed
jre.i586 1.6.0_01-fcs installed[/code]

[km4hr]

[quote]

[code] # [b]uname -rpmi[/b]

2.6.18-8.1.6.el5 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64

# [b]yum list installed firefox jre[/b]

firefox.i386 1.5.0.12-1.el5.centos installed
jre.i586 1.6.0_01-fcs installed[/code][/quote]

Here's mine. I don't know how many bits it is.

# uname -rpmi
2.6.18-8.el5 i686 i686 i386

# yum list installed firefox jre
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Installed Packages
firefox.i386 1.5.0.9-10.el5.centos installed
jre.i586 1.6.0-fcs installed

Looks ok, no?

Maybe I'm not testing it right. All I know is the little animated puppet applet doesn't appear when I go to Sun's Java test site mentioned previously.

[michaelnel]

My puppet wiggles. :lol: