Java 1.6 under firefox

[rammy1972]

I tried installing Sun Java 1.6 using synaptic packages sun-java6-jre and sun-java-plugin and sudo update-alternatives --config java but firefox doesn't run java. On another blog it mentions uninstalling icedteagcj-plugin but it was never installed with java 1.6. I don't have icedtea installed. So what else could be the problem?

[avtolle]

Preliminary question; are you running 32 bit or 64 bit OS? If 64 bit, there isn't a sun plugin to work with FF, and you will need to work with iced-tea, IIRC.

[Zorael]

edit: rampant editorama!

I'll just go ahead and assume you're using 32-bit, while we wait for your response.

First off, I think you want to make sure you have the sun-java6-plugin package installed. If you do and it still doesn't work, we'll need to toil with the links to the java plugin library.

$ ls -l /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/*java*

With any hope, it links towards /etc/alternatives/xulrunner-1.9-javaplugin.so. Example output from my system:

$ ls -l /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/*java*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 45 2008-06-17 00:04 /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so -> /etc/alternatives/xulrunner-1.9-javaplugin.so

So, you'll want to pick the xulrunner-1.9-javaplugin.so alternative to use.

$ sudo update-alternatives --config xulrunner-1.9-javaplugin.so

You want to pick /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so. If it's not there, you'll need to install it:

$ sudo update-alternatives --install /etc/alternatives/xulrunner-1.9-javaplugin.so xulrunner-1.9-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so 90

Then do the --config xulrunner command again. Restart firefox, open up about:plugins and see if Java is mentioned there.

[rammy1972]

Sorry for the late reply, Itried command
ls -l /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/*java*
all I get as a reply is from ls listing any file with the wildcard is
ls: cannot access /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/*java*: No such file or directory
so it appears not to have installed. which is weird since it is installed as a package in synaptic

[Zorael]

I'm still assuming you're on a 32-bit installation, by the way.


First off, make sure you didn't miss sun-java6-plugin.

If the symlink is missing, we'll just have to create it. Enter these commands in order. Copied, pasted, reordered and modified from my earlier post:

$ sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/xulrunner-1.9-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so
$ sudo update-alternatives --config xulrunner-1.9-javaplugin.so

You want to pick /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so. If it's there to pick, restart Firefox, open up about:plugins and see if Java is mentioned.

*IF* it's not there, you'll need to install it:

$ sudo update-alternatives --install /etc/alternatives/xulrunner-1.9-javaplugin.so xulrunner-1.9-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so 90

Then do the --config xulrunner command again.

$ sudo update-alternatives --config xulrunner-1.9-javaplugin.so

...then pick it.