Firefox and Java one more time

[thomas175]

Tried some of the suggestions on the forum for installing java in firefox. No luck so far. Now I am trying the suggestions on the Sun java web site. Have the jre1.6.03 file downloaded to the desktop. First step of install is open a terminal and type in su , enter the root password. So I type su hit enter type the password I use at Kubuntu log in, hit enter and I get su authentication failure.

Either I am doing this wrong, these Sun java instructions are wrong, I don't have the root password (and don't know how to get it) or I have no idea what else?

Can anyone guide me here. This is as frustrating as Windows can be.

Kubuntu Gutsy and Firefox 2.0.011

TIA
Trying to make the switch to Linux

[marshallbanana]

Re: Firefox and Java one more time

Ubuntu and variants don't have a root user, hence your problems. It has been replaced with sudo (if you are interested in what that means google will tell you with a short search). Instead of typing su to start, just add the word sudo to the beginning of each command. This runs that command as root. The first one will ask for the password, the rest will not (for about 5-10min, after which password is required again).

Personally though, I would recommend the following method for installing java and making it work with firefox:

Try the following in the command line, the first line installs it (using command line instead of the adept gui) and the next two lines are creating links in folders so it will work with firefox:
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /etc/alternatives/mozilla-javaplugin.so
sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/mozilla-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/mozilla-javaplugin.so

[Jean]

Re: Firefox and Java one more time

Thank you, that worked.
Do you know how to get opera to eat it too?
Jean.

[thomas175]

Re: Firefox and Java one more time

This did not work for me. It seemed to me that the third line did not work because I do not have a file /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox. I get "No such file or directory"

I do have /usr/lib/mozilla and /usr/lib/firefox So I tried to use both those as two separate entries:
sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/mozilla-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/mozilla-javaplugin.so
sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/mozilla-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/mozilla-javaplugin.so
Both times I got the message "File exists"

However, I still have no java in firefox. Tried restarting Kubuntu, but that did not do it.

Could I have another suggestion of what to try?

TIA

[marshallbanana]

Re: Firefox and Java one more time

Sorry but no. I use firefox myself.
If you google around though I imagine it is just a matter of getting a symbolic link into the right folder (as was done for firefox with those last two lines).
Or maybe someone else here will know...

[marshallbanana]

Re: Firefox and Java one more time

@thomas1175: Let's start with a quick check that java is installed correctly. In the command line type:

java -version

you should get something like:

java version "1.6.0_03"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_03-b05)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0_03-b05, mixed mode, sharing)

If you do get something of this nature, then check whether the file
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
exists (you can do this in konqueror, or I imagine in dolphin too, just be navigating to the containing folder).

[damjan]

Re: Firefox and Java one more time

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so

works to me. Thx.

br
D

[thomas175]

Re: Firefox and Java one more time

Marshall, thanks for offering to help.

Here is my java version:

java version "1.6.0_03"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_03-b05)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0_03-b05, mixed mode, sharing)

I have the file:

/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

and I have

/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.03/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

[marshallbanana]

Re: Firefox and Java one more time

@thomas175:
Okay, and so the command

sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/mozilla-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/mozilla-javaplugin.so

Worked fine for you.
But

sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/mozilla-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/mozilla-javaplugin.so

failed because you have no such file or directory. Right?

Just want to be sure of whats up, will look into it more when I get home, but not in kubuntu right now.

Also given damjan's post it might be worth trying his code.

Other attempt is navigating to /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/ and deleting the file mozilla-plugin.so (if it says you don't have permissions then just close konqueror, then alt-f2 (run command) 'kdesu konqueror' and go delete it (this opens konqueror as root))
and then running

sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/mozilla-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/mozilla-javaplugin.so

again. This way we can avoid the file exists message. It might work. I'm sure there is some smarter commandline way to force the replacement but I don't know what that is.

[thomas175]

Re: Firefox and Java one more time

I did not even notice that damjan's code was different to yours. I thought that he was just acknowledging that your code worked for him. I tried damjan's code and instantly I have over 20 versions of java from applet 1.1 to 1.6.0.03 in aboutlugins in Firefox.

Thanks damjan.
Thanks marshall

[lotech]

Re: Firefox and Java one more time

I think it is better to have Java plugin preloaded as it is a must have addon for web browsing these days, not all runtime works for me, and I need the Java6-sun plugin which display non English characters properly.

[thomas175]

Re: Firefox and Java one more time

Can someone help me understand what Iotech means by "it is better to have Java plugin preloaded"? Does this mean to install the Java plugin before installing Firefox?