Re: [LUG] enabling javaplugin in mozilla

[Simon Waters <Simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rick Timmis wrote:
> I could do with a small pointer on this one. I am trying to install and
> enable the java plugin for Mozilla. Initially I ran the auto intall
> plugin from netscape, which failed on permissions, and I'm not going to
> try it as root.

Unfortunately that is the way to install it from the GUI, logging in as
root, not ideal, I assume you only need to run Mozilla as root not the
whole desktop?

I think after downloading in Mozilla as root you need to restart Mozilla
as root as well...<sigh>.

> So I read the docs from Sun and Installed the jre 1.3 rpm. additionally
> i followed the instructions (admittedly writtten for netscape) and
> created a symlink in $HOME/.mozilla/plugins to point to the appropriate
> library.

Why 1.3 - it is ancient - 1.4 versions have the new plugin framework for
Netscape 6 or Mozilla (the oji plugin) in the JRE download at SUN.

I think some of the older plugins work with modern Mozilla's but that
isn't the way to do it.

Also I think I had to hack one of the common applet MIME-types as it
wasn't recognised correctly when I had a "nearly right" configuration.
Don't focus on one applet, but try the SUN website (java.sun.com), as
theirs are likely to be set up right.

> Still no joy, I have googled and searched mozilla.org but this has
> produced no clues, which leads me to the conclusion I am missing
> something really simple
>
> Any ideas ??

Make ample user of "help > About plugins" to see what is happening, use
a recent version of Mozilla (1.5?/1.6)

I went through this several times with Digichat, a proprietary Java
applet run on a website I use, turned out it was just broken (but it was
only noticable under JRE 1.4 - newer versions of Digichat are fine BTW).
Wasn't till I tried JRE 1.4 on IE that I realised it was just the
applet. Still I switched to JRE 1.3 and JRE 1.4 several times in
Konqueror and Mozilla, and tried several different methods for Mozilla
modules.

Ideally your packaging system should do the JRE thing for you, I believe
Debian uses the "/etc/alternative" method for JVM's, I haven't tried on
my new Debian box (BTW Neil the Xfree86 upgrade in testing did the trick
- and I reverted to testing from unstable because GNOME dependencies
were bust in unstable - should have listened to you but fortunately
there wasn't much extra to download).

Basically I think I'm saying get uptodate in Mozilla, and JRE, and/or
don't be afraid to run Mozilla as root for install purposes if it saves
time. You are after all doing it as root to update a global
configuration file, not mindlessly surfing as root.

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