Summary of My Java Plugin Experience
 

I've had a number of issues getting java to work (at least in RH9).

First I installed mozilla 1.4 into /usr/local/mozilla

There are many ways to set it up...you could try the default plugin that Mozilla tries to get for you. That page is here:
http://wp.netscape.com/plugins/jvm.html

The nice thing about this version is that it will install automatically for you (as long as you go to the page as root). And it is obviously the netscape java plugin. The problem with this one is that it doesn't work. When you run mozilla ( version 1.4 ) from the command prompt you receive the following error message:

LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/local/mozilla/plugins/java2/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so [/usr/local/mozilla/plugins/java2/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so: undefined symbol: __vt_17nsGetServiceByCID]

And any attempt to go to a java page will fail...in other words the plugin doesn't work.

The other way is to get blackdown linux. That file can be located here:

ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/linux/deve...-1.4.1/i386/01

I grabbed the SDK and placed the BIN file into /usr/local. I made the files execuatable with chmod +x. And then I ran it. It put all the files in /usr/local/j2sdk1.4.1/

If you want to compile java files and such...you need to do some other things to set your path variable (which I did), but let me skip to the plugin part.

Then what you are supposed to do is symbolically link the plugin to your mozilla plugin directory. Do this with the following command:

ln -s /usr/local/j2sdk1.4.1/jre/plugin/i386/netscape7/javaplugin_oji.so /usr/local/mozilla/plugins/

Now, if you run Mozilla and try a java web page, you will see that the plugin works perfectly! How amazing. The problem with this procedure is that this also spits an error message. Let me add it...it will be very long.

------- Begin Error Message -----------

An unexpected exception has been detected in native code outside the VM.
Unexpected Signal : 11 occurred at PC=0x42073770 during VM shutdown
Function=__libc_free+0x70
Library=/lib/tls/libc.so.6

Dynamic libraries:
08048000-0804b000 r-xp 00000000 03:01 1393350 /usr/local/j2sdk1.4.1/jre/bin/java_vm
0804b000-0804c000 rw-p 00002000 03:01 1393350 /usr/local/j2sdk1.4.1/jre/bin/java_vm
40000000-40015000 r-xp 00000000 03:01 1474574 /lib/ld-2.3.2.so
40015000-40016000 rw-p 00014000 03:01 1474574 /lib/ld-2.3.2.so

( lots more files are listed )

Local Time = Fri Jul 4 17:46:40 2003
Elapsed Time = 34
#
# The exception above was detected in native code outside the VM
#
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (Blackdown-1.4.1-01 mixed mode)
#
# An error report file has been saved as hs_err_pid13289.log.
# Please refer to the file for further information.
#

----- End Error Message ------

So it is good that the plugin works, but it is bad that an error is generated (everytime you go to a java web page) and worse, it outputs the error to a log file too!

I wanted to fix this...I pathetically tried to install the blackdown j2re form the same site. I linked the plugin and ended getting the same error message that the netscape plugin gave me.

I proceded to try other plugins (for Netscape 7) but those didn't work either.

I really am quite frustrated. At least the java plugin is working. Does anyone know how to fix this blackdown error? Has anyone else had a similar experience?