Neither "java" nor "app inventor" are specific to any distro or even linux. Regardless, I cannot get "java" running in ways that satisfy the "app inventor" pages.
Can anyone help me sort this out?

I'm running Linux Mint-12 (Ubuntu 11.10) and have all of the various java packages installed. I'm trying to use the Chromium browser with MIT's "App Inventor" tools for building Android apps. I need something really trivial on my 'droid, and App Inventor seems a light weight approach to doing a prototype.

Thanks in advance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

Is there someone out there who can help me understand why I cannot get my browsers to pass the java tests presented by App Inventor's web pages?

I have installed the several JRE and JDK packages available in the Mint and Ubuntu repositories.
I don't get DSL Reports Tests to run java either. Since I'm running Chromium v18.0.1025.168, is there some magic to getting java to run there?

More Follow-up:
I spent some time searching Synaptic for variations on 'java' and 'plugin' and 'chromium'. I didn't find anything interesting or remotely like the file mentioned previously. Is this some new feature that demands a newer java than is available from the Mint-12 (Ubuntu 11.10) repositories?
Follow-up:
Mucking around I found a reference to chromium-javaplugin.so. I cannot find this file anywhere on my workstation. I've installed everything java from the repositories. Can anyone explain why I don't have this file? Is there a separate package that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

A Partial Solution
There is a folder /etc/alternatives that lists which programs to run under various situations when more than one program might apply. For example, it tells which music player application you want to use when you launch an MP3 file. The "lists" are actually file links to whichever library or executable runs.

It also has file:
I created a sim link as follows, borrowing the target used for the other 'javaplugin' alternates:
Make sure that you fill in the full path name that I was too lazy to type or paste.

After a restart for the chromium browser, I get the warning:
Java Plugin Out of Date and the browser blocks running of the stale plug-in.
I'm given the choice to run-once or update the plugin. Using run-once, the tests pass and all looks as expected.

Now I've got to discover how to update my java without breaking Mint-12. There are several postings about how the move from Java-6 to Java-7 breaks Nautilus and other parts of Mint and Ubuntu.

Follow-up:
Now I'm confused. I asked java which edition I'm running:

Code:

prompt$ java -version

java version "1.7.0_147-icedtea"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea7 2.0) (7~b147-2.0-0ubuntu0.11.10.1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 21.0-b17, mixed mode)

and it looks to be current. However, the plugin appears to be a v6 edition.

Since I get v7 to a simple java command, v7 should be the default edition, so why is the plug-in other than current? I get the following:

Code:

prompt$ locate libnpjp2.so

/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so

The only plugin I have seems to be the v6 edition. Nothing v7.

More when I solve that one.
~~~ 0;-Dan

It seemed counter intuitive, but the following worked:

The confusion comes from the fact that I continue to get v6 parts in spite of having the v7 JDK installed. (Apparently, the v7 plugin is not yet available from Oracle® and friends.)

When I restarted Chromium after this, all worked as desired without errors or warnings or pop-ups.

Problem solved,
~~~ 0;-Dan

I apologize for not responding SaintDanBert, I myself have never gotten the icedtea plugin to work so I always just install Oracle Java using this guide here, the only thing is that you have to manually update java everytime.
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/java
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/ja...ads/index.html
I have also had to do the commands as root because sudo fails me.

As you can read from my "solution" I was able to install various 'java' and 'icedtea' packages and get things working -- albeit in ways and for reasons that I don't understand.

If you used sudo apt-get install {package} I have no idea why you would have trouble unless there is a problem with the package itself. Remember, sudo {command} grants root permissions to the specified {command}. When that command is a script, each statement in the script is a command of its own and sometimes they run foul of root behavior. I find this happens when scripts redirect output to files and then process those files. Permissions and ownership often contributes to troubles doing that.

Cheers,
~~~ 0;-Dan