I am a bit confused on how Web Browsers find the plugins for Java ? Also, where are those plugins ? Finally, what type of configuration do I need for my web browser to perfectly work with Java ?

I have installed Java-6-openjdk for a couple of my apps that needed Java to run. I haven't got any problem at all there

I modify /etc/profile as such
1 put the Java binary path into my PATH --> /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin
2 used the JAVA_HOME command

That did it just fine for my apps

Then I was browsing a bit and suddenly stumbled upon a website that I couldn't actually open due to a lack of java plugins.

Now I have read in many places that I would need to create a symlink of the java path and put into /usr/local/bin for my web browser to use those plugins

1 Would that really be necessary ?
2 Would the plugins actually be in the java binary ? or Would I have to create a symlink for another Java folder ?
3 Finally, where would be the best place to actually put the symlink ? I have read that people put that kind of symlink into /usr/local/bin. What about you Guys ?

Thanking you for your help

Where you put the symlink will depend on how you have your system configured and which web browser you use. What you have to symlink to is /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so. If you are using firefox you can put the link in /home/<username>/.mozilla/plugins and java will work for that user. However, most distros have configured the default web broser to look in certain directories for their plugin links so you don't have to separately create links for every user.

apt-get install openjdk-6-jre icedtea-gcjwebplugin

or use Sun's Java apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

Either way you shouldn't have to mess with making symlinks.

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May be slightly irrelevant but here it goes.

I use alternatives quite often to manager such stuff (specially in case of multiple instances of same program).

It provides a handy way of handling sym-links using master-slave relations.

Thanks 'craigevil' got it working now by installing icedtea-gcjwebplugin without having to create a symlink for Java.

craigevil:

May I ask where you found the information regarding the gcjwebplugin and how to link it to the browser. I have read countless pages of documentation, Googled, etc and finally found this post telling how to install the plugin. I had just recently upgraded to Debian 5.0 and installed the openjdk-6 and never found anything stating how to link your browser to the plugin. Any help would be appreciated.

By the way: Your suggestion worked for me as well.

~Thanks

apt-cache search java

This will not work with Debian Lenny, Firefox, and manually download the latest Java plugin file.

You have to following these instruction instead.

https://jdk6.dev.java.net/plugin2/#INSTALLATION

Unix Platforms (Solaris and Linux)

Place a symlink to .../jre/lib/{i386,sparc}/libnpjp2.so into either your Firefox 3 firefox/plugins directory or your ~/.mozilla/plugins directory. Remove any stray preexisting symlinks to the libjavaplugin_oji.so library.

You may switch back to using the classic Java Plug-In by removing the symlink to libnpjp2.so and reinstalling a symlink to libjavaplugin_oji.so from the same JRE.

Thanks, Lex

What do you mean this will not work with Lenny?.

the trooper, this does not work with Firefox 3.6. If you have a Firefox < 3.6 the solutions above will work. In this thread many tried but they also failed and this is what I experiencing.

http://www.pubbs.net/firefox/201001/52395/

or this with no reply

http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5284744

I tried it with the latest Firefox and it does not work. What I mentioned above almost worked, linking to "libnpjp2.so" but in the end it does not work either. I might go back to an older Firefox since I do need the Java plugin to work. If I find a solution I will post.

[ SOLUTION SOLVED ]
Here is the solution.

Download the latest Java Runtime Environment at the time of writing this [2010/March/11]it was jre-6u18-linux-i586.bin. I have a 32 bit install of Debian Lenny environment.


Move the file to this directory /usr/lib/jvm/ if it does not exist create it like this.

Move the downloaded plug-in to “/usr/lib/jvm/ “
Change to where you moved the file
Make it executable
Execute it
Hit enter until you get to the end of the you better agree to this stuff and type “yes”

Update Alternatives
Go to Firefox plug-ins install directory. This might not be the same place as mine “/opt/firefox/plugins”
Make a symbolic link in your Firefox install directory
Test
http://time.gov/timezone.cgi?Eastern/d/-5/java#

You will see the time.

You can do this also but it did not work for me.

http://java.com/en/download/help/lin...all.xml#enable
“If you install Firefox 1.5 or later, you can enable the Java Console menu item in the Tools menu. Change directories to the Firefox extensions directory, then unzip ffjcext.zip there.
cd /usr/lib/firefox-1.4/extensions
unzip /usr/java/jre1.6.0/lib/deploy/ffjcext.zip
“

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