I'm a newbie myself and I was tinkering/looking to solve the same problem.
This is what I did:
1. download "j2re-1_4_2_04-linux-i586-rpm.bin" to your mozilla folder
2. uncompress it by typing in (without quotes) "sh j2re-1_4_2_04-linux-i586-rpm.bin"
3. this will create a new file called "j2re-1_4_2_04-linux-i586.rpm"
4. install this file by typing (w/o/q) "rpm -ivh"
5. above step will create a directory called "/usr/java/j2re1.4.2_04"
6. now type (w/o/q) "cd /usr/lib/mozilla-1.6/plugins/"
7. then type (w/o/q) "ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.2_04/plugin/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so"
8. type (w/o/q) "cd /etc/profile.d"
9. now, open a text editor (for pete's sake, I can't use vi!) and type in the following:
export PATH=/usr/java/j2re1.4.2_04/bin:${PATH}
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/j2re1.4.2_04
9. save the file as "java.sh"
10. type (w/o/q) "chmod java.sh +755"
11. finally, close down any open mozilla browesers and restart it.
btw, i'm using fedora 2 and it seems to be working (kinda slow). to see if the plugin has been installed, click, help-->about plugins
FULL credit goes to:
sibayan
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~= Sibayan Das =~