I had trouble getting my AMD64 box to run firefox with the java and flash plugins. I found SwiftWeasel buggy. It would crash sometimes at gokgs.com.
When I eventually succeeded, the final process was too easy. I couldn't believe I'd spent so much time searching for it. May you find it easy, too. (I'm not at home, so please read and understand the instructions before running them, in case I left out something small, like unzipping a file)
Section 0: Setup
Step 1: Find your lib directory(s)
Figure out where your lib directories are. On my machine I have /usr/lib, /usr/lib32, and /usr/lib64. By running 'ls -l /usr' I find that /usr/lib is a link pointing to /usr/lib64, meaning the two are really the same directory. So I have two lib directories: /usr/lib and /usr/lib32. Just to be sure, I'm going to install my library files in both. In the install-java-plugin section, when you see me do something with /usr/lib and /usr/lib32, substitute your one-or-more lib directories.
Step 2: Make an installation directory
mkdir a directory where you will put firefox and the plugins
e.g. mkdir ~/Documents/firefox
I'll call this directory $FIREFOX_HOME.
Section 1: Download
Step 1: Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Click Download Now.
Find the file. mv it to $FIREFOX_HOME.
Step 2: Flash
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/
Click Download Now.
Click Download .tar.gz file.
Step 3: Java Plugin
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/
Click Plugins.
Under Java, click Install now.
Click Free Java Download.
Click Linux (self-extracting file)
Find the file. mv it to $FIREFOX_HOME
Section 2: Extract
Step 1: Firefox
cd $FIREFOX_HOME
tar zxf downloadFileName.tar.gz
rm downloadFileName.tar.gz
Step 2: Flash
cd $FIREFOX_HOME
tar zxf install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz
rm install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz
Step 3: Java Plugin
cd $FIREFOX_HOME
sh jre-6u3-linux-i586.bin
[read and accept user agreement]
Section 3: Install
Step 0 (optional?): I didn't want anything to interfere with proper installation, so before installing, I used 'apt-get remove' to remove anything I could find related to mozilla, firefox, or plugins for either. I then used 'sudo updatedb' and 'locate' to remove all remaining files related to either (of course, I did not remove any files from $FIREFOX_HOME)
Step 1: Firefox
cd $FIREFOX_HOME/firefox
mv firefox firefox.bak #This is to get rid of the 64-bit version of Fx.
sudo ln -s `pwd`/firefox-bin /usr/bin/firefox #This links the 32-bit version into your path
(Optional): Add icon into your "start menu" or "quicklaunch bar". Alternatively, you can run firefox from a terminal with the simple command: firefox
Step 2: Flash
cd $FIREFOX_HOME/install_flash_player_9_linux
ln -s `pwd`/libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/plugins
ln -s `pwd`/flashplayer.xpt ~/.mozilla/plugins
Step 3: Java
cd $FIREFOX_HOME/jre1.6.0_03
ln -s `pwd`/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so ~/.mozilla/plugins
cd lib/i386
for x in *.so; do ln -s `pwd`/$x /usr/lib; ln -s `pwd`/$x /usr/lib2;done #This links the relevant libraries into your library path so they can be found.
Section 4: Test
At a command line, run
firefox
Navigate to
about
lugins
The two plugins should appear in the resultant page. :-)