I am positive that its pointing to right place I just double checked.
Yeah I realized what you were saing about the java console not having anything to do with the plugin this morning. Also I made sure that under Tools>options>web features>Enable Java is checked.

Thanks

First, I will state what I consider to be something incredibly obvious, and it probably is not applicable (you probably did this), but, just in case:

Be sure that Firefox is not running when you install Java.

OK, now that the obvious is out of the way,

I'll quote from the manual install page. A lot of this may be redundant, so if it is, please ignore it! Also, remember to search for the files starting at / because they will not be in /.netscape/ but rather, they will be in some FireFox related folder. You may also wish to look for Firebird in case that was installed. If you find it, you might as well remove the entire folder since its obsolete now.

OPTIONAL:
This is an assumption that you are running KDE desktop. If you are not, ignore the following paragraph...

If you find the files in Konquerer, you may wish to consider removing (or renaming) them as well, and then adding Java to for Konquerer again to update it. Or, you may wish to manually update KDE using rpm -Fvh *.rpm. I downloaded the entire folder from the KDE mirror so I would have everything I needed.
(Of course, I also upgraded to KDE 3.2.1, but that ¡s another story altogether. )

When I followed the instructions to install manually, it did not work either because it was for mozilla, not firefox. So, I had to think slightly outside the box.

The first thing I did was search for files named firefox. Once I located the folders, I noted that it was in two locations. I opened another search to search for plugins.

I looked in all of the plugin folders for the symbolic link. I did not find it. Next, I opened a terminal window and changed directory to the plugin folder for firefox. (I did this in BOTH folders btw since I did not know which was the correct one.)

I ran the following:
Replace <JRE> with the absolute path for the JRE you installed (Note - try grabbing the new version, _04 just to be up to date.)
In my case, with SuSE, I had to do this as well:
I do not know if this pertains to RH9.

When I was done, I restarted X.

I searched for new plugins, then did a Google search for java test and hit a page to confirm java worked. It did.

I believe the key was ensuring that I was in the correct folder in terminal when I ran the command. I probably overdid it by running the command from two plugin folders, but it seems to work!

Don't give up. It's probably something incredibly simple we are overlooking. This is a learning experience for me as well, so I am happy to try to help you work through this.

Hang in there. You will end up with joy in the end, I am certain!

Well, thank you very much :-)

Yep. I had done all those steps. At one point I thought that the "something incredibly simple" may perhaps be a period on the end of the symlink. In one set of directions it showed the file as libjavaplugin_oji.so. and it said "...and don't forget to include the period on the end."

So, from within the plugins directory of Mozilla 1.2.1, Mozilla 1.4.2, Mozilla 1.6 and Foxfire, I typed: ln -s /usr/lib/java/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so when that didn't work (the browsers closed instantly up hitting a web page with a java applet) I tried it like this: ln -s /usr/lib/java/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so.

The only difference being that on the second one I included the period on the end. I'm not sure that's even correct because I haven't seen it that way on most of the instructions.

Just some sanity checking...
I deleted the symlings before creating new ones in the plugins directiry.

Relevant locations:
/usr/firefox/plugins (there is also a libnullplugin.so file in the plugins directory in addition to the symlink)

/usr/lib/mozilla-1.2.1/plugins
/usr/lib/mozilla-1.4.2/plugins
/usr/local/mozilla/plugins <-- Mozilla 1.6
/usr/local/mozilla/plugins/java2/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so (executable) (?)

I installed j2re-1_4_2_04-linux-i586.bin
I also tried j2re-1_4_2_04-linux-i586.rpm when the first one didn't work.

/usr/lib/java


This is very frustrating, because I actually can read and follow directions. This isn't my first computer, I've been building and configuring PCs with various OSs, including AmigaOS, Redhat, Slackware, SuSE, Mandrake, BeOS, Novell, Win 3.11/95/Bob/98/Me/NT3.1/NT4.0/2000/XP/2003 for over 20 years. I have Microsoft Professional Certifications. Redhat has been by far the most frustrating OS I have ever worked with.

After days or weeks of pulling my hair out over little problems like this it sometimes turns out to be some silly hardware incompatability or faulty piece of hardware. I have been struck dumb by some problems that have been cured by replacing a video card.

Anyway... I included the above paths and so forth in the hopes that you would spot something that I have missed or not thought of.

Thanks for helping me work throug this!

I have the libnullplugin.so as well. That did not seem to have any bearing on it. I wanted to touch base tonight, but I am brain dead at the moment () so I will check it out further tomorrow.

One last suggestion - Have you removed firefox and reinstalled it from root?
I'm grasping at straws.

BTW - I am a Linux n00b, but I am also somewhat experienced in other OS's - and there's nothing like a good challenge, and it's even better when you overcome it!

Cheers! (and Roebuck!)

Mozilla 1.2.1 Is compiled with gcc-2.9 and so would need to be linked to the /usr/lib/java/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji.so , the other three are compiled with gcc-3.2 and so would need to be linked to the one you said,
ln -s /usr/lib/java/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
There should be no period at the end of the line by the way. I suspect that you may be getting some strange interactions between the different versions of Mozilla that you seem to have installed. Do you have more than one version of Java installed? That can cause problems too. One other thing you could try is to make a plugins folder in your Mozilla profile and put the symbolic link in there. That's what I do as I often update Firefox and with the plugins in the Mozilla profile I don't need to reinstall them, it scans ~/.mozilla/plugins automatically.

Ahh. Cool. Thank you. I think I'll try to uninstall any and reinstall java, then I'll make that plugins directory in the Mozilla profile. I like that method. Seems much easier than redoing the symlink every time you upgrade.

Thanks again!

---Mandrake 10 - Kde 3.2 - Firefox -----
I have followed these instructions, and a few things have happened. Previously if I went to a site with a Java applet I would get an error and a message that I required a plugin and I could auto dl. Now after manually installing java to /usr/lib/java and creating the symlink and placing that in my mozilla profile, I don't get the message that I require the plugin however the applet doesn't load. Java just doesn't seem to be working. I have tried several sites.

Also is there a command that will allow me to see if I have multiple instances of java installed.

Thanks
steve

Edit: the code for this symlink should read: ln -s /usr/lib/java/j2re1.4.2_04/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so libjavaplugin_oji.so

JAVA WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I should have said that command was addressed at the previous poster who had posted where java is installed on their machine. If the ln -s command isn't perfect the symbolic link will be pointing into empty space and Java won't work. Well done for working it out and getting it fixed.

This worked for me...Thanks for your post

First thing to do is install the JRE, if you are a newbie like myself you might want to install from the RPM, fron Sun you will download the rpm.bin, and install the JRE, then go to http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/manua...ll_linux.html, and follow the directions to THE LETTER. After that it still won't work until you put a copy of the plugin into the actual plugins folder, but do that last. Only because I did it that way and I know it works. The command I ran to make the link was.
ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.2_04/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
That is the ABSOLUTE path to the java plugin, run that command acoording too the directions on that page, then copy the plugin from firefox to /firefox/plugins.
It WILL work.

Definitely don't copy it into the plugins folder. Leave the libjavaplugin_oji.so where it is and make a symbolic link.

People i am having the same problem and tried just about everything i could. Here are my steps that i did in order below...maybe someone can help me here.

First i downloaded Firefox-0.8 untared it in my /home dir and it works fine. I then downloaded j2re-1_4_2_04*bin. I then mv j2re*bin to /usr/java. cd /usr/java. Then...
chmod +x j2re-1_4_2_04-linux-i586.bin & ran ./j2re*bin went through the read me and entered "Yes" at the end and it started & finished the install process. I cd firefox/plugins and make the symbolic link to /usr/java/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so Check to make sure my symbolic link is right i ls -al and it shows me that libjavaplugin_oji.so is linked to /usr/java/plugin*, so it is installed...right? Well i go to a page that requires Java and as soon as the page loads Firefox crashes and exits. On the web page that required java it has an option to see if your browser is java ready, so i check to see that it is and after running the test it shows that it is in fact java ready. I have installed multiple times to no success. My gcc is 3.2 so there should be no problem there. I have tried Mozilla-1.6 and java doesn't work in it either. Also when i
about : plugins everything checks out clean (meaning everything is YES).

Try
#chown -R user:group /usr/java/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so

I had the same problem and it seemed that firefox didn't have permission to execute java.

I figured it out. I had to install alsa-libs. It works fine now...