What an unbelievably complicated ordeal. This process makes me understand what the linux bashers mean when they say that linux is too complex to go "primetime" on the desktop. I got the very end, and then got stumped.
Here are the latter part of the instructions I used:
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Mozilla 1.4 and later
1. Go to the plugins sub-directory under the Mozilla installation directory
cd <Mozilla installation directory>/plugins
2. In the current directory, create a symbolic link to the JRE ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so file Type:
ln -s <JRE installation directory>/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
Example:
* If Mozilla is installed in this directory:
/usr/lib/mozilla-1.4/
* and if the JRE is installed at this directory:
/usr/java/jre1.5.0
* Then type at the terminal to go to the browser plug-in directory:
cd /usr/lib/mozilla-1.4/plugins
* Enter the following command to create a symbolic link to the Java Plug-in for the Mozilla browser.
ln -s /usr/java/jre1.5.0/plugin/i386/ns7
/libjavaplugin_oji.so .
3. Start Mozilla browser or restart it if it is already running. Note that if you have other Mozilla components (ie: Messenger, Composer, etc) running, you will need to restart them as well.
4. Go to Edit > Preferences. Under Advanced category > Select Enable Java
http://java.com/en/download/help/5000010500.xml#14
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I had to use instructions for Mozilla, because there were no instructions for firefox. Anyway, on step 4, I went to Edit > Preferences -> Advanced but there was no category > Enable Java. I found Edit > Preferences -> Web Features -> Enable Java, and I selected that; but it doesn't work.
I am using debian 3.1 testing, and firefox 1.0.1.
On windows, it's just click, click, click.