[COLUG] Problem with Firefox Finding JRE

[Stephen P. Molnar, Ph.D.]

Steve Roggenkamp wrote:
> I just fixed this on my machine, an AMD 64 running Fedora Core 5 
> x86_64.  I had posted this same problem several months ago and someone 
> posted an answer.  I procrastinated making the changes until now.
> 
> The problem is probably that you're running a 64-bit browser, but Sun 
> does not provide a 64-bit plugin for Java.  The Java run time must use 
> the same executable framework as the browser, since the plugin runs 
> within the same process as the browser.  Thus a 32-bit executable plugin 
> will not work with a 64-bit browser.
> 
> I fixed it by to downloading and installing the 32-bit version of Firefox.
> 
> I'm not familiar with SUSE, but I just downloaded the browser from 
> Mozilla as a tarball and installed it in 
> /usr/local/lib/firefox-2.0.0.3.  Next I downloaded Java 1.5.0_11 for 
> 32-bit Linux as an RPM and took the default install, which placed it in 
> /usr/java/jre1.5.0_11.  I made a symbolic link from 
> /usr/local/lib/firefox-2.0.0.3/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so -> 
> /usr/java/jre1.5.0_11/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so.  Finally I 
> moved the existing firefox in /usr/bin to firefox.old and made a 
> symbolic link in /usr/bin/firefox to 
> /usr/local/lib/firefox-2.0.0.3/firefox, shut down the running instance 
> of Firefox and restarted.  Then Java plugins would work.
> 
> I'm thinking I also may have had to install a 32-bit compatibility 
> library that allowed me to run 32-bit executables.
> 
> This should help with other plugins.
> 
> You can get the release notes for Firefox at 
> http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0.0.3/releasenotes/#install .
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Steve
> 
> Stephen P. Molnar, Ph.D. wrote:
>> Ed Liddle wrote:
>>> The following is from mozilla's website.
>>> http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/faq.html#q2.2
>>> Linux
>>> Firefox is compiled with gcc 3.2.3, so a compatible version of the Java
>>> plugin must be used. On Linux, Firefox requires JRE 1.4.2 or later.
>>> If you installed the JRE 1.5.0_10 RPM, this plugin
>>> is /usr/java/j2re1.5.0_10/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
>>> and to install it for Firefox, do the following:
>>>
>>>      1. Open a terminal
>>>      2. Change to your Firefox plugins directory
>>>      3. Issue the following command: ln
>>>         -s 
>>> /usr/java/j2re1.5.0_10/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
>>>
>>> If you are using an older Linux distribution, you may need to install
>>> the gcc3 support libraries, as the gcc 3.2 version of the Java plugin
>>> requires libgcc_s.so.1 to operate. You may be able to find packages
>>> using Google.
>>>
>>> If you are using an old or unofficial build of Firefox, you can check
>>> which compiler was used by entering about:buildconfig in the location
>>> bar and pressing enter. You will see a line such as gcc version 3.3
>>> 20030226 (prerelease) (SuSE Linux), which will show the compiler that
>>> was used. If gcc2.9x was used, you need to use the ns610 plugin, not the
>>> ns610-gcc32 plugin.
>>>
>>> I hope this helps as well.
>>>
>>> -Ed Liddle
>>> On Sat, 2007-03-24 at 08:42 -0400, Stephen P. Molnar, Ph.D. wrote:
>>>> I am running Firefox 2.0.2 on a 64 bit openSUSE 10.2 system (the 
>>>> package is part of the OS distribution).  JRE is installed in the 
>>>> defualt subdirectories /usr/java/jrel.5.0_11.
>>>>
>>>> Whenever I have to access an application that requires java I get 
>>>> the message:
>>>>
>>>> 'Additional plugins ar required to display all the media on this page.'
>>>>
>>>> Then Firefox tells me that the following plugins are available
>>>> Java Runatime Environment
>>>>
>>>> but the Plugin Service Finder tells me that JRE is not available and 
>>>> we go around and around in a circle of diminishing radius.
>>>>
>>>> Whst do I need to change?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance.
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> colug432 mailing list colug432 at colug.net
>>>> http://www.colug.net/mailman/listinfo/colug432
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> colug432 mailing list colug432 at colug.net
>>> http://www.colug.net/mailman/listinfo/colug432
>>>
>> Thanks for the reply.  I had looked at the firefox web site but didn't 
>> find anything.
>>
>> I had tried every combination of ln -s that I could think of and none of
>>  them solved the problem withe jre1.5.0_11 so I installed j2re1.4.2_13 
>> but that didn't work either.
>>
>> the version of firefox that I have was compiles with gcc 4.1.2 20061115.
>> _______________________________________________
>> colug432 mailing list colug432 at colug.net
>> http://www.colug.net/mailman/listinfo/colug432
>>
> _______________________________________________
> colug432 mailing list colug432 at colug.net
> http://www.colug.net/mailman/listinfo/colug432
> 
Thank you so very, very much.  The problem is solved!