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Wednesday December 13, 2006

Where's My Java Plugin?

Earlier this week, we (Sun) released Java SE 6, which looks cool, so I thought I'd install it on my Ubuntu Edgy system.

In particular, what I was looking for was a new version of the Java plugin for my Firefox 2.0 browser. Hopefully this one will work nicely with Runescape, as the one in the j2re1.4-mozilla-plugin package on my Ubuntu Edy system crashes my Firefox 2.0 browser, as it's trying to connect to a game server.

I went to the Java SE 6 download page, accepted the license agreement and downloaded the Linux x64 self-extracting file.

I gave the jdk-6-linux-amd64.bin file execute permission and executed it:

  % chmod +x jdk-6-linux-amd64.bin
  % ./jdk-6-linux-amd64.bin

This nicely unpacked a ~/jdk1.6.0 directory for me. So far, so good.

I then found the webpage for the manual installation and registration of the Linux Plugin.

These instructions refer to a file called libjavaplugin_oji.so. I've looked all through the files under ~/jdk1.6.0 and I do not have this file.

I must be missing something (besides that file). Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

[Technorati Tag: Java]

[Technorati Tag: Ubuntu]

( Dec 13 2006, 05:43:17 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [13]

Comments:

The Java plugin is only available in the 32-bit (i586) version of the JRE and JDK. I know.. I have the 32-bit version of Firefox installed from tarball just for this and Flash.

Posted by Michel Salim on December 13, 2006 at 06:03 AM PST #

weird java1.4 and edgy? Hmmm.. aah java5 is in multiverse.... Enable multiverse in system->administration->software sources then there should be a pacakge called 'sun-java5-plugin' But you have java6 installed so why bother :)

Posted by 192.38.67.242 on December 13, 2006 at 06:13 AM PST #

After reading about all these problems you are, maybe the one thing you're doing wrong is using Ubuntu ;)

Posted by plaes on December 13, 2006 at 06:25 AM PST #

Ugh... a typo turned my comment into an insult :( It should've been: "...all the problems you are having..."

Posted by plaes on December 13, 2006 at 06:27 AM PST #

look http://java.sun.com/javase/6/webnotes/install/system-configurations.html try blackdown 1.4 64 bits

Posted by Manuel on December 13, 2006 at 07:06 AM PST #

Thanks for all the responses. I tried the following:

1/ I downloaded the 32bit Linux Java SE 6 version and copied .../jre/plugin/ns7-gcc29/libjavaplugin_oji.so to my ~/.mozilla/plugins directory. When I restarted Firefox and tried Runescape, the browser crashed at the point where I was trying to login as an existing user.

2/ I do have "multiverse" enabled. When I went to try to install the sun-java5-plugin package, I got:

$ sudo apt-get install sun-java5-plugin
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package sun-java5-plugin is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package sun-java5-plugin has no installation candidate

I need to do some RealWork(TM) now, but I'll get back to this later.

Posted by Rich Burridge on December 13, 2006 at 08:58 AM PST #

Oh, one more comment.

The Linux 32bit Java plugin that's included with the Java SE 6 i586 download comes up in the browser (via "about:plugins") as:

Java(TM) Plug-in Blackdown-1.4.2-02

    File name: libjavaplugin_oji.so
    Blackdown Java-Linux Java(TM) Plug-in 1.4.2

Posted by Rich Burridge on December 13, 2006 at 09:08 AM PST #

Unfortunately, as extensively documented on the official Sun java forums, Sun refused to provide a 64bit plugin for any of their java packages. The best you can do is use the blackdown packages but they're only up to 1.4 right now. I've actually tried building sun java from source before, and while it's incredibly tedious, it can be done. Given that nobody has talked about successfully building a 64bit plugin from source, I have to assume it's not as a simple as a recompile and source level changes are required.

Posted by Philip Langdale on December 13, 2006 at 09:09 AM PST #

http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4802695 Perhaps internal unhappiness could actually get things moving on this. :-)

Posted by Philip Langdale on December 13, 2006 at 10:16 AM PST #

Thanks Phillip.

Jeez, that bug is almost four years old. That's very disappointing. I somehow don't think I have the ummph to make the responsible engineer(s) go any faster, but if you want this bug fixed, then go vote for it. I intend to do just that.

Posted by Rich Burridge on December 13, 2006 at 11:06 AM PST #

I found a nice solution with this little nice program (http://3v1n0.tuxfamily.org/pool/dapper/3v1n0/make-jpkg-mustang_0.7.5-3v1ubuntu1_all.deb). It makes a deb package of sun's java-install.bin file. You can easily install it and the java pluing works (on a x86) very well. </br> Install instructions: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=262603 Important hint:</br> Copy the java-install.bin file to /tmp.
Posted by Markus Ortel on December 13, 2006 at 10:28 PM PST #

Thanks Markus. Java SE 6 (64-bit) works nicely from my ~/jdk1.6.0 directory, so I'm going to leave it there. I copied over the 32bit version of the plugin (see my previous comments), and it's recognized by the browser. It's not a perfect solution. Seems there is a known bug on the non-existence of a 64-bit version of the plugin.
Posted by Rich Burridge on December 14, 2006 at 11:34 AM PST #

Yep, this is the sole reason I don't use Java 64bit at home as well. Very disappointing.
Posted by Jeffrey Olson on December 18, 2006 at 07:01 AM PST #

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