Java applets not starting F-9 , firefox-3

[Phil Meyer]

Per Anton Rønning wrote:
> I think I have tried everything to fire up some browser applets in 
> some web-pages that I am visting frequently.
> Everything was OK under FC 5 - Firefox -2, but now it just does not 
> start.
> I expect a login screen as the first response to starting up, but it 
> does never appear.
> - I have installed the libjavaplugin_oji.so softlink in /home/<my 
> user>/.mozilla/plugins
> - I have tried both jre 6 and jre 5 (i have installed the .bin self 
> extracting file according to some advide I found)
> - I have Gooogled extensively to get hints, some were fond, but they 
> did not work.
> - I have checked /usr/java/jre1.5.0_16/bin/ControPanel, as well as the 
> /usr/java/ jre1.6.0_07/-ditto- and I cannot find anything wrong.
> - Right now the ..-oji.so points to jre1.5....
>
> - Perhaps Firefox-9 searces in some other location to find this link? 
> I have found no hint about that. In FC 5 this works like a charm.
>
> - One text I found hinted that this area is full of potential trouble, 
> and one issue is which version of C has been used to compile both Java 
> and Firefox.
>
> Does anyone have some experience in this area?


Different versions of java, and other version specific tools and 
applications, can happily co-exist on Fedora.  This is what the 
alternatives tools are for.

You can, with impunity, install the latest java rpms from SUN and test 
them.  You can switch back, or forth, to any version, at any time.  The 
Fedora java (iced tea) is the SUN java, just missing some libraries that 
are not licensed as OSS, yet.

It is also worth mentioning, that java.sun.com will allow you to 
download any previous version.

I DO recommend the rpms for simplicity.

alternatives takes about 10 minutes to figure out, and then you keep a 
couple scripts handy for future reference.

Like all super flexible applications, there is an easy way, and very 
complex methods for using alternatives.  I will happily share the 
'easiest' way to make it happen.

# fix alternatives
rm /var/lib/alternatives/java
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java 
/usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/java 1
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java 
/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_04/bin/java 2
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac 
/usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/javac 1
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac 
/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_04/bin/javac 2

Simply change the names as desired, and fire away!  No need to remove 
anything.

The result of these commands are:

/usr/bin/java, /usr/bin/javac will point to the versions in 
/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_04/bin

easy!

You already know how to make the link for mozilla/firefox, but 
alternatives could do that, too.

Enjoy!