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Installing the Java Plug-in from the JDK

How to install the JDK Java plugin in your Mozilla or Netscape browser.

Quick Steps (IT Services Linux)

Run the following command on one line. Be sure to include the "." at the end with one space before it. If the .mozilla directory does not exist, start Mozilla to create it, then exit Mozilla before installing the Java plugin.

cd .mozilla; mkdir plugins; cd plugins; ln -s /usr/local/java/jre/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so .

Detailed Vendor Instructions

The following instructions are from http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/manual_install_linux.html (the Netsape 6 instructions apply to Mozilla).


To install the Java Plug-in follow these steps.

Note:

Only one Java Plug-in can be registered at a time. When you want to use a different version, unregister any other version and register the new one.

If you used regxpcom to register a Java 1.4.0 Plug-in, you can do the following to unregister it:

regxpcom -u <absolute path to Java Plug-in libjavaplugin_oji140.so file>

Example:

regxpcom -u ${JRE}/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji140.so

If you registered it with a symbolic link, remove the link.

Example:

Suppose for SDK 1.4.0 you created a symbolic link in the Netscape 6 plugins directory to:

~/j2sdk1.4.0/jre/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so

Then cd to the Netscape 6 plugins directory and remove the link as shown below:

rm libjavaplugin_oji140.so

Also check that there are no links in the Netscape components directory.

1. Uninstall previous installation of the Java Plug-in, if applicable. 

rm -fr $HOME/.netscape/java
rm $HOME/.netscape/plugins/javaplugin.so
rm $HOME/.netscape/plugins/libjavaplugin.so

One or more of these files may not exist on your machine, depending on which previous versions of Java Plug-in you have installed.

2. For Netscape 4.x browsers: Set the NPX_PLUGIN_PATH environment variable to the directory containing the javaplugin.so file. (This step is not necessary if you use only Netscape 6.x browsers.) This file is located inside the Java 2 SDK in the jre/plugin/i386/ns4/ directory.

Notes:

1. The location of the Plug-in (javaplugin.so) should be given with an absolute path—not relative to the installation location of the JRE.

2. Setting NPX_PLUGIN_PATH will override the default search path used by the browser. Therefore any plugin directories that the browser currently searches for plugins should also be added to the path.

Example

To set the NPX_PLUGIN_PATH environment variable for Linux (C shell), do this:

setenv NPX_PLUGIN_PATH <JRE>/plugin/i386/ns4

3. For Netscape 6/7 and Mozilla browsers, create a symbolic link to the Plug-in in the Netscape plugins directory.

Create a symbolic link to the Java Plug-in libjavaplugin.so file in the Netscape 6/7 or Mozilla plugins directory.

cd <Netscape 6/7 | Mozilla>/plugins
ln -s <JRE>/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji.so .

For the SuSE 8.1 or higher Mozilla browser, replace ns610 with ns610-gcc32 in the ln command line above.

Be sure to include the period at the end.

4. For all Netscape/Mozilla browsers: Start your Netscape/Mozilla browser, or restart it if it is already up.

Note that if you have other Netscape/Mozilla "objects" open before restarting (Messenger, Composer ...) you will need to shut them down as well.

In Netscape do Help -> About Plug-ins to confirm that the Java Plug-in is loaded.