So, I recently switched to VectorLinux 7.0 Light. Having tried half a dozen other distributions in the past, I eventually decided that it wasn't worth the learning curve and switched back to XP. I'm back to Linux, and this is by far my favorite. I think Microsoft lost another customer for good.
Unfortunately, that doesn't mean all is well and good. For the life of me I cannot get the Java plugin to work with Firefox. I understand the distro came with a JRE. I uninstalled that so there would be no conflicts when I installed JDK 1.7.0 update 10. JDK works like a charm; I can use all of the archiving tools, compiling tools, etc.... It does not work with Firefox though.
Other forum posts on the subject seem to indicate making a link between the jre plugin and mozilla's plugin folder via something like this:
ln -s /usr/lib/java/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libnpjp2.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so
I don't know if it matters at all, but the plugin in the jre in my jdk is not named libnpjp2.so, but rather libjavaplugin_oji.so. I tried a couple different variations of the command above. Both seemed successful in that they made a link to the appropriate directory, but neither allowed use of Java via Firefox, and neither made it visible in the plugin section of the Add-ons Manager in Firefox. The variations are as follows:
ln -s /usr/lib/java/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so
ln -s /usr/lib/java/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so
I did delete the previous links before trying any new ones. I did close Firefox before executing the commands. I did have root access to execute the commands. I did restart the computer after executing before starting Firefox again. I don't know if any of that really mattered, but I tried it.
So, is this a problem with Firefox 11.0? Is this a problem with Firefox? Is there something stupid I'm missing to enable Firefox to use the Java plugin? Could somebody please help? A detailed guide would be nice, but a nudge in the right direction would be just as appreciated.
Thanks in advance.