Sun JRE on Firefox
I rarely need a Java plugin for my 64-bit Firefox browser, but once in a rare while I need to use certain government services that require a digital signature and the original Sun Java plugin – OpenJDK just doesn’t cut it. Sun changed a couple of things recently, so many of the howto’s are outdated – this will work though:
Make sure you remove/disable OpenJDK:
Get the latest Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE) here. Make sure it’s the 64-bit non-RPM version. The RPM might work too, I just didn’t test it. We’ll assume it’s version 1.6.0-12. Execute the following commands to unpack it:
$ chmod +x jre-6u12-linux-x64.bin
$ ./jre-6u12-linux-x64.bin
Accept the license agreement. The directory jre1.6.0_12 is created. Execute the following commands to move JRE and make a symbolic link to the plugin:
$ cd /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins
$ ln -s /opt/jre1.6.0_12/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so .
The new thing here is that they recently renamed the plugin from libjavaplugin_oji.so to libnpjp2.so – that set me off track for a while.
Restart Firefox and type in about:plugins and look for Java – if it’s there, you’re all set.
