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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 Sun changed a couple of things recently, so many of the howto’s are outdated – this will work though: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:

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:

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.

Uncategorized 64bit, Fedora, Fedora10, Firefox, Java, Sun

Today I lost my Ethernet devices, probably as a result of upgrading the apartment server from Fedora 9 to Fedora 10. The culprit turned out to be the service responsible for dynamic device management – udev. These symptoms started showing up in the logfile:

The udev daemon creates and renames devices according to configuration files in /etc/udev/rules.d/ called rules. One of them – 70-persistent-net.rules – specifically handles network devices. This file was screwed up badly by Anaconda, and had dupes and network devices from a previous hardware configuration. I cleaned up this file, so it had only contained rules that matched the hardware addresses of the installed network devices:

Various external “plug-and-play” helpers may add newly found network devices to this file, so if your network devices start changing names, you might want to check /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules.

Uncategorized Fedora, Fedora10, Linux, Network, udev

Quick guide to installing nVidia drivers on Fedora 10, using the RPMFusion repository:

A reboot was required, as I had done some kernel upgrading and the installed nVidia module didn’t match the running kernel. If direct rending is enabled, you’ve got the driver properly installed:

Enjoy.

Uncategorized Fedora10, GLX, nVidia

Is your machine too old and too slow? Does the Gnome Desktop make you grind your teeth with impatience? Why not take Xfce or LXDE for a test spin?

Install both software groups:

Installing the LXDE group also gives you Openbox. LXDE and Xfce pretty much looks like the Gnome Desktop with application menus and icons on the desktop, whereas Openbox reminds me more of the good old days, where every application launch started with right-clicking on the desktop.

To try these desktop environments out, click your username on the login screen, pick the environment you want in the Session pull-down menu at the bottom of the screen, enter your password and you’re all set.

Note: Openbox’ Logout menu item didn’t work for me, but Exit did the trick. If you get stuck, you can simply kill the whole graphics subsystem (Xorg) with CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE.

Uncategorized Fedora, Fedora10, Gnome, LXDE, Openbox, Xfce

These are the install notes for my Fedora 10 install on my workstation at the office:

Enable access to both the free and the nonfree repositories at RPM Fusion and run an upgrade:

Make sure the system is crisp and updated with the new repositories:

Install GStreamer plugins with stability/license issues, including support for AAC, A52, SID, MPEG2, MP4, H.264, DVD navigation etc.:

Install various alternate video players:

Install various video encoders:

In time of writing, Adobe’s Flash plugin isn’t available as RPM – at least not the lastest beta version for x86_64 – so download it from Adobe Labs, unpack and drop libflashplayer.so in ~/.mozilla/plugins/. Make sure you’ve removed any trace of NSPluginWrapper first. Example (this is a single-user install, so don’t run as root):

Uncategorized Fedora, Fedora10, Linux