[CentOS] CentOS, Firefox, and Java Plugin

Starting in Firefox 3.6.7 (I think) the (Sun) Java plugin changed names.
Here is what it should look like ...

$ ls -la /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 37 Jun 24 19:32
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so -> /usr/java/latest/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so

The plugin name changed .. the old one plugin is still in the jdk, but
will silently fail in the browser.

Hope this helps.

Barry

----
Funny I ahve: amd64 java "Sun" FF 64bit
libnpjp2.so -> /usr/java/jre1.6.0_21/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so

and it does not work period. Sun says 64bit plugin works? All my 32
bit workstations are fine.

John

I only have 32-bit, which is what my example is from.

---
Noted...

John

I am the packager of the Argeo version of the JDK containing the plugin.

Please first note that the location has changed because some other
packages in the repo started to be used more widely and I wanted to
clearly separate Java efforts:
http://www.argeo.org/linux/argeo-el/5/java-plus/

Please also note that it will probably change location again (we are
upgrading our infrastructure) or even disappear if there is little
interested (I did not think that anybody else used it).
I recommend interested users to download the SRPM as a backup, in
order to be independent of future evolutions.

Now to your problem:
- the plugin is still working for me, and went smoothly through the
CentOS 5.5 update (from a package update perspective).
- but it is working badly: at some point it starts eating all the CPU
and I need to restart Firefox, or even kill the process
- the bug for x86_64 has been updated in July and they recommend to
try again with the standard version:
http://icedtea.classpath.org/bugzilla/[email protected]

Did you try removing and installing the Argeo OpenJdk again?

I haven't looked at it yet, but my idea was to try again building the
plugin and if it works, to have an additional package only for the
plugin, which would not require to update the base OpenJdk (I had
rebuilt everything at the time because I also needed 1.6.0-b16 because
of some bugs fixed between b09 and b16, not only the plugin).#

If there is interest that I keep this effort public, please let me
know (off- or on-list).
This will give me a motivation to look at it sooner.

I realize that I should have been more precise (and read the OP more
carefully): the plugin from the Argeo repo is working for me on
x86_64, but I haven't tested it for a while on i386.

So it is indeed possible that the Argeo RPM plugin is broken on 32 bit
(this is a completely different plugin which is built between i386 and
x86_64 since the main plugin was broken on 64 bits)

I'll let it know on the list when (if) I find time to work on this again.
(interested users/testers/packagers are welcome to show up)

As per
http://icedtea.classpath.org/bugzilla/[email protected]
the old default plugin (which is the one built for 32 bits in Argeo's
RPMs) is not supported anymore.

The NPP plugin is now the supported version which may explain why the
64bits is still working (more or less) and the 32 bits would be
broken.

So maybe a simple rebuild based on the existing specs files and using
the NPP plugin for 32 bits as well could already give at least basic
support (as in 64bits).
Using the latest version maybe a bit harder and require more analysis.
I'll let you know.

Thanks to everyone for their help. It turns out that I had two problems:
1) The page that you get redirected to by the Firefox plugin finder links
to these (incorrect) install instructions:
http://java.com/en/download/help/linux_install.xml#rpm
The correct install instructions can be found at Oracle's website:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/install-linux-rpm-137089.html
2) I was using the Argeo-Plus plugin (32-bit), which appears to be broken.
Mathieu, if you get it working again, I'd be happy to use it, but if not, I understand.
I was aware that the location had changed (serendipitously), and have the latest
version (I've since rolled everything to the Oracle/Sun plugin).

Thanks all,
-G.

CCing the CentOS group on this... maybe someone there knows how to
handle the error.
Sorry to not answer this part in my previous email. I wanted to search
around to see if I could get the answer for myself... and it hasn't been
easy.

Apparently I don't have the java plugin browser installed. I've tried
to install it using the rpm.bin file at
<http://java.com/en/download/linux_manual.jsp?locale=en&host=java.com>,
but it's erroring out: "/bin/sh: bad interpreter: Text file busy".

I've never seen that error before.

If you want to keep it simple, I would not try to install at the same
time the base CentOS OpenJdk RPMs and the Sun RPM.
If you don't care much about control (in the free software sense) on
your Java installation and just need the plugin, I guess you should go
for the Sun RPM after uninstalling the base OpenJdk packages.

Maybe some people on the list have other opinions / tips.

Have you tried using dos2unix against the downloaded file?

Thanks for jumping in, but I doubt that would resolve the issue.

First, the file (from java.com) is specifically for Linux RPM... or so
it's labeled on the website. So I'd strongly doubt that would be the
problem.

Secondly (and more definitively), the script contains a "sum" command
(containing something like a CRC, I'm guessing) which checks its own
contents and then bails if it detects that it's been altered. So unless
I want to do some pretty serious hacking, I can't alter the script.

Well, other than that openjdk has not supplied/supported the java browser
plugin since last year, and the "workaround" is to install Sun's, er,
sorry, Oracle's java....

mark

Has Oracle been any more sensible about building an RHEL-style (with
appropriate locations and alternatives setup) RPM than Sun was?

Sun's, er,
Haven't seen anything yet... except where Oracle put their name in place
of Sun's in the latest release of java, and *broke* a huge amount of
software... including Eclipse, becuase for some inane Java (sorry, I'm
repeating myself) reason, they were looking for the string "Sun
Microsystems", instead of *just* the version and subversion release
numbers....

mark

That's interesting... Well, no, it's strange. Does openjdk still have
the sun name in the right place? And I thought RH had made their
version of eclipse work with gjc before deciding to put Sun java in
their update stream and later going with openjdk.

No idea, but here's the tale:
<http://it.slashdot.org/story/10/07/28/2121259/Oracles-Java-Company-Change-Breaks-Eclipse>

mark

A couple of notes: (a) it only affected windows - has to do with needing
to know platform-specific options when starting the initial jvm, and (b)
an update backed out the change in a couple of days. So overall, I'd
say worse things have happened - and in things like gcc.

Well yes, it does work OK. The point being though it's an
old (stable) release of Eclipse, but nothing near the current
Eclipse 3.6.0 Helios release.

I'm in the middle of moving now, but when the dust settles I
will put my 'Installing Eclipse Helios 3.6.0 for PHP
developers' on Centos 5.5 on my site. It covers Java,
Xdebug, PDT, necessary repos, and starting to use the PDT
plugin for debugging local and remote PHP scripts. I might
even throw in a few screencasts. But that's another story
getting OT now.

Best Wishes,

Keith Roberts

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My take on things is that java and a lot of other things are really
intended to work with several versions concurrently available - and
perhaps running concurrently, where RPM wants to only have one and even
with alternatives can only make one the default. So any time you don't
want the defaults, you have some design decisions to make. Still, I'm
surprised that Sun and RH didn't make nice and have a publicly available
RPM that puts things in RH-style places.

Granted. My workaround is to just point apps to the
particular version of the JVM I want to use to run it,
without trying to uninstall the default Java package. For
example, running Eclipse with Sun's (Oracle's) Java:

To run Eclipse with an alternate Java runtime environment,
the path to the Java virtual machine's binary must be
identified.

Once the path to the virtual machine's binary has been
identified, try running Eclipse with the following command:

./eclipse -vm /path/to/jre/bin/java

For an actual example, it might look something like the
following:

./eclipse -vm /usr/lib/jvm/sun-java-6/bin/java
./eclipse -vm /opt/sun-jdk-1.6.0.02/bin/java

Regards,

Keith

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As you probably know, Red Hat does have various java flavours and versions
that can coexist using RPM available from their RHN Extras/Supplementary
channel. I guess licensing is one reason why it is not public, although it
does give Red Hat some added value for Enterprises, I am sure :-)

Yes, but it was odd that Debian/Ubuntu offered packaged Sun Java for everyone
where RH only had it in the subscription updates. And even stranger that Sun's
own RPM didn't follow RH standards. I suppose they'd rather have you run
solaris, but making something difficult isn't the way to get people to like your
products.

Here's a link on the Centos forum regarding Java:

https://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id'062&forum8&post_id1413#forumpost111413

FWIW - Eclipse IDE 3.6.0 Helios from upstream will NOT work
with the default Centos Java package. So you will need to
install Sun's Java to get Eclipse working on Centos.

HTH

Keith Roberts

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