Firefox

Firefox is my primary browser. Of course, I have to use other browsers to test my designs.

Getting the Java plugin to work

Note: The following is based on the Java FAQ from mozdev.org.

On Linux, Mozilla requires JRE 1.4.2 or later. You should try to get the latest version of the JRE 5.0 Update 5 full installer and use that instead.

Mozilla 1.4 and later, and Mozilla Firefox, are compiled with gcc 3.x. A gcc 3.x compatible version of the Java plugin must be used. JRE 1.4.2 and later contain a compatible plugin.

If you installed the Java Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 9, this plugin is /usr/java/jre1.5.0_09/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so — and to install it for Mozilla (including Mozilla Firefox), do the following:

• Open a terminal
• Change to your Mozilla (or Mozilla Firefox) plugins directory (e.g. /home/stine/.mozilla/plugins or /usr/local/firefox/plugins)
• Issue the following command:

ln -s /usr/java/jre1.5.0_09/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so ./libjavaplugin_oji.so

Important! If you install your JRE in a different way (self extracting package, debian package, etc), libjavaplugin_oji.so will quite likely be in a different location. Do not just blindly use the command listed above!

Note: In JRE 1.4.2, this file was in plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32

Important! Always make a symbolic link, as shown above, instead of copying the plugin. If you copy the plugin, your browser will crash every time you open a page containing a Java applet. You have been warned!

If you are using an older Linux distribution, you may need to install the gcc3 support libraries, as the gcc 3.2 version of the Java plugin requires libgcc_s.so.1 to operate. You may be able to find packages using Google.

If you are using an old or unofficial build of Mozilla (1.4a or later) or Mozilla Firefox, you can check which compiler was used by entering about:buildconfig (see Hidden pages) in the location bar and pressing enter. You will see a line such as "gcc version 3.3.2", which will show the compiler that was used. If gcc2.9x was used, you need to use the ns7-gcc29 or ns610 plugin, not the ns7 or ns610-gcc32 plugin.

Getting the Adobe Flash Player plugin to work

1. Download Flash Player 9.0.
2. Decompress it, then copy libflashplayer.so to your Mozilla plugins (e.g., /usr/local/firefox/plugins) directory and flashplayer.xpt to your Mozilla components (e.g., /usr/local/firefox/components) directory.

Note: You can also just create a soft link from wherever the Adobe install places the above two files.

Hidden pages

• about:
• about:buildconfig
• about:cache
• about:config
• about:plugins
• about:credits
• about:Mozilla