7 Manual Installation and Registration of the Java Plug-in on Linux

You must manually install the Java plug-in to run the Java applets in a browser.

This topic includes the following sections:

Java Plug-in Installation

When you install the Java platform, the Java plug-in file is included as part of that installation.

To use Java within Firefox, manually create a symbolic link from the plug-in file in the release to one of the locations that Firefox expects. To make the plug-in available to all users, you must create the link inside of the Firefox application's directory, in the plug-ins subdirectory. Alternatively, you can create the symbolic link in your home directory, in ~/.mozilla/plug-ins. In the remainder of this document, the text, Firefox plug-ins directory implies either of these locations.

Note:

For Firefox version 21 and later, you must create the symbolic link in your home directory, ~/.mozilla/plugins. However, creating the symbolic link in the plug-ins subdirectory of the Firefox application's directory is not supported in Firefox version 21 and later.

This release provides the Next-Generation Java plug-in. The plug-in file for Linux is located at jre–9.minor.security.patch/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so.

Note

If you are using the classic plug-in file, which is located at ./plugin/i386/javaplugin-oji.so, then this file should no longer be used and all symbolic links to it must be removed.

See Oracle JDK 9 and JRE 9 Certified Systems Configurations.

Installing the Java Plug-in on Linux

To install the Java plug-in on Linux:
  1. Exit Firefox.
  2. Uninstall any previous installations of the Java plug-in.
    Only one Java plug-in can be used at a time. When you want to use a different plug-in, or version of a plug-in, remove the symbolic links to any other versions and create a fresh symbolic link to the new one.
  3. Remove the symbolic links (or move them to another directory) to javaplugin-oji.so and libnpjp2.so from the Firefox plug-ins directory.
  4. Create a symbolic link to the 64-bit Java plug-in in the Firefox plug-ins directory:

    $ cd Firefox/plugins

    $ ln -s ./lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so .

  5. Start the Firefox browser.
  6. Enter about:plugins in the Location bar to confirm that the Java plug-in is loaded. Alternatively, click the Tools menu to confirm that the Java console is there.