Firefox, Oracle Apps, Java plugins, on 64 Bit Redhat 5.5

When using Firefox on Linux, have you ever got the aggravating message concerning oaj2se.exe, or NPX_PLUGIN_PATH? 

Here is the solution.

From what I have read, on Linux, using the Firefox browser for Oracle Forms is not certified. At least it wasn’t in the past. Bizarre.
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Symptom:
On Redhat Linux, you try working with an app such as Oracle Apps, and navigate to where the software takes you. But you suddenly get the error message:
In order to access this application, you must install the J2SE Plugin version 1.6.0_07 on your client and NPX_PLUGIN_PATH environment variable is set before starting Netscape. To install this plugin, click here to download the oaj2se.exe executable. Once the download is complete, double-click the oaj2se.exe file to install the plugin. You will be prompted to restart your browser when the installation is complete.
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The problem is, oaj2se.exe is an executable that only works on Windows.

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You can try clicking the buttons. But it didn’t help me.
The following plugins are available.
Java runtime Environment: 1.6 u29
Next.
Java runtime Environment: 1.6 u29 Not available.
Manual install.
I clicked more, and got a webpage.
http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp
Free Java Download
Download Java for your desktop computer now!
Version 6 Update 30
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Rants and Criticisms:
The problem is, there is already a LOT of java installed on my server. And I don’t want to overwrite any versions.
If you upgrade or overwrite versions in Linux, your applications may suddenly stop working! Do you ever see all the prerequisites and certification matrices for Oracle products? Don’t mess them up. Don’t get creative.
Only with the Linux operating system:  you upgrade a Linux package or the operating system, and suddenly your existing applications on the server, that worked fine, may suddenly stop working. Bizarre! It’s happened enough times before for me to be careful. (See my post on installing Virtual Box, and the issues with kernel-devel.)
You have to hand it to Mr. Bill. When you patch or upgrade the Windows operating system, all the existing applications continue to work. If only everyone involved with Linux were as aware of this concept. And rigorously ensured that the same happened on Linux.
The other issue for me is, why is this a manual install? With the same Firefox, I clicked a few buttons, and installed the Flash player, and watched videos in just a few minutes. Why is something as important as java, also not put into a simple installation script, that works with a few mouse clicks? Let’s get with the program please.
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How To Get Firefox To Work On Redhat:
Check Firefox version. Help, About Firefox. You will see if it is 32 or 64 bit. In my case: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64;
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Check if Firefox has the plugin, java. If you have this symptom, it probably doesn’t.
Open Firefox.
1)
Put this in the URL section:
about:plugins
2)
Tools, Addons, Plugins,
At least this is the navigation in Firefox version 3.0.18. My other beef is that software companies constantly change the navigation between releases.
In either case, if you don’t see: Java(TM) Plug-in, this is the problem.
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Check your server to see if you have the Java jdk, and jre.
rpm -qa –qf “%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}_%{ARCH}.rpm \n ” | grep “jdk” | sort
jdk-1.6.0_26-fcs_x86_64.rpm
ldapjdk-4.18-2jpp.3.el5_x86_64.rpm
rpm -qa –qf “%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}_%{ARCH}.rpm \n ” | grep “jre” | sort
jre-1.6.0_22-fcs_i586.rpm
Note whether they are 32 or 64 bit versions.
If you don’t have these packages installed, you will need to download and install them. See the links at the bottom.
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Find the location of the file: libnpjp2.so
libnpjp2.so is the culprit we need.
find / -type f -iname “libnpjp2.so” 2> /dev/null
/usr/java/jre1.6.0_22/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so
/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_26/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so
I actually had this file in many places. But these ones are the relevant files. The others were specific to other applications. Stick with the generic ones.
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Check if libnpjp2.so files are 32 or 64 bit:
file /usr/java/jre1.6.0_22/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so
/usr/java/jre1.6.0_22/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so: ELF 32-bit LSB shared object, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), not stripped
file /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_26/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so
/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_26/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), not stripped
Note that one file is 32 bit, and the other 64 bit.
Since my Firefox is 64 bit, guess which file I will use?
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Find the plugin directories for Firefox and Mozilla:
find / -type d -iname “plugin*” | grep -i -e “mozilla” -e “firefox”
/etc/skel/.mozilla/plugins
/usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins-wrapped
/usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins-wrapped
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
/home/applmgr/.mozilla/plugins
/home/oracle/.mozilla/plugins
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Since we are concerned with 64 bit, ignore the 32 bit directories:
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins-wrapped
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
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Find the plugin directory:
If you have already installed the flash player, and it works, a way to find the correct directory is to find the flash player link.
cd /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins
ls -l
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 41 Nov 17 18:46 libflashplayer.so -> /usr/lib64/flash-plugin/libflashplayer.so
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Create links in the plugin directories.
From above, change to the directory with the flash plugin, and create the link.
cd /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins
ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_26/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so .
Bounce firefox to test.
If this doesn’t work, try creating links in the other directories. Turns out that I initially missed the first directory. But things worked after I created the link in the all other directories. Brute force algorithm.
cd /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins-wrapped
ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_26/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so .
cd /etc/skel/.mozilla/plugins
ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_26/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so .
cd /home/applmgr/.mozilla/plugins
ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_26/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so .
cd /home/oracle/.mozilla/plugins
ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_26/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so .
Bounce firefox to test.
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Check the plugins :
about:plugins
Tools, Addons, Plugins,
At this point, it worked.
Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_26
File name: libnpjp2.so
The next generation Java plug-in for Mozilla browsers.
MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
application/x-java-vm Java Plug-in Yes
application/x-java-applet Java Plug-in Applet Yes
…
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Interestingly, in about:plugins, the versions range from:
Applets:
application/x-java-applet;version=1.1
…
application/x-java-applet;version=1.6
Beans:
application/x-java-bean;version=1.1
…
application/x-java-bean;jpi-version=1.6.0_26
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