Configure firefox 3.6.12 with Ubuntu for Grid Control and My Oracle Support usage!

Are you fed up with supporthtml.oracle.com because the flash plugin is crashing or not working in your browser? You need to use the latest Java plugin in you firefox browser, for instance for a Java based VPN connection.

First of all, download firefox 3.6, for instance from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/.

Once downloaded, extract the firefox-3.6.12.tar.bz2 file. Copy the firefox directory to your software directory /usr/local:
# sudo mv firefox /usr/local

From this point on, you can start using firefox:
# /usr/local/firefox/firefox

The next important step is to find, download and configure properly the several firefox plugins. In order to identify the configured plugins, use the about:plugins internal firefox page:

Then, download the adobe flash player for Ubuntu. The latest release (flashplayer 10.1.102) is working fine with firefox 3.6.12 while using both the Grid Control and support.oracle.com URLs.

Download the  install_flash_player_10_linux.deb file from the following site: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/.

Once the file is downloaded, double click on it to install the package through the Synaptic package manager:

Once the package is installed, you can locate the library which has been installed as firefox plugin (libflashplayer.so):

This library must be integrated in the firefox plugins using a simple soft link:

# pwd
/usr/local/firefox/plugins
# ln -s /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so
# ls -l libflashplayer.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 yann yann 44 2010-11-15 16:42 libflashplayer.so -> /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so

As soon as this soft link exists, the about:plugin page will display this new available plugin:

For java, the installation of the required packages can be performed with aptitude :

sudo aptitude install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

The problem is that the advised shared library to be used as plugin – /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin, pointing to /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so – is not working fine. The soft link must be created in the following library:
# pwd
/usr/local/firefox/plugins

# ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.22/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so

# ls -lrt libnpjp2.so
libnpjp2.so -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.22/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so

With these settings, you will finally be able to fully enjoy both flash based applications – for instance Grid Control / Performance Tab – but also Java based applications.

Enjoy

Best regards,
Yann