Blackdown java Debian package appears out of date

[Ross Boylan <ross@biostat.ucsf.edu>]

The j2re1.4 Debian package available from BlackDown (e.g.,
deb ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/java/debian unstable main non-free) is not as
current as other versions available from BlackDown.  It's over two years
old.  Judging from the fact I couldn't get it to work with mozilla
firefox 0.9.3-5, my guess is the plugin's compiled with pre-GCC3.2.

Instead, follow the more manual route of getting a regular binary
(e.g.,ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/java/JDK-1.4.2/i386/fcs/j2re-1.4.2-fcs-linux-i586-gcc3.2.bin)
and follow the instructions, for example, in
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2004/08/msg00325.html).

That worked fine for me.

Of course, if you have an older browser, built before gcc3.2, the old
package may work for you.  And I may have totally misdiagnosed the
situation.  In hopes that I haven't, I'm sharing this information.

Also, remember a couple of other tips: your plugins directory should
have a symlink, not the plugin itself.  And mozilla-firefox doesn't
currently look in a lot of standard places for plugins, so if you are
using it put a symlink in /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/.

-- 
Ross Boylan                                      wk:  (415) 502-4031
530 Parnassus Avenue (Library) rm 115-4          ross@biostat.ucsf.edu
Dept of Epidemiology and Biostatistics           fax: (415) 476-9856
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA 94143-0840                     hm:  (415) 550-1062