Ubuntu 8.10, Sun Java 6 and Firefox 3.0.x

The Mini is running Ubuntu 8.10 by now and does that quite well. Only Firefox somehow didn't load Java applets properly despite the fact that I had the latest and greatest JVM. 6.0_10-b33. Command line Java programs (like Websphere, Tomcat and some of the stuff for AD215) work plesantly fast. So something in the combination of Ubuntu, Java and Firefox doesn't seem to work. After a little research it turned out, that Sun has created a next generation plug-in that is supposed to address all the short comings in the Java plug-ins. There are a number of solutions out there, which didn't work for me. This worked:

1. Install Java6: sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugins and update-alternatives --config java
2. Change to the plugin directory: cd /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.10/jre/plugin/i386/ns7
3. Delete (or rename): rm libjavaplugin_oji.so
4. Create a symboliv link: ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so libjavaplugin_oji.so
5. Start Firefox, type about:plugins and you should see libnpjp2.so as your Java plugin name
6. Check on this page (scroll down) if the applet is working

However you must be clear that this qualifies as ugly hack which most probably won't survive the next Java update.