64bit linux (CentOS 5.2) + 64b firefox + 64b java working finally

helikaon · 02-22-2009, 06:16 PM

Hi,
as title says, i finally got it working after pulling my hair for 2 days. So, i figure, this might help to others who want to go 64 all the way down :-)

what i started with:
[root@orionis amd64]# uname -a
Linux orionis 2.6.18-92.1.22.el5 #1 SMP Tue Dec 16 11:57:43 EST 2008 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

firefox 3.0.6 x86_64

steps:
1. go to Sun's web site and download the latest version of Java (in my case JRE 6 Update 12) at http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp
choose 64bit version and download the *.bin version (not the rpm.bin)

2. I saved jre-6u12-linux-x64.bin file to /opt

3. /bin/sh jre-6u12-linux-x64.bin will start the install (you have to agree to sun's certificate etc.), the install create directory
/opt/jre1.6.0_12

4. run alternatives command:
[root@orionis /]# alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/jre1.6.0_12/bin/java 2

[root@orionis /]# alternatives --config java

There are 2 programs which provide 'java'.

Selection Command
-----------------------------------------------
*+ 1 /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/java
2 /opt/jre1.6.0_12/bin/java

Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number: 2

- press "2" to make selection for our alternative install

5. Check to make sure the install was a success

[root@orionis /]# java -version
java version "1.6.0_12"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_12-b04)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.2-b01, mixed mode)

6. for some this might be all, but i faced problems with not properly linked plugin, so java still didn't worked in my 64b firefox, so:
what i did:
cd /usr/lib64/firefox-3.0.6/
mkdir plugins
cd plugins
ln -s /opt/jre1.6.0_12/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so libnpjp2.so

That finally did the job for me.

You can check out if your browser works with java here:
http://browserspy.dk/java.php
or here:
http://java.com/en/

Credits goes to Chris Schuld’s Blog here
http://chrisschuld.com/2008/10/insta...on-centos-5-2/
and to ubuntu thread here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/inde...t-1062477.html

Thanks to you all-mighty developers and clever people :-)

archer7 · 02-23-2009, 03:49 AM

Good post! This could be helpful for many. And kudos for citing your sources!