After 5 hours of struggle Java works in FireFox

[Ari Torhamo]

ma, 2004-12-27 kello 19:40 -0500, Buffalo Soldier kirjoitti:
> Ari Torhamo Wrote: 
> > 
> > I know (Sun) Java isn't officially supported in Ubuntu, but perhaps
> > the
> > community might be able to put together a how-to (wiki? FAQ? guide?)
> > that wouldn't have holes size of a newbie here and there. I'm not able
> > to write such a guide, but I would be happy to help to newbie-proof
> > it.
> > 
> 
> I had no problem installing Java after reading the guide at
> http://ubuntuguide.org
> 
> 
> -- 
> Buffalo Soldier
> 


I started with http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/AddingJavaSupport and
went on to
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/support/documentation/faq/helpcenterfaq.2004-09-16.3469703387 , where I found the link to http://wiki.osuosl.org/display/DEV/Java+on+Debian , which made me a little confused with paths. I moved on to http://kb.mozillazine.org/index.phtml?title=Firefox_:_FAQs_:_Install_Java#On_Linux , where the right awnser was, but I didn't see it because at this phase I thought I have installed Java into a wrong directory. I had seen quite a many different instructions already, but there were still a few left. The next one was http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=198 - no help. After this I searched with Google for a while, but didn't find the awnser. From here I went to search archived Ubuntu-users postings, which is were I found the post that led me to the right track.

The problem is that when you are a newbie, any of the different
instructions looks as good as any other. Perhaps some of the
instructions look different, but are essentially the same - one perhaps
has something extra added to it or uses a little different syntax, or
something. Some differences on the other hand may be important, but as a
newbie you can't tell if they are not explained. When you don't know the
relevance of these differences, you have to use the method of trial and
error until you get the thing work. When there are a large number of
variables and combinations of them, this may take an unreasonable amount
of time. But if you want to get the thing to work you have to try
something. For example, from my point of view the possible reasons for
Java not working in FireFox were, among others:
-I installed a version of Java that has problems with FireFox
-I installed Java to a wrong directory
-I had been using sudo in a wrong place, or left it out in a wrong place
-Not having logged out or restarted computer for changes to take effect
(I read somewere that you may have to do this in certain situations,
when there are "environmental variables" involved. I thought that paths
may have something to do with environmental variables :). So I logged
out often :-/
-After re-installing Java to a different folder, the settings of the    
previous installation were still in effect and mixing things up.
-Any combination of the previous reasons

Time to go to sleep :-)

-Ari-