After 5 hours of struggle Java works in FireFox

[Chuck Vose]

I know this is a crap answer but I've been reading Richard Stallman
all day. Java will never be supported in Ubuntu unless Sun decides to
make it free. Ubuntu is run by the people that run Debian, the
obscenely free distro of linux. Asking them to make installing a
non-free easy is like asking them to poke their mothers in the eye for
your pleasure.

You might be able to convince the Firefox devs to help out in this
respect but I'll be willing to bet that they value freedom as much as
the Ubuntu devs do. Anyone spending a large chunk of their time
developing GNU/Linux stands a good chance of being obsessed with
freedom.

So until Sun decides to be less evil, I think you'll probably be out
of luck for a really nice, evolving solution.

-Chuck

PS. I know this doesn't solve the problem at all, but I'm hoping that
at least now you know _why_ it isn't easy and why is _won't_ be easy
for some time. It's not personal.