Ship of Fools: Cafe: FAQs

Accessing the Café on Linux

The Café requires Java 1.3 to work properly. Make sure you don't have a too-recent version of Java working with Mozilla. To check, open Mozilla and then select Help > About Plugins. This will come up with a webpage describing all the plugins you have. What we are looking for is the Java Plugin. The entry for it should look something like this:

Java(TM) Plug-in 1.3.1_02-b02
File name: libjavaplugin_oji.so
Java(TM) Plug-in1.3.1_02

If Java > 1.3.1 or if you have no entry of this type at all, you must install the plugin. If you do have 1.3.x and it's still not working, you may also want to try the 1.3.1 plugin as that appears to work without too much trouble.

Download the needed files here. Grab the Runtime Environment (though SDK will also work but it's bigger). Go for the RPM version as it will probably make things easier.

You now have a file called: j2*******1_3_1_08-linux.rpm.bin – or something close enough to that. Now type the following in terminal mode:

su
chmod o+x filename
./filename
rpm -ivh newly_created_file.rpm

Now all you need to do is create a link for the plugin with this (still as root):

ln -s /usr/java/jre1.3.1_08/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/

The above directories may vary slightly so press TAB to get the shell to auto-complete the paths.

Now let's check it works by opening Mozilla – after having shut all of the Mozilla windows beforehand – and checking the plugins (see above). You should see something similar to what was described at the beginning.

Of course, there may be some slight differences between versions of Linux (these steps were completed using Mandrake 9.1), but these can usually be easily overcome. Make sure to check you have the same directories as those listed here. If not, amend the instructions accordingly.

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