helix plugin not loaded by firefox

[Guillermo Jano]

On Gutsy, Helix plugin is not being loaded by Firefox after installing mozilla-helix-player (i.e., it is not shown in the about:plugins page). This can be fixed by manually making symlinks from /usr/lib/firefox/plugins to /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/nphelix.*. So it seems the plugin is not being installed in the right place or maybe Firefox should be configured for look for plugins in /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/ too (or maybe /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/ should be a symlink to /usr/lib/firefox/plugins). Other plugins like totem or flash are directly installed in /usr/lib/firefox/plugins, consequently working right after being installed with no additional work.

[philinux (philcb)]

I can confirm this bug. But my install on the 4th Nov 07 install the symlinks into /usr/lib/firefox/plugins and /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins and they both point to /usr/lib/helix/player/mozilla/nphelix.* but the plugin is still not picked up by firefox.

[philinux (philcb)]

Couldn't find a way to edit above. Type /usr/lib/firefox/plugins should have been /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins.

The firefox directory had no symlinks. If i copy the nphelix files from the helix folder into /usr/lib/firefox/plugins then about:plugins picks up the files.

Helix DNA Plugin: RealPlayer G2 Plug-In Compatible

    File name: /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/nphelix.so
    Helix DNA Plugin: RealPlayer G2 Plug-In Compatible version 0.4.0.574 built with gcc 3.4.5 on Nov 30 2005

MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin RealPlayer Plugin Metafile rpm Yes

However on trying to play say bbc radio the window launches with no error but just hangs.

[Jorge Moraleda (jorge-moraleda)]

I have observed the same packaging bug. Firefox will not discover the helix plugin until symbolic links are created in /usr/lib/firefox/plugins. These links should be created by the package installer, but they are not.

A work around is to create the symbolic links manually as follows:
     sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/mozilla-browser_nphelix.mozilla-browser_nphelix.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/nphelix.so
     sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/mozilla-browser_nphelix.mozilla-browser_nphelix.xpt /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/nphelix.xpt

[philinux (philcb)]

Fixed in Hardy.