[Hardy] Firefox upgrade to 3.6.6 breaks Java plugin

[Thomas Ribbrock]

*********** WORKAROUND ***********

With sun-java6-plugin installed, run "sudo update-alternatives --config mozilla-javaplugin.so", and select the alternative provided by /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so

Scriptable alternative:
sudo update-alternatives --set mozilla-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so

**************************************

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

Over the past two nights, firefox was upgraded from 3.0.x to 3.6.6 on our Kubuntu 8.04.4 machines. Unfortunately, this upgrade broke the interaction with the Java plugin that is installed. As a result, Firefox no longer reports a Java plugin and pages containing Java cannot be viewed.

Installed packages:
firefox 3.6.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.2
sun-java6-plugin 6.20dlj-0ubuntu1.8.04

Despite being installed, "about:plugins" does not list the Java plugin.

What I've tried so far:
- Installing sun-java5-plugin as well => no change
- Making a symbolic link from /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/libjavaplugin.so to /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/libjavaplugin.so => no change

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

sun-java5-plugin is not supported by FF3.6 (that was mentioned in the release notes section of the USN, and is also mentioned in the firefox changelog)

sun-java6-plugin should be working fine, but you might have another java plugin on your system that the alternatives system is pointing to instead.

Could you please post the output "update-alternatives --display mozilla-javaplugin.so"? (Also, feel free to post the same output for xulrunner-javaplugin.so and firefox-javaplugin.so)

[Thomas Ribbrock (emgaron+ubuntu)]

On Thu, Jul 01, 2010 at 02:13:42PM -0000, Chris Coulson wrote:
> sun-java5-plugin is not supported by FF3.6 (that was mentioned in the
> release notes section of the USN, and is also mentioned in the firefox
> changelog)

Ok, that was a shot in the dark (as was the symlink). I've removed both
again.

[...]
> Could you please post the output "update-alternatives --display mozilla-
> javaplugin.so"?

Sure:
# update-alternatives --display mozilla-javaplugin.so
mozilla-javaplugin.so - status is auto.
 link currently points to /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so - priority 63
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so - priority 63
Current `best' version is /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so.

> (Also, feel free to post the same output for xulrunner-
> javaplugin.so and firefox-javaplugin.so)

No problem:

# update-alternatives --display xulrunner-javaplugin.so
xulrunner-javaplugin.so - status is auto.
 link currently points to /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so - priority 63
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so - priority 63
Current `best' version is /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so.

# update-alternatives --display firefox-javaplugin.so
firefox-javaplugin.so - status is auto.
 link currently points to /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so - priority 63
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so - priority 63
Current `best' version is /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so.

[Marcus Walther (c-launchpad-marcus-walther-de)]

At my system the alternative show up as following:

# update-alternatives --display mozilla-javaplugin.so
mozilla-javaplugin.so - status is auto.
 link currently points to /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so - priority 63
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so - priority 63
Current `best' version is /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so.

# update-alternatives --display xulrunner-javaplugin.so
xulrunner-javaplugin.so - status is auto.
 link currently points to /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so - priority 63
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so - priority 63
Current `best' version is /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so.

# update-alternatives --display firefox-javaplugin.so
firefox-javaplugin.so - status is auto.
 link currently points to /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so - priority 63
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so - priority 63
Current `best' version is /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

The issue is that your links are pointing to libjavaplugin_oji.so, which is not supported (the OJI support was removed from FF3.6). I'm not sure what has registered it as an alternative, because it's not listed on mine.

You need to use the libnpjp2.so plugin. To fix this, run "sudo update-alternatives --config mozilla-javaplugin.so" and select the right plugin. Do this also for xulrunner-javaplugin.so and firefox-javaplugin.so, restart Firefox and you should have the sun java plugin again.

This isn't a firefox bug, but i need to figure out what we can do about this

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Ok, it seems that an older sun-java6 version created libjavaplugin_oji.so as an alternative. We should do an update somewhere to clean this alternative during the upgrade so users don't get a java plugin that isn't supported by the browser

[Marcus Walther (c-launchpad-marcus-walther-de)]

This suggested work-around works for me. Thanks!

[Thomas Ribbrock (emgaron+ubuntu)]

I can also confirm the work around (and I've added a scriptable version). I'll be looking forward to the updated package - updating some 40 machines manually with the work around is not fun... :-}

[Thomas Ribbrock (emgaron+ubuntu)]

BTW: Thanks for the prompt response! :-)

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

I've pushed a fix for this to the staging PPA now (https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-security/+archive/ppa/), where it will need some testing before we publish it

[miguelquiros (mquiros)]

In my case, java-6 plugin does show in the plugin list, so it is not a problem of symlinks or such so.
When trying to open a page with a java applet, it does not work and the java panel shows errors like this:

java.lang.ClassCastException: sun.awt.motif.MToolkit cannot be cast to sun.awt.X11.XToolkit
 at sun.awt.X11.XEmbeddedFrame.addNotify(XEmbeddedFrame.java:53)
 at sun.plugin2.main.client.PluginEmbeddedFrame.addNotify(PluginEmbeddedFrame.java:46)
 at sun.awt.X11.XEmbeddedFrame.<init>(XEmbeddedFrame.java:43)
 at sun.awt.X11.XEmbeddedFrame.<init>(XEmbeddedFrame.java:60)
 at sun.plugin2.main.client.PluginEmbeddedFrame.<init>(PluginEmbeddedFrame.java:37)
 at sun.plugin2.main.client.PluginMain$StartAppletRunner.run(PluginMain.java:929)
 at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:209)
 at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:597)
 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:269)
 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:184)
 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:174)
 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:169)
 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)
PluginMain: could not create embedded frame

The same page loads fine with this plugin in firefox 3.0.19.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

miguelquiros - your issue is completely unrelated to this one. You should open another bug report with an example URL that triggers the issue

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package sun-java6 - 6.20dlj-0ubuntu1.8.04.1

---------------
sun-java6 (6.20dlj-0ubuntu1.8.04.1) hardy-security; urgency=low

  * Fix LP: #600642:
  * Clean up the libjavaplugin_oji.so alternative on upgrade, as the OJI
    plugin is not compatible with Firefox 3.6.
    - add debian/JB-plugin.preinst.in
  * Bump the priority of the libnpjp2.so alternative, so it is selected in
    favour of other Java plugins which don't work with the new Firefox version
    - update debian/rules
 -- Chris Coulson <email address hidden> Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:51:13 +0100