make-jpkg created deb fails to install for sun-j2re1.6

[sktsee]

Binary package hint: java-package

Using java-package 0.42 in Ubuntu 9.10 to create deb to install Sun jre 1.6.0_18 fails with an error status 2 in the postinst script:

$ sudo dpkg -i sun-j2re1.6_1.6.0+update18_i386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package sun-j2re1.6.
(Reading database ... 133037 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking sun-j2re1.6 (from sun-j2re1.6_1.6.0+update18_i386.deb) ...
Setting up sun-j2re1.6 (1.6.0+update18) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/ControlPanel to provide /usr/bin/ControlPanel (ControlPanel) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/share/man/man1/ControlPanel.1.gz because associated file /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/man/man1/ControlPanel.1.gz (of link group ControlPanel) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/java to provide /usr/bin/java (java) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/javaws to provide /usr/bin/javaws (javaws) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/keytool to provide /usr/bin/keytool (keytool) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/orbd to provide /usr/bin/orbd (orbd) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/pack200 to provide /usr/bin/pack200 (pack200) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/policytool to provide /usr/bin/policytool (policytool) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/rmid to provide /usr/bin/rmid (rmid) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/rmiregistry to provide /usr/bin/rmiregistry (rmiregistry) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/servertool to provide /usr/bin/servertool (servertool) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/tnameserv to provide /usr/bin/tnameserv (tnameserv) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/unpack200 to provide /usr/bin/unpack200 (unpack200) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: error: alternative path /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/plugin/i386/ns4/libjavaplugin.so doesn't exist.
dpkg: error processing sun-j2re1.6 (--install):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 sun-j2re1.6

Problem resides in the post-install script make-jpkg uses when creating the deb package. It tries to create a alternatives symlink for presumably an older version of libjavaplugin.so that Sun does not include any more (or, at least, in this particular jre update).

$ ls -l /usr/lib/j2re1.6/plugins/i386
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-01-25 15:43 ns7
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-01-25 15:43 ns7-gcc2

No ns4 directory exists. Therefore, this bit from /usr/share/java-package/sun-j2re1.6/install fails:
# netscape
netscape_dir="/usr/lib/netscape/plugins-libc6"
[ -d "$netscape_dir" ] || install -d -m 755 "$netscape_dir"
update-alternatives \
   --install "$netscape_dir/libjavaplugin.so" \
 "netscape-javaplugin.so" \
     "$plugin_dir/ns4/libjavaplugin.so" "$priority"

commenting this snippet out of the postinst and prerm scripts and creating a new deb allows for clean install/removal.

[michael37 (misha37)]

Using java-package 0.42 in Ubuntu 9.10 to create deb to install Sun jre 1.6.0_18.

It fails sooner for me.

$ sudo dpkg -i sun-j2re1.6_1.6.0+update18_amd64.deb
Selecting previously deselected package sun-j2re1.6.
(Reading database ... 241813 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking sun-j2re1.6 (from sun-j2re1.6_1.6.0+update18_amd64.deb) ...
Setting up sun-j2re1.6 (1.6.0+update18) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/bin/ControlPanel to provide /usr/bin/ControlPanel (ControlPanel) in auto mode.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/share/man/man1/ControlPanel.1.gz because associated file /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/man/man1/ControlPanel.1.gz (of link group ControlPanel) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: error: alternative path /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/plugin/amd64/ns4/libjavaplugin.so doesn't exist.
dpkg: error processing sun-j2re1.6 (--install):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 sun-j2re1.6

In addition to producing this error, I am using Firefox 3.6. Due to changes in Firefox 3.6, NPAPI version of the plugin is required. Which means I have to use /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so instead of /usr/lib/j2re1.6-sun/lib/amd64/libjavaplugin_jni.so.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Cedric Pineau (cedric-pineau)]

This has been fixed with java-package 0.50

Cédric