Javascript and Firefox plugins

[Harold Michels]

Goal:
Get the Java plugin working in Firefox.

Symptom:
While browsing pages Firefox tells me I need to load plugins for the 
page to be viewed.
Firefox fails the Java test on the Sun web site.

Operating system Fedora 7.
Firefox 2.0.0.5
This is a relatively new installation.

There was no .mozilla/plugins folder or /usr/java on this system.

I downloaded and installed the JRE 1.6.0 binary in a directory I made, 
/usr/java following Sun's directions. The binary is an rpm.bin file that 
I ran as SU. It does not seem to have interacted with the RPM database, 
nor does the OS seem to know it is there. I ran updatedb and RPM still 
does not recognize the JRE 1.6.0.

I already had a version of Java running on my computer:

$ java --version

java version "1.5.0"

gij (GNU libgcj) version 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-27)

After the installation of 1.6.0, the version number reported did not change.

The 1.5.0 Java seems to be coming from my Java SDK. The Java files that 
I find all seem to be links to the SDK folder.

[koder at localhost ~]$ whereis -b firefox
firefox: /usr/bin/firefox
[koder at localhost ~]$ whereis -b java
java: /usr/bin/java /etc/java /usr/lib/java /usr/share/java

I can successfully compile Java code.


Before running the JRE 1.6.0 binary the only version of 
libjavaplugin_oji_.so existed in my download folder from an attempt to 
get Java running under an earlier version of Firefox.


Neither whatprovides nor provides are running on my system, preventing 
me from running them per Craig's instructions earlier.

Sorry, for all of the above. On to the question.

Should I be installing the file elsewhere? Is so where?

Am I using the incorrect procedure altogether?

Harold