8. Installing Plugins

Plugins are programs which let your browser handle content other than HTML and graphics, such as animations, streaming audio, Javatm applets, and more. Firefox's plugins are stored in the /usr/lib/firefox-VERSION/plugins directory and installing plugins requires root privileges.

We will look at the procedures to install Javatm, Flash® and Real plugins. If you own a commercial version of Mandrakelinux, installation is greatly simplified and all the needed packages are on the CDs.

[Note]Note

If you have a Mandrakeclub user name and password, you may be able to install even newer versions of the software mentioned here.

8.1. Javatm

Install the jre RPM package. See Chapter 13, Package Management through Rpmdrake, for information on how to install RPM packages.

You can obtain the Java plugin on the Java Plug-in Home Page. Follow the links to the J2SE (Java 2, Standard Edition) and download the JRE for Linux. Choose the RPM file for the Linux platform, make it executable once the download finished (chmod 700 j2re[VERSION].rpm.bin) and execute it. A “realRPM package which be created which can be installed using the Software Manager or the urpmi command. Of course, you will have to accept the proposed license agreements.

8.2. Flash®

You can retrieve the Flash plugin on the Macromedia® web site. Click on the Flash Player page (within the Products page), then choose Downloads Get Flash Player and click on the Download Now button. Extract the tar.gz file into a temporary directory (tar zxvf install_flash_player_7_linux.tar.gz) and follow the instructions given in the included Readme.txt file to complete the plugin installation. Test the plugin by opening the Flash web site URL in the browser.

8.3. Real

You can get the Real plugin on the Linux Real web site. At the time of writing, the latest Real player available for GNU/Linux was version 10. Click on Download RPM Package. The procedure to install it is the same as for Java.