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 |
---|---|
If you have a Mandrakeclub user name and password, you may be able to install even newer versions of the software mentioned here. |
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 “real” RPM 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.
You can retrieve the
Flash plugin on the Macromedia®
web site. Click on the Flash Player page (within the
Products page), then choose
and click on the
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.
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
. The procedure to
install it is the same as for Java.