mac-firefox-java issue

E

edwardsmarkf

Registered
hello all (total newbie here)

we are running 10.6.5 mac and i have an issue.

for some reason, firefox does not "see" that java is installed. safari does not seem to have this issue.

the simple workaround is to remove firefox and then reinstall it, and this does indeed fix the problem for a very short while, until a reboot.

i tried going into the FF add-ons and disabling/re-enabling the java-console add-on, but this didnt seem to fix it.

any ideas? i am ready to reinstall the OS to see if that fixes it.

thanks,
mark
 
Reinstalling Mac OS X because of one add-on or application that was not provided with OS X installation or by Apple, is a windows-type fix, and would make about as much sense as moving to a different house when your problem was that the lawn turned brown. Sure, the new house will have a green lawn, but if it's treated like the lawn in the previous house, it may well turn ugly like the previous one.

So let's see where the problem was first.

If you have a fresh, vanilla install of Firefox, without any site specific scripts, blocks, add-ons, extensions etc, and the problem does not occur with that configuration, wouldn't it be more likely that something with the (user specific) add-ons, extensions, scripts etc would interfere with it than the system?

Which version and build of Firefox do you use?
Is there a newer version of Firefox available?
If Firefox had no problems with Java first, when does or did the problem occur? After FF was running for days without a break etc? Would restarting FF make any difference?
Which add-ons, extensions etc do you have for Firefox?
Any newer versions for the add-ons? If there are, install them, and restart FF.
Disable all add-ons and extensions, restart Firefox - any difference?
Any site specific scripts, blocks etc?

When it's not recognized, what error message do you get, or do hte problematic components on the webpage just not load?
When the problem happens, what shows in Console? (/Applications/Utilities)

I'd also recommend running the software update, getting your system to 10.6.6.
 
hello Giaguara -

and thank you for your reply.

the problem i face is compounded in that this particular mac is in a different state, indeed a different time-zone! i connect to it via crossloop.

all the software is current, especially the firefox. and i don't really know what transpires from when its working to when its not working, but i suspect very little besides the rebooting. and there are no other add-ons that i can see.

when i go to this website: http://javatester.org/version.html at first i cannot see the pink box with the java version (again, works fine on Safari). my workaround is to merely remove FF and reinstall it, but i dont necessarily like that solution since it is only temporary.

i may suggest the owner take it to an apple club or something like that, unless anybody has another suggestion.


so you dont like my OS-reinstall idea? did that give away my true identity of a windows person by nature? ;-)

me
 
edwardsmarkf said:
...

for some reason, firefox does not "see" that java is installed. safari does not seem to have this issue.

...
Click to expand...
To echo Giaguara, it would be enormously helpful if we knew which version of Firefox we are talking about. However ... it bears pointing out that there is a major difference between how Java is handled in Safari and Firefox. As would be expected, Safari uses the MacOS S installation of Java. Firefox does not. Mozilla includes the Symantec Java Virtual Machine with Firefox. It should surprise no one that the Symantec JVM has a very bad reputation. However, there is an Internet Plugin that allows Firefox to use the MacOS X JVM instead.

You must provide more information if you expect useful advice.
 
i apologize for being so vague, but the machine in question is in another state. its very difficult for me to even get time accessing it. however, i did get this bit of info: the FF i keep removing and re-stalling is 3.6.15

it was very interesting to learn that FF uses a completely different java on a mac than safari does! i just assumed (incorrectly) it was the same one. my knowledge begins (and ends) with getting the java console to open up so i can read the status messages.

misterMe said "However, there is an Internet Plugin that allows Firefox to use the MacOS X JVM instead." could i please get a link how to find/install this?

thank you all,
mark
 
MisterMe - Thanks for that post on the Java plugin. It cured a different problem I've had when using my company's Java-based ALM system. Without the plugin FF would wrongly trigger an error that I'm using an old client instance when I'm definitely not. I had to use FF-Win in Fusion when shooting tutorial videos because FF-Win doesn't have the problem. So it was apparently due to a crummy runtime used by FF-Mac.
 
Mister-me mentioned that Safari uses a native Java, while FF uses one from Symantec (the norton people?)

Although both of them say:

Java 1.5.0_28 from Apple Inc.

on a java version test. (this is on a 10.5.8 apple laptop)

anybody know which one that mac-chrome uses?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top