Java browser plugin Broken on one login only

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Sat, 2008-08-09 at 09:33 -0400, Jim Duda wrote:
> Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> 
> > Check the ~/.mozilla/plugins directory for that account. Maybe you have
> > a broken Java plugin masking the real one.
> 
> That directory is empty for this user.
> 
> > 
> > Also, check about:plugins from within Firefox.
> > 
> 
> Cool, thanks for this tip, I never knew about this.
> 
> For the broken user, I don't have java in this list.  For other users, I do.

That could happen if the other users have the plugin in their respective
~/.mozilla/plugins directories, instead of it being in a centralized
location.

> I don't see java in the ~/.mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat file for the 
> broken user, but I do for the working users.
> 
> I even renamed the .mozilla directory for the broken user and restarted 
> firefox, however, still no java in about:plugins or pluginreg.dat file.
> 
> How/when does firefox go looking for plugins?

See http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/

You might also want to go to about:config in Firefox and set the boolean
value 'plugin.expose_full_path' to True (right-click and select Toggle
if it's False). This will show you the complete pathname of each plugin
in about:plugins.

poc