Re: browser plugin support under FC3

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On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 15:16:55 -0600, Gain Paolo Mureddu
<gmureddu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Angelo Machils wrote:
> 
> > Hello!
> >
> > I'm running FC3 x86-64 on a AMD 64 3000+ system, but I can't seem to
> > manage to install browser plugins under either Firefox (version 1.0)
> > or Mozilla. I do the manual install after the automatic fails. The
> > install goes okay, but after it I still don't have the plugin.
> > I'm trying the trail version of CrossOffice (for Quicktime) and
> > allthough the program standalong works, the plugin doesn't. I have the
> > plugin in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins and copied them also to
> > /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins.
> > I have done the /usr/sbin/prelink -ua tip I found on the internet for
> > FC3, but nothing seems to work.
> >
> > What am I missing here. Installing plugins wasn't so difficult on my
> > FC2 (i386) system.
> >
> > Thanks in advance, Angelo
> 
> Firefox for Linux x86_64 has a quirk. You can't install the 32-bit
> versions of some plugins, most notably flash player, maybe others,
> because flsh player is still for 32-bit Linux, I don't exaclty know why
> it will not work on an x86_64 system, I think it is becuase of some of
> the libraries requried by it that may not have all the required
> components the plugin needs (maybe it is due to the intrinsic
> differences in sizes of integers and the like).

This is not a quirk, but the fundamental way things work.  You can run
32-bit apps on an AMD64 processor with an x86_64 OS, but you cannot
mix 32- and 64-bit in the same program.  So 64-bit Firefox cannot use
32-bit plugins.  That is why 32-bit programs need the 32-bit libraries
installed.  The processor has two distinct modes for 64- or 32-bit and
code for plugins is too close to the code for the program for the two
to be different architectures.
So, in response to Angelo, if you want to use plugins for which there
are only 32-bit versions right now (like flash and java), uninstall
64-bit Firefox and get the 32-bit version and your plugins will work
just fine (go to your local mirror and pick up the RPM).  Also, make
sure you *soft link* to the plugin.  Don't copy it to
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ or it still will not work (by the way,
Firefox has its own directory seperate from Mozilla).  If you want,
you can run 32-bit Mozilla and 64-bit Firefox, or vise-versa if you
want both a 32- and 64-bit browser.  I don't think you can have both
versions of one installed, though.  At least yum didn't like that
idea.  32-bit Firefox runs great for me though, so I think I'll just
stick with it until 64-bit plugins have come around.

Jonathan


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