title: Oracle Forms::Linux Client link: https://onemoretech.wordpress.com/2007/11/29/oracle-formslinux-client/ author: lembobro description: post_id: 599 created: 2007/11/29 20:03:24 created_gmt: 2007/11/29 20:03:24 comment_status: open post_name: oracle-formslinux-client status: publish post_type: post

Oracle Forms::Linux Client

Let’s be clear from the beginning, this is a solution for Oracle Forms 10g, not for EBS (Enterprise Business Suite) 11i. I’m told that the latter is too old to accomodate the workaround I’m about to provide.

Since the dawn of time, those of us who have jumped on the Oracle hayride have sought to get everything to work on our Linux desktops. Unfortunately, IN THE BEGINNING Oracle hitched itself to Microsoft’s star. This lead to that highly customized bane of sysadmins everywhere — Jinitiator.

Problem is, Jinitiator, besides being several major versions older than the latest Sun Java distribution, also only works on Windows. To date, Oracle has not offered a Linux version of the software, and is unlikely to — ever.

Fast forward to the release of Application Server 10g, which includes a new version of Forms. Now with some minor changes to the ~/.mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat file you can run 10g Forms using Firefox on Linux.

Without this trick, you’ll get the aggravating prompt to install the plugin, which of course, you can’t because one doesn’t exist for Linux.

To get around this you need to fool Forms into thinking your client is running the same exact Sun Java plugin that’s running on the server.

You do this by making two changes in ~/.mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat and restarting your browser.

The first thing you need to do is add a numbered line at the end of the Java plugin MIME types listing that adds a new type for the server’s plugin version, like this:

31:application/x-java-applet;jpi-version=1.4.2_06:Java::$

The exact version will differ depending upon the particular build and patch level of your 10g installation.

Then you need to increment the plugin MIME time counter by 1. If the counter originally read 31, you need to raise it to 32.

“But the last type is numbered 31, how do you get 32?”, you ask. The answer of course is that list starts with zero (0), obviously.

Here are the changes in context (highlighted in green):

`

[PLUGINS]
/usr/java/jdk1.5.0_10/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so:$
:$
1163118872000:1:5:$
Java(TM) Plug-in 1.5.0_10:$
Java(TM) Plug-in 1.5.0_10-b03:$
32
0:application/x-java-vm:Java::$
1:application/x-java-applet:Java::$
2:application/x-java-applet;version=1.1:Java::$

`

---

`

28:application/x-java-bean;version=1.4.2:Java::$
29:application/x-java-bean;version=1.5:Java::$
30:application/x-java-bean;jpi-version=1.5.0_10:Java::$
31:application/x-java-applet;jpi-version=1.4.2_06:Java::$
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so:$

`

That’s all there is to it.

Copyright 2004-2019 Phil Lembo