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  • iLO, use the "Java Applet" instead of "Java Web Start" !!!!!!!!

Javafox

Java is going out of style and yet is needed to manage many different lights out management systems such as HPs iLO and such. To be able to continue manage hardware some specific combinations of browsers and java is needed.

Thanks to a pull request you can now also run ancient Firefoxes for those that need browsers to support ancient BMCs with ancient now-unsupported https: encryption.

No Oracle No More

As of 2019-04-16 Oracle has changed the license for Java to a very restrictive license which is at odds with using it at work at all. Therefore the package has been updated to use OpenJDK and the IcedTea Firefox plugin. This combination still works well with HP iLO2 which is the oldest hardware I have access to.

If you need to use Oracle Java 8 please refer to commit dd7ccd6 (https://github.com/niclan/Javafox/tree/dd7ccd683f61444b027779e2bdddd7be1bd9eac8) and note that you can not use it with anything but personal computers and personally owned equipment in any way unless you have a previously downloaded JRE you can use with it.

Or if you have a paid up license with Oracle.

Installing

  1. Install docker (docker.io)

  2. Clone this repository

  3. (if on OSX): install XQuartz (xquartz.org)

  4. (if on OSX): reboot (needed for some env variables)

  5. Review Dockerfile, especially about disabling modern TLS

  6. Run docker build -t javafox . This makes a Ubuntu 16.04 docker image labeled "javafox" containing firefox-esr-52, java, flash and a account called ffuser. The image is >1GB at time of creation. It will save caches and other config (java and firefox) outside the container in your home directory under ~/.javafox.

Using

./javafox starts the docker container. Type "about:" in the address bar to see that you have version 52. Type "about:plugins" to see that Java and Flash is working.

To allow Java to run the unsecurely and out-of-date signed java apps you need to make security exceptions. To do this first start the docker image with ./javafox you should then have a file in $HOME/.javafox/.java/deployment/security/exception.sites where you can add your exceptions like this:

https://192.168.254.0
https://192.168.254.1

Remote media, firmware files and such

I first needed to use this feature in 2021 so I'll just describe the workaround I used to access a media image file:

On Linux based hosts, your $HOME directory will automatically be mounted to /home/ffuser/home_home/ (read only). So put your storage image or firmware files there or in a sub directory in order to mount or submit to your device.

Other legacy Firefox versions

There is an alternative Dockerfile-legacy. This can be used to build historic images, although without Flash or Java. Run

docker build -t firefox:2 -f Dockerfile-legacy .
ln -s javafox firefox-2

Running the symlink will launch this image instead.

Dependencies have not been tested for all releases, but

docker build --build-arg RELEASE=15.0.1 -t firefox:15 -f Dockerfile-legacy .

should work to make an image for Firefox 15. See https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/ for the full archive.

SElinux

When SElinux is enabled, a container will not be allowed to access the X11 socket. See selinux/javafox.te for the access needed (tested on Fedora 29).

Thanks

Thanks to Ole for making this usable! And to Kjetilho for supporting ancient Firefoxen.

Thanks to the Albuquerque Linux User Group for this article: https://www.abqlug.com/tutorials/how-to-install-firefox-esr-52-9-on-ubuntu-18-04/ and keeping a archive of the Firefox packages that I needed to resurect this thing in 2021.

Software versions

Works:

  • Firefox ESR 52 because it's the last version that supports the Java plugin
  • Java 8 because that's old enough to work with e.g. iLO2.
  • Ubuntu 16.04 was current when Firefox ESR 52 was released

Does not work:

  • Ubuntu 20.04 - No java 8. Might work if we include icetea-8 and related packages in the repo.
  • Ubuntu 18.04 - should work according to the internet. Most times gets me a X error:
(firefox-esr:12): Gdk-ERROR **: 06:54:01.372: The program 'firefox-esr' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)'.
  (Details: serial 367 error_code 2 request_code 130 (unknown) minor_code 3)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the GDK_SYNCHRONIZE environment
   variable to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
ExceptionHandler::GenerateDump cloned child 94
ExceptionHandler::WaitForContinueSignal waiting for continue signal...
ExceptionHandler::SendContinueSignalToChild sent continue signal to child
[Child 77] ###!!! ABORT: Aborting on channel error.: file /build/firefox-esr-MkDF_u/firefox-esr-52.9.0esr/ipc/glue/MessageChannel.cpp, line 2152
[Child 77] ###!!! ABORT: Aborting on channel error.: file /build/firefox-esr-MkDF_u/firefox-esr-52.9.0esr/ipc/glue/MessageChannel.cpp, line 2152
/home/ffuser/entrypoint.sh: line 16:    12 Trace/breakpoint trap   (core dumped) /usr/bin/firefox-esr -no-remote $@

Therefore this container is based on Ubuntu 16.04.

Tips

  • iLO, use the "Java Applet" instead of "Java Web Start"
  • iDRAC6, issue with Virtual Media when browsing to a folder containing special characters such as 'φ8' - rename or delete these files