One step nearer removing OS X form my iBook. Now I got java running so I can log on to my net banking account. The following works on my Debian Etch (-ish):

  1. Download IBM's java-package from http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/linux/download.html (registration required) - you need the 32bit iSeries/pSeries version in tgz format
  2. Make sure that the package includes .../jre/bin/libjavaplugin_oji.so (somehow I got a package which didn't have the file)
  3. install java-package
  4. run make-jpkg <tgz file>. If it complain about "no matching plugin was found" look in /usr/share/doc/java-package/SUPPORTED and rename you tgz file to something supporte of almost the correct version.
  5. Install the resulting package and restart firefox (whatever it is named today)

I downloaded a file called ibm-java2-jre-5.0-4.0-linux-ppc.tgz and renamed it to ibm-java2-jre-50-linux-ppc.tgz and it seems to work.