If you have openSUSE package 'java-1_6_0-sun-plugin' installed, uninstall it.
Install a 32-bit compatibility environment
Download the tarball, not rpm, version of the Sun Java 32-bit Runtime
Download the Firefox distro for your language from Mozilla.
tar -xvf /path/to/firefox-2.0.0.8.tar.gz
sh /path/to/jre-6u3-linux-i586.bin
Install the plugin manually by linking it.
your environment still reflects the system-wide installation of Java. A script fixes that and a few common problems with the installation and execution:
vi ~/bin/firefox32
Install Adobe Reader.
Create a symbolic link to nppdf.so to your Mozilla plugins directory.
copy libflashplayer.so to your Mozilla plugins directory and flashplayer.xpt to your Mozilla components directory
Install Java Runtime Environment.
Make a symbolic link to libjavaplugin_oji.so in your Mozilla Plugins directory. Use the copy located in the plugin/i386/ns7 directory of JRE 5.0 or later, or plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32 if you are using JRE 1.4.2.