java 2RE

[Peter Garrett]

On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 10:06:50 +0000
norman <norman at littletank.org> wrote:

> On Sat, 2006-12-30 at 10:38 +0100, Gilles Gravier wrote:
> > I use the self extracting binary... I don't like the idea of installing 
> > RPMs on a DEB environment.
> > 
> > I did have to tweak the "alternatives" settings for that to be properly 
> > integrated into ubuntu, but you can do it simply by modifying what the 
> > /usr/bin/java and other related binaries link to (they point to 
> > /etc/alternatives/XXX which you need to link to what you want).
> > 
> > I've just done this to get Java 1.6 to run... quite nicely... on my 
> > Ubuntu laptop.
> 
> You are very fortunate in that you know what you are doing. I have no
> real idea on how to tweak anything thus, my instinct is to go for the
> easiest for me to do. I know how to type instructions into a terminal
> and that's as far as my experience goes.

Do you need the latest java ? If not, there are packages from the
multiverse repository you can install: -

sun-java5-bin    <-- this will pull in the runtime as a dependency

So, assuming you don't need the very latest, I would suggest that you add
the multiverse repository if you haven't already 
( see
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu#head-5bbef89639d9a7d93fe38f6356dc17847d373096 )

( apologies for the truly ugly URL from the wiki ;-)

then

sudo aptitude install sun-java5-bin    ( or just use synaptic )

then

sudo update-alternatives --config java 

and choose  the number for the "sun java " alternative

If you need the latest, do not use the RPM - use the extracting binary as
Gilles suggests - but that involves a bit more legwork than simply
enabling multiverse and installing the package I suggested.

HTH

Peter