JDK RPM Installation for Linux (32-bit)

System Requirements

System Configurations

Installation Instructions

This procedure installs the Java SE Runtime Environment for 32-bit Linux, using an RPM binary bundle. Some Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, are not RPM-based. In that event, please see the self extracting installation page.

The name of the downloaded file has the following format:


 
jdk-6u
 <version>-linux-i586-rpm.bin
     
    <version>
jdk-6u18-linux-i586-rpm.bin

To install, download this file and use the following instructions:

  1. Download and check the file size.

    2. You can download to any directory that you can write to.

  2. Become root by running the su command and entering the root password.
  3. Extract and install the contents of the downloaded file.

    4. Change directory to where the downloaded file is located and run these commands to first set the executable permissions and then run the binary to extract and run the RPM file:

    
               
% chmod a+x jdk-6u                  
<version>-linux-i586-rpm.bin
% ./jdk-6u                 
<version>-linux-i586-rpm.bin

    Note that the initial " ./" is required if you do not have " ." in your PATH environment variable.

    The script displays a binary license agreement, which you are asked to agree to before installation can proceed. Once you have agreed to the license, the install script creates and runs the file jdk-6u <version>-linux-i586.rpm in the current directory.

    NOTE: If you want to only extract the RPM file but not install it, you can run the .bin file with the -x argument. You do not need to be root to do this.

  4. Delete the rpm file if you want to save disk space.
  5. Exit the root shell.
  6. If you want to use Java within the browser, setup the plugin using the instructions in Manual Plugin Installation for Linux.

The RPM package creates two links: /usr/java/latest and /usr/java/default.

  • The /usr/java/latest link will always point to the version of Java that is considered the latest version. Subsequent upgrades of the package will overwrite this value if it is not the latest version.
  • By default, /usr/java/default points to /usr/java/latest. However, if administrators change /usr/java/default to point to another version of Java, subsequent package upgrades will be provided by the administrators and cannot be overwritten.

When the JDK is installed, links to javac, jar, and javadoc are also created apart from the JRE links. These links point to the appropriate tool referenced by /usr/java/default. This allows the user to easily run the default version of these Java tools.

A new service script, named jexec, is added to /etc/init.d. This script allows users to directly execute any standalone JAR file that has an execution permission set. This can be demonstrated using an example from the JDK:




cd /usr/java/jdk1.6.0/demo/jfc/SwingSet2
chmod +x SwingSet2.jar
./SwingSet2.jar