Starting with Fedora 9, OpenJDK is now available directly (adapted from Sun Java):
Fedora 9 includes OpenJDK 6, an open source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition. OpenJDK 6 is not yet Java compatible; work is underway to certify it.
Fedora will track Sun's stable OpenJDK 6 branch.
See the release notes for Fedora 9. However, I still prefer installing JRE since OpenJDK is not fully compatible to Java. In addition, since it is still not recommended to use the Sun Java RPM, we will install it by hand into /opt. Be sure that SELinux has been configured properly before starting (see the SELinux page).
Installing Java
Open your favorite web browser and go to Sun's download page for Java SE, which is located at:
Scroll down the page and look for the latest update to the "Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 Update 6". Click on the Download button, choose Linux under Platform, and click the button to accept the license agreement. Then click Continue. Choose the "Linux self-extracting file" link, which corresponds to jre-6u4-linux-i586.bin. After it downloads, copy the file to /opt:
~>
sudo cp ~/Download/jre-*.bin /opt/.
Now change into the /opt
directory: ~>
cd /opt
And change the permissions of
the file so that it is executable: ~>
sudo chmod ugo+x jre-*.bin
Next, run the binary file
using sudo: ~>
sudo ./jre-*.bin
Continue to press the space
bar until you scroll down to the end of the license agreement. Type "yes" and hit Enter. Wait
for the installation to complete, and delete the binary file: ~>
sudo rm jre-*.bin
Restart Firefox to enable the
Java plugin. To test it, go to
http://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml.Configuring Java for Other Applications
To configure java for additional applications, we need to create a couple of profile files in /etc/profile.d. For the bash shell, create a file /etc/profile.d/java.sh with the following information:
export
J2RE_HOME=/opt/jre1.6.0_06
export PATH=$J2RE_HOME/bin:$PATH
Next, create a
file /etc/profile.d/java.csh
for csh/tcsh shells:export PATH=$J2RE_HOME/bin:$PATH
set
J2RE_HOME=/opt/jre1.6.0_06
set path=($J2RE_HOME/bin $path)
If you are using bash as your
default shell, source the java.sh
file:set path=($J2RE_HOME/bin $path)
$
source /etc/profile.d/java.sh
If you are using csh/tcsh as your
default shell, source the java.csh file
instead: ~>
source /etc/profile.d/java.csh
To verify that we
will use the newly
installed java
application, type: ~>
which java
You should see: /opt/jre1.6.0_02/bin/java
Next we will use
the alternatives
command to further configure F9 to use jre1.6.0_06.
Type: ~>
sudo /usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java
/opt/jre1.6.0_06/bin/java 3
This configures jre1.6.0_06
as an alternative to the generic java
implementation that comes bundled with F9 and OpenJDK. To choose it,
type: ~>
sudo /usr/sbin/alternatives --config java
in which case,
you should see: There
are 3 programs which provide 'java'.
Selection Command
-----------------------------------------------
*+ 1 /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-openjdk/bin/java
2 /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.5.0-gcj/bin/java
3 /opt/jre1.6.0_06/bin/java
Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number:
Press '3' and hit Enter.
Finally, type:Selection Command
-----------------------------------------------
*+ 1 /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-openjdk/bin/java
2 /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.5.0-gcj/bin/java
3 /opt/jre1.6.0_06/bin/java
Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number:
~>
sudo /usr/sbin/alternatives --display java
You should see
that the link currently
points to /opt/jre1.6.0_02/bin/java: java
- status is manual.
link currently points to /opt/jre1.6.0_06/bin/java
...
You are now able
to install and run Java
applications!link currently points to /opt/jre1.6.0_06/bin/java
...