Install JAVA (Oracle JAVA & openJDK) via JAVA Alternatives Method

December 23, 2015October 25, 2017 - by Magesh Maruthamuthu - 28 Comments.

JAVA is necessary to run certain applications in Linux and windows environment. I already installed OpenJDK 7 in my system and I’m going to install oracle java 8 using java alternatives method which is very simple and handy. Just dig our article.

[ac-button size=”large” color=”green” style=”flat” icon=”fa-link” url=”https://www.2daygeek.com/category/java/” target=”_blank”]List of method to install JAVA on Linux[/ac-button]

1) Check current java version

Use the below command to check installed java version on your system.

$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_91"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea 2.6.3) (7u91-2.6.3-0ubuntu0.15.10.1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.91-b01, mixed mode)

The output clearly shows that, i have already installed OpenJDK 7 in my system.

2) Download oracle java archive file

Use the below command to download the oracle java 8 archive file. Make sure oracle uses cookies, so use according to that.

[Downloading Oracle Java 8 archive file]
$ sudo wget --no-cookies --no-check-certificate --header "Cookie: gpw_e24=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oracle.com%2F; oraclelicense=accept-securebackup-cookie" "http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u66-b17/jdk-8u66-linux-x64.tar.gz"

3) Extract the archive file

Use the below tar command to extract the tar.gz archive file.

[Extract Oracle Java Archive file]
$ sudo tar -zxvf jdk-8u66-linux-x64.tar.gz

4) Install oracle java 8 using Alternatives Method

Use the below command to Install oracle java 8 on your system using JAVA alternatives method. Make sure you need to mention your java path (Newly downloaded)

[Install Oracle Java using Java Alternatives Method]
$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/java 2

5) Choose alternative java version

Use the below command to list installed java version on your system. Here i’m going to choose oracle java 8 which is installed newely on my system. just enter the number which is showing under Selection area to switch to alternative version of java.

[Setup Newly installed java version as a default]
$ sudo update-alternatives --config java
There are 2 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

  Selection    Path                                            Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1071      auto mode
  1            /opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/java                        2         manual mode
  2            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1071      manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 1
update-alternatives: using /opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/java to provide /usr/bin/java (java) in manual mode

You can setup javac and jar also using alternative method. If you are not setting up these, it will use older one which is auto mode.

[Setup javac]
$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac /opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/javac 2

[See the below output for javac]
$ sudo update-alternatives --config javac
There are 2 choices for the alternative javac (providing /usr/bin/javac).

  Selection    Path                                         Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/bin/javac   1071      auto mode
  1            /opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/javac                    2         manual mode
  2            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/bin/javac   1071      manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 1
update-alternatives: using /opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/javac to provide /usr/bin/javac (javac) in manual mode

Setup jar using alternative method.

[Setup jar]
$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/jar jar /opt/jdk1.8.0_20/bin/jar 2

[See the below output for jar]
$ sudo update-alternatives --config jar
There are 2 choices for the alternative jar (providing /usr/bin/jar).

  Selection    Path                                       Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/bin/jar   1071      auto mode
  1            /opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/jar                    2         manual mode
  2            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/bin/jar   1071      manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 1
update-alternatives: using /opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/jar to provide /usr/bin/jar (jar) in manual mode

6) once again check java version

Use the below command to check your new installed java version.

$ java -version
java version "1.8.0_66"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_66-b17)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.66-b17, mixed mode)

Yes, we have successfully installed Oracle java 8 and showing output also above But environemnt variables still using older one, see the below output.

$ echo $JAVA_HOME
/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/bin/java

$ echo $JRE_HOME
/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java

7) Setup JAVA Environment Variables

You should Setup Environment Variables for java because all of java based application’s use environment variables to work. Open your .bashrc file and add the below lines to end of the file. Make sure you need to mention your path instead of us. Save and exit.

$ sudo nano .bashrc
JAVA_HOME="/opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/java"
JRE_HOME="/opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/jar"
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:JAVA_HOME:JRE_HOME

After saving .bashrc file, run the below command to make it work

$ sudo source ~/.bashrc

Now, you have successfully did setup the Environment Variables, Use the below command to check whether its setup is done properly or not.

$ echo $JAVA_HOME
/opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/java

$ echo $JRE_HOME
/opt/jdk1.8.0_66/bin/jar

Now its showing new Environment Variables. Please stay tune with us…Good Luck.

About Magesh Maruthamuthu

Love to play with all Linux distribution

View all posts by Magesh Maruthamuthu →

28 Comments on “Install JAVA (Oracle JAVA & openJDK) via JAVA Alternatives Method”

Lucas says:

July 28, 2016 at 1:10 am

en el cuarto paso, no me encuentra la ruta alternativa opt/jdk1.8….dice que no existe.

Reply
Dickson Kemboi says:

April 14, 2016 at 6:45 pm

Much thanks, quite elaborative, just enabled me put it on Chapeau Linux. I am happy, thanks

Reply
1. 2daygeek says:
  
  April 14, 2016 at 7:09 pm
  
  Kemboi,
  Welcome.
  
  Reply
posicionamiento web google palabras clave says:

December 30, 2015 at 5:28 am

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Reply
Dinika says:

September 28, 2015 at 1:51 am

This is an amazing guide. It really did help a lot. Thanks so much!
I was stuck at step 4, but then I used the following command to uncompress my tar files in /opt/ (of course I googled it!):
sudo tar -zxvf jdk-8u20-linux-x64.tar.gz -C /opt/

Reply
zero nthondowa says:

January 27, 2015 at 2:57 am

Follow the steps and you will be Celebrating!!!

Reply
2daygeek says:

November 19, 2014 at 10:15 am

@CV ,
Glad to hear.

Reply
CV says:

November 19, 2014 at 3:34 am

Great post, thanks! though, for 32bit systems you have to use the 32 bit package, obviously

Reply
2daygeek says:

November 18, 2014 at 10:05 am

@Francisco,

Its a file path. Also read the below article for further clarification.
https://www.2daygeek.com/how-to-setup-java-environment-variable-in-linux/

Reply
Francisco says:

November 18, 2014 at 5:08 am

Excelent work!

But I have a dude:

the JAVA_HOME and JRE_HOME variables, are there paths to a directory?
export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk1.8.0_20/bin
export JRE_HOME=/opt/jdk1.8.0_20/bin

or are there paths to a file?
export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk1.8.0_20/bin/java
export JRE_HOME=/opt/jdk1.8.0_20/bin/jar

regards

Reply
2daygeek says:

November 2, 2014 at 12:45 pm

@Alex,
Welcome

Reply
Alex says:

November 1, 2014 at 7:45 pm

Great tutorial, very easy to follow and just the right amount of explanation. Thank you.

Reply
2daygeek says:

October 13, 2014 at 9:58 am

@Dana Tontea,

Welcome.

Reply
Dana Tontea says:

October 12, 2014 at 3:08 pm

great tutorial! thanks

Reply
2daygeek says:

September 29, 2014 at 10:32 am

@tiomte ,

For manual software installing, i advise you to download and extract the software package to /opt or /usr/local/src
directory.

In step-4 first part is java global location so you need to put the same like below.
sudo update-alternatives –install /usr/bin/java java (second part – you need mention your new java directory where you extracted the java on your system)

Reply
tiomte says:

September 29, 2014 at 12:42 am

how can i find my path in step 4?

Reply
2daygeek says:

September 5, 2014 at 10:32 am

@Lawrence (MrLordLaw),

You are most welcome.

Reply
Lawrence (MrLordLaw) says:

September 4, 2014 at 11:29 pm

It takes time for me because i downloaded it at /home/lordlaw
I’ve been stuck at step 4 or the installing process -_- HAHA but it’s okay I googled it and copy the files to /opt but it’s not that easy because i need to log in in terminal as the root 🙂 and that’s why I’m very thankful to google!!! ^_^
And ofcourse for this Guide Thank you so much!! muwah!!! love you! xD
I’m just very happy! thank you for the easy guideliness!

God Bless you! :))

Reply
2daygeek says:

August 28, 2014 at 10:36 am

@DC Mishra,

I have slightly modified the command and its start downloading now, pls use below command and let me know.

# wget –no-cookies –no-check-certificate –header “Cookie: gpw_e24=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oracle.com%2F; oraclelicense=accept-securebackup-cookie” “http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u20-b26/jdk-8u20-linux-i586.tar.gz”

Reply
1. D C Mishra says:
  
  August 28, 2014 at 9:33 pm
  
  Your modified command is not working too-
  wget –no-cookies –no-check-certificate –header “Cookie: gpw_e24=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oracle.com%2F; oraclelicense=accept-securebackup-cookie” “http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u20-b26/jdk-8u20-linux-i586.tar.gz”–2014-08-28 21:26:58– http://xn--no-cookies-nu6e/
  Resolving –no-cookies (xn--no-cookies-nu6e)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--no-cookies-nu6e’
  –2014-08-28 21:27:03– http://xn--no-cookies-nu6e/
  Resolving –no-cookies (xn--no-cookies-nu6e)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--no-cookies-nu6e’
  –2014-08-28 21:27:03– http://xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l/
  Resolving –no-check-certificate (xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l’
  –2014-08-28 21:27:03– http://xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l/
  Resolving –no-check-certificate (xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l’
  –2014-08-28 21:27:03– http://xn--header-vg0c/
  Resolving –header (xn--header-vg0c)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--header-vg0c’
  –2014-08-28 21:27:03– http://xn--header-vg0c/
  Resolving –header (xn--header-vg0c)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--header-vg0c’
  –2014-08-28 21:27:03– ftp://xn--cookie-oi0c/
  => ‘.listing’
  Resolving “cookie (xn--cookie-oi0c)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--cookie-oi0c’
  –2014-08-28 21:27:04– ftp://xn--cookie-oi0c/
  => ‘.listing’
  Resolving “cookie (xn--cookie-oi0c)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--cookie-oi0c’
  –2014-08-28 21:27:04– http://[gpw_e24=http://www.oracle.com/%5D/
  Resolving gpw_e24=http://www.oracle.com/ (gpw_e24=http://www.oracle.com/)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘gpw_e24=http://www.oracle.com/’
  bash: “http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u20-b26/jdk-8u20-linux-i586.tar.gz”: No such file or directory
  Please, look into again.
  
  Reply
  1. 2daygeek says:
    
    August 29, 2014 at 12:56 pm
    
    It’s working for me. Then better visit oracle website and download the 32-bit package and follow the same steps to do that
    
    Reply
2daygeek says:

August 27, 2014 at 10:39 am

@D C Mishra,

Use the below command to download the 32-bit package and Follow the same steps.

# sudo wget –no-cookies –no-check-certificate –header “Cookie: gpw_e24=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oracle.com%2F; oraclelicense=accept-securebackup-cookie” “http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u20-b26/jdk-8u20-linux-i586.tar.gz”

If you face any trouble let me know to check further.

Reply
1. D C Mishra says:
  
  August 27, 2014 at 9:15 pm
  
  I got the following after your suggested command
  
  -2014-08-27 21:07:54– http://xn--no-cookies-nu6e/
  Resolving –no-cookies (xn--no-cookies-nu6e)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--no-cookies-nu6e’
  –2014-08-27 21:07:54– http://xn--no-cookies-nu6e/
  Resolving –no-cookies (xn--no-cookies-nu6e)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--no-cookies-nu6e’
  –2014-08-27 21:07:54– http://xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l/
  Resolving –no-check-certificate (xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l’
  –2014-08-27 21:07:54– http://xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l/
  Resolving –no-check-certificate (xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--no-check-certificate-2t2l’
  –2014-08-27 21:07:54– http://xn--header-vg0c/
  Resolving –header (xn--header-vg0c)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--header-vg0c’
  –2014-08-27 21:07:54– http://xn--header-vg0c/
  Resolving –header (xn--header-vg0c)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--header-vg0c’
  –2014-08-27 21:07:55– ftp://xn--cookie-oi0c/
  => ‘.listing’
  Resolving “cookie (xn--cookie-oi0c)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--cookie-oi0c’
  –2014-08-27 21:07:55– ftp://xn--cookie-oi0c/
  => ‘.listing’
  Resolving “cookie (xn--cookie-oi0c)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘xn--cookie-oi0c’
  –2014-08-27 21:07:55– http://[gpw_e24=http://www.oracle.com/%5D/
  Resolving gpw_e24=http://www.oracle.com/ (gpw_e24=http://www.oracle.com/)… failed: Name or service not known.
  wget: unable to resolve host address ‘gpw_e24=http://www.oracle.com/’
  bash: “http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u20-b26/jdk-8u20-linux-i586.tar.gz”: No such file or directory
  
  Please look into this
  
  Reply
2daygeek says:

August 26, 2014 at 2:01 pm

@Rick Disheroon,

Nice to here.

Reply
1. D C Mishra says:
  
  August 26, 2014 at 11:17 pm
  
  Please, explain how to install oracle java 8 on Ubuntu 14.04. on a 32 bit system
  
  Reply
Rick Disheroon says:

August 26, 2014 at 1:07 pm

Thank you! I am a Noob. Win? No prob, Linux? Noob. I almost didn’t catch that you chdir to . . / opt $
I was d/l’ing away at about 85% complete when I noticed it. Haha, I thought OMG! 😉
That was perfect. Worked perfect, even for me. Thank you so much. I owe you!!

Reply
2daygeek says:

August 25, 2014 at 10:06 am

@ arcaos,

You are most welcome.

Reply
arcaos says:

August 24, 2014 at 4:28 am

Excelent tutuorial, worked perfectly and now I can run Android Studio just fine.

Thx a lot.

Reply