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System Requirements

Check your version of glibc using the following command:

ls /lib/libc-*

You should have about 75 megabytes of free disk space before attempting to install the Java 2 SDK software. If you also install the separate documentation download bundle, you need an additional 125 megabytes of free disk space.

The officially supported Linux platform for J2SDK 1.3.1 is Red Hat Linux 6.2, and most testing of J2SDK 1.3.1 for Linux has been conducted on that operating system. However, J2SDK 1.3.1 has undergone limited testing on other Linux operating systems. The following table shows the Linux platforms, by locale, on which Sun has tested this release to at least a limited extent. See below for information about Known Problems on various Linux operating systems.

Locale	Linux platform tested
English	Red Hat Linux 6.1 Red Hat Linux 6.2 Red Hat Linux 7.1 Caldera OpenLinux 2.4 Mandrake Linux 7.1 Turbo Linux Workstation 6.0 SuSe Linux 6.4
German	Red Hat Linux 6.2
Japanese	Red Hat Linux 6.2J Red Hat Linux 6.2J Second Edition
Simplified Chinese	Turbo Linux Workstation 6.0

Known Problems
Red Hat Linux 6.2 is the officially supported Linux platform for J2SDK 1.3.1. Limited testing has been done on other Linux operating systems, and the following are known problems on the non-supported platforms.

• If you use Red Hat Linux 7, we recommend version 7.1 rather than 7.0. Limited testing has revealed problems when using J2SDK with Red Hat Linux 7.0, some of which are described below.

• The newer glibc-2.2.x libraries cannot correctly handle initial thread stack sizes larger than 6 MB. This can cause a segmentation fault on come Linux platforms that use the newer libraries. Such platforms include Red Hat 7.0, SuSe 7.2, and Debian 2.2. The problem will not occur on Linux platforms that are using glibc-2.1.x such as Red Hat 6.1 and 6.2. It will also not affect Red Hat 7.1 because it uses a different thread stack layout. This problem is being tracked as bug 4466587.

  Workaround - Use "ulimit -s 2048" in bash shell or "limit stacksize 2048" in tcsh to limit the initial thread stack to 2 MB.

• When System.exit(int) is invoked on Red Hat 7.0, the program never exits with a non-zero value. This problem is apparently due to a bug in the exit function in libc.so library. To avoid this problem, use the supported Red Hat release, version 6.2, or, if you want to use Red Hat 7, use version 7.1 rather than 7.0.

• On Red Hat Linux 7.0, if you want to use the Classic VM rather than one of the Java HotSpot VMs in J2SDK 1.3.1, you must download and install glibc-2.2-9.i386.rpm file available at http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHBA-2000-079.html. Do not install the i686 files available on that same web page, as those will prevent proper functioning of the Java HotSpot VMs in J2SDK 1.3.1.

• If you use Red Hat Linux 7 Server, you must manually install compat-libstdc++-6.21-2.9.0.0.i386.rpm to prevent "error while loading shared libraries" when using the Java HotSpot VMs. This file is located in the /RedHat/RPMS directory on the Red Hat Linux 7 CD-ROM. You may also obtain a copy of this file from http://rpmfind.net. To install the file, use this command:

  rpm --install compat-libstdc++-6.21-2.9.0.0.i386.rpm
  

  It is not necessary to manually install compat-libstdc++-6.21-2.9.0.0.i386.rpm if you are using Red Hat Linux 7 Workstation.

• When using Red Hat Linux versions other than 6.1, the font.properties file may fail to display some Symbol/Dingbats characters properly on some AWT components. To correct this, use this revised font.properties file to replace the one at <JAVA_HOME>/jre/lib/.

• Caldera OpenLinux uses version 2.1.2-3 of glibc. Because that version is not greater than or equal to 2.1.2-11, the Java 2 SDK's rpm installer will fail during its dependency check. We recommend that you obtain an updated version of the glibc library available from Caldera at the following locations:

  ftp.caldera.com:/pub/updates/eDesktop/2.4/current/RPMS
  

  or

  ftp.caldera.com:/pub/updates/eServer/2.3/current/RPMS
  

Installation Instructions

Note: For any lines on this page containing the following notation, you must substitute the appropriate update version number for the notation.

       <version number>

For example, if you are downloading update 1.3.1_01, the following command:

      ./j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux.bin

would become:

      ./j2sdk-1_3_1_01-linux.bin

• A self-extracting binary file named j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux-i386.bin which can be used to install the Java 2 SDK in any location you choose. If you are using this file, see Self-Extracting Binary.

• The file j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux-i386-rpm.bin containing RPM packages comprising the Java 2 SDK. If you are using this bundle, see Installation of RPM File.

The Java 2 SDK includes the Java Plug-in. See Installation of Java Plug-in.

Use the following instructions if you want to use the self-extracting binary file to install the Java 2 SDK. If you want to install RPM packages instead, see Installation of RPM File.

1. Check the download file size.

Before you download a file, notice that its byte size is provided on the download page. Once the download has completed, check that you have downloaded the full, uncorrupted software file.

2. Copy j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux-i386.bin to the directory into which you want to install the Java 2 SDK.

3. Run j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux-i386.bin

Launch the executable file you downloaded, j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux-i386.bin, by using the following commands from the directory in which it is located:

chmod a+x j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux-i386.bin

./j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux-i386.bin

The script will display a binary license agreement, which you will be asked to agree to before installation can proceed. Once you have agreed to the license, the install script will install the Java 2 SDK in a directory named jdk1.3.1_<version number> in the current directory.

Note about root access - Unbundling the software automatically creates a directory called jdk1.3.1_<version number>. If you choose to install the Java 2 SDK into system-wide location such as /usr/local, you must first become root to gain the necessary permissions. If you do not have root access, simply install the Java 2 SDK into your home directory, or a subdirectory that you have permission to write to.

Note about overwriting files - If you unpack the software or documentation in a directory that contains a subdirectory named jdk1.3.1_<version number>, the new software will overwrite files of the same name in that jdk1.3.1_<version number> directory. Be careful to rename the old directory if it contains files you would like to keep.

Installation of RPM File

Use these instructions if you want to install Java 2 SDK in the form of RPM packages. If you want to use the self-extracting binary file instead, see Self-Extracting Binary.

1. Check the download file size.

Before you download a file, notice that its byte size is provided on the download page. Once the download has completed, check that you have downloaded the full, uncorrupted software file.

2. Run j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux-i386-rpm.bin and agree to the license it displays.

Launch the executable file you downloaded, j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux-i386-rpm.bin, by using the following commands from the directory in which it is located:

chmod a+x j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux-i386-rpm.bin

./j2sdk-1_3_1_<version number>-linux-i386-rpm.bin

The script will display a binary license agreement, which you will be asked to agree to before installation can proceed. Once you have agreed to the license, the install script will create the file j2sdk-1.3.1_<version number>-linux-i386.rpm
the file jdk-1.3.1.i386.rpm ??? in the current directory.

3. Become root by running the su command and entering the super-user password.

4. Run the rpm command to install the packages:

rpm -iv j2sdk-1.3.1_<version number>-linux-i386.rpm


rpm -iv jdk-1.3.1.i386.rpm ???

This will install the Java 2 SDK at /usr/java/jdk1.3.1. You should include /usr/java/jdk1.3.1/bin in the setting of your PATH environment variable, and remove from your PATH paths to old, previously installed Java 2 SDK versions.

5. Exit the root shell.

To install the Java Plug-in follow these steps.

1. Uninstall previous installation of the Java Plug-in, if applicable.

rm -fr $HOME/.netscape/java
rm $HOME/.netscape/plugins/javaplugin.so

2. Set the NPX_PLUGIN_PATH environment variable to the directory containing the javaplugin.so file.

This file is located inside the Java 2 SDK in the jre/plugin/i386/ns4 directory.

export NPX_PLUGIN_PATH=<jre>/plugin/i386/ns4

Here, <jre> is the path to the jre directory inside the Java 2 SDK installation.

3. For Netscape 6 browsers: Create a symbolic link in the Netscape plugins directory

If (and only if) you are using Netscape 6, you will need to create a symbolic link in the Netscape plugins directory to the path of the libjavaplugin_oji.so file. This file is located within the Java 2 SDK at jre/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so.

cd ${NETSCAPE6}/plugins
ln -s ${JRE}/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so .

4. For all Netscape browsers: Start your Netscape browser, or restart it if it is already up.

5. For all Netscape browsers: Restart your browser a second time.

Restarting the browser a second time is necessary because of bug 4358142.