Print-friendly Version

Installation Notes Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition Version 1.4.0 Linux

System Requirements

To print on Linux, the /usr/sbin/lpc utility must be installed. This is a standard Linux utility. On RedHat 7.1, for example, this utility is in the "LPRng-3.7.4-22 RPM" package.

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.

Red Hat versions 7.1 and 6.2 are the officially supported platforms. Most testing of J2SDK 1.4.0 for Linux has been conducted on Red Hat 7.1 with the sawfish window manager and Red Hat 6.2 with the Gnome desktop, and these are the officially supported platforms. However, J2SDK 1.4.0 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.

Limited testing has been performed on these Linux platforms:

Locale	Linux platform
English	TurboLinux 6.5; kernel 2.2.18; glibc 2.1.x Caldera 3.1; kernel 2.4.2; glibc 2.2.1 Cobalt; kernel 2.3; glibc 2.2.14 SuSE 7.1; kernel 2.4; glibc 2.2
German	Red Hat Linux 6.2
Japanese	Red Hat Linux 6.2J Red Hat Linux 6.2J Second Edition Red Hat Linux 7J
Simplified Chinese	Turbo Linux Workstation 6.0

Known Problems
Red Hat Linux 6.2 and 7.1 are the officially supported platforms for J2DK 1.4.0, though limited testing has been performed on other operating systems. The following are known problems on the non-supported platforms.

• Behavior in comformance with the API specification is not guaranteed while running as superuser on any version of Linux whose kernel was compiled with the CONFIG_IP_TRANSPARENT_PROXY option. The default kernel shipped with the RedHat 6.2 distribution is compiled with this option. To avoid incompatibilities associated with this problem, either do not use the Java platform while superuser or else upgrade to a Linux operating system whose kernel was not compiled with the CONFIG_IP_TRANSPARENT_PROXY option. Red Hat 7.1 ships with the version 2.4 kernel which does not have this problem.

• If you use Red Hat Linux 7, we recommend version 7.1 rather than 7.0.

• 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 Red Hat 6.2 or Red Hat 7.1 rather than 7.0.

• If you use RedHat 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 RedHat 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 RedHat Linux 7 Workstation.

• 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 fails 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 Java 2 SDK update version number for the notation.

 <version number>

For example, if you are downloading update 1.4.0_01, the following command:

./j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586.bin

would become:

./j2sdk-1_4_0_01-linux-i586.bin

• A self-extracting binary file named j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586.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 j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586-rpm.bin file 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 and Java Web Start products. See Java Plug-in Installation Instructions and Java Web Start Installation Instructions.

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_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586.bin to the directory into which you want to install the Java 2 SDK.

3. Run j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586.bin

Launch the executable file you downloaded, j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586.bin, by using the following commands from the directory in which the file is located:

chmod a+x j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586.bin

./j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586.bin

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 installs the Java 2 SDK in a directory named j2sdk1.4.0_<version number> in the current directory.

Note about root access - Unbundling the software automatically creates a directory called j2sdk1.4.0_<version number>. Note that 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 in a directory that contains a subdirectory named j2sdk1.4.0_<version number>, the new software will overwrite files of the same name in that j2sdk1.4.0_<version number> directory. Please 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_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586-rpm.bin and agree to the license it displays.

Launch the executable file you downloaded, j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586-rpm.bin, by using the following commands from the directory in which it is located:

chmod a+x j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586-rpm.bin

./j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586-rpm.bin

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 the file j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586.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 Java 2 SDK packages:

rpm -iv j2sdk-1_4_0_<version number>-linux-i586.rpm

This installs the packages comprising the Java 2 SDK.

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
rm $HOME/.netscape/plugins/libjavaplugin.so

One or more of these files may not exist on your machine, depending on which previous versions of Java Plug-in you have installed.

2. For Netscape 4.x browsers: 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. This step is not necessary if you use only Netscape 6.x browsers.

3. For Netscape 6.x browsers: Use the regxpcom tool provided by Netscape to register Java Plug-in 1.4.

 

Before you run regxpcom, as described below, first shut down the browser. setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH <Netscape 6>:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH If you do not add Netscape to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH you are likely get an error when you run regxpcom. The message will say that Open failed: No such file or directory.

If and only if you are using Netscape 6.x browsers, you will need to use regxpcom provided by Netscape to register the libjavaplugin_oji140.so file. In the package installation of J2SDK 1.4.0, copies of this file are located at /usr/j2se/jre/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji140.so and /usr/j2se/jre/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji140.so. For example:

cd ${NETSCAPE6}/bin

If you use a Netscape 6.0x browser:

regxpcom ${JRE}/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji140.so

If you use a Netscape 6.1x browser:

regxpcom ${JRE}/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji140.so

After running the regxpcom command you should get a message saying that registration was successful for <jre>/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji140.so

If regxpcom does not register the Java Plug-in successfully—i.e., you get a registration-failed message or a core dump—try creating a link to the Java
Plug-in libjavaplugin.so file in the Netscape 6 plugins directory.

cd <Netscape 6>/plugins
ln -s <JRE>/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji140.so .

Be sure to include the period at the end.

Note: Only one Java Plug-in can be registered at a time. When you want to use a different version, unregister the one you have and register the new version.

regxpcom -u <absolute path to Java Plug-in libjavaplugin.so file>

Example:

regxpcom -u ${JRE}/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji140.so
regxpcom ${JRE}/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji141.so

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

In Netscape do Help -> About Plug-ins to confirm that the Java Plug-in is loaded.

J2SDK 1.4.0 includes the Java Web Start product. Inside the J2SDK's jre directory you will find a ZIP file named javaws-1_0_1_02-linux-int.zip. Move this file to a location where you want to install the Java Web Start product (preferably outside the Java 2 SDK installation). Unzip the file. One of the files extracted will be install.sh. Run this script to install the Java WebStart product.