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System Requirements

Prior to installing the Java 2 Runtime Environment, you should insure that you have installed the full set of required patches needed for support of this release. Recommended and required patches are now hosted for download on the SunSolve website at http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/show.pl?target=patches/J2SE.

See also Solaris Font Package Requirements for information about which font packages should be on your system.

Installation Instructions

At the end of this file, see also

Java Plug-in product installation instructions
Java Web Start product installation instructions

64-bit support for the Java 2 Runtime Environment is available for SPARC processor platforms in a separate download. Installation instructions for 64-bit support are in a separate document.

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. Make sure that execute permissions are set on the self-extracting binary:

On SPARC processors:
chmod +x j2re-1_4_1-solaris-sparc.sh

On x86 processors:
chmod +x j2re-1_4_1-solaris-i586.sh

3. Change directory to the location where you would like the files to be installed.

4. Run the self-extracting binary.

A directory called j2re1.4.1 will be created in the current directory.

System preferences -- By default, the installation script configures the system such that the backing store for system preferences is created inside the Java 2 SDK's installation directory. If the SDK is installed on a network-mounted drive, it and the system preferences can be exported for sharing with Java runtime environments on other machines. As an alternative, root users can use the -localinstall option when running the installation script, as in this example:

j2re-1_4_1-solaris-i586.sh -localinstall

This option causes the system preferences to be stored in the /etc directory from where they can be shared only by VMs running on the local machine. You must be root user for the -localinstall option to work.

See the preferences API documentation at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/docs/guide/lang/preferences.html for more information about preferences in the Java platform.

Java Plug-in Installation Instructions

See Java Plug-in Installation Instructions in the Installation Notes for Java2 SDK, Standard Edition.

Java RE 1.4.1 includes the Java Web Start product. In the top-level directory you will find a ZIP file named javaws-1_2-solaris-sparc-i.zip on SPARC platforms and javaws-1_2-solaris-i586-i.zip on x86 platforms. Move this file to a location where you want to install the Java Web Start product (preferably outside the Java RE installation). Unzip the file. One of the files extracted will be install.sh. Run this script to install the Java Web Start product.

jre/lib/sparc/client/libjvm.so (on SPARC processors)
jre/lib/i386/client/libjvm.so (on x86 processors)

jre/lib/sparc/server/libjvm.so (on SPARC processors)
jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so (on x86 processors)