Installation Notes for Solaris

Contents

System Requirements
Java 2 Runtime Environment Installation Instructions
Java Plug-in Browser Registration Instructions
Java Web Start Installation Notes

System Requirements

Note that for x86 processors, display color depth should be set to 16 bit or higher.

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

See also Solaris Font Package Requirements (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/font-requirements.html) for information about which font packages should be on your system.

Java 2 Runtime Environment Installation Instructions

Note that Java Plug-in and Java Web Start are automatically installed with the JRE, but Java Plug-in needs to be registered with the browser. Instructions for doing so can be found below at Java Plug-in Browser Registration 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.

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

      <version>

For example, if you are downloading update 1.4.2_01, the following command:

      chmod +x j2re-1_4_2_<version>-solaris-sparc.sh

would become:

      chmod +x j2re-1_4_2_01-solaris-sparc.sh

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1. Check the download file size

You can download to any directory you choose; it does not have to be the directory where you want to install the J2RE.

Before you download the file, notice its byte size provided on the download page on the web site. Once the download has completed, compare that file size to the size of the downloaded file to make sure they are equal.

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

On SPARC processors:
chmod +x j2re-1_4_2_<version>-solaris-sparc.sh

On x86 processors:
chmod +x j2re-1_4_2_<version>-solaris-i586.sh

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

The next step installs the J2RE into the current directory.

Execute the downloaded file, prepending the path to it. For example, if the downloaded file is in the current directory, prepend it with "./":

On SPARC processors:
./j2re-1_4_2_<version>-solaris-sparc.sh

On x86 processors:
./j2re-1_4_2_<version>-solaris-i586.sh

The binary code license is displayed, and you are prompted to agree to its terms.

The J2RE files are installed in a directory called j2re1.4.2_<version> in the current directory.

Note about System Preferences - By default, the installation script configures the system such that the backing store for system preferences is created inside the J2RE's installation directory. If the J2RE 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_2_<version>-solaris-i586.sh -localinstall

See the a Preferences API (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/lang/preferences.html) documentation for more information about preferences in the Java platform.

Java Plug-in Browser Registration Instructions

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

This JRE release includes Java Web Start; Java Web Start is installed automatically with the JRE. But note the following:

• Compatibility: The release of Java Web Start that comes with this SDK/JRE can be run on SDK/JRE 1.2.2 or later. It will not work with SDK/JRE 1.1.x or earlier.
• Upgrading from Previous Versions: This new release will overwrite previous installations and automatically update browsers to use this new release. The configuration files and program files folder used by Java Web Start have changed, but all your settings will remain intact after the upgrade, since Java Web Start will translate your settings to the new form.
• Using Java Web Start with Netscape 6.x/7.x: For Netscape 6.x/7.x users, setup the Java Web Start MIME type (JNLP) in the Edit->Preferences->Navigator->Helper Applications section. The file extension is jnlp; MIME Type is application/x-java-jnlp-file. It should be handled by the javaws executable file in your Java Web Start directory. Also note that, due to a problem with the JavaScript in Netscape 6.x/7.x, you must use the non-JavaScript version of the demos page
• pkgadd utility use: If you use the pkgadd utility to install the Solaris packages for Java 2 SDK/JRE 1.4.2, a symbolic link for ../j2se/jre/javaws/javaws will be created in /usr/bin.

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Note About Location of Java VM Library Files: If you want to use the Invocation API (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/jni/spec/invocation.html) to launch an application directly rather than using the Java application launcher, please see Location of VM Library Files (libjvm.so).

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