Installing Oracle JDK on Debian or Ubuntu Systems

Steps for installing Oracle Java on Debian-based systems.

Configure your operating system to use the latest version of Oracle Java SE Runtime Environment 8 or OpenJDK 7.

Note: After installing the JDK, you may need to set JAVA_HOME to your profile:

For shell or bash: export JAVA_HOME=path_to_java_home

For csh (C shell): setenv JAVA_HOME=path_to_java_home

The Oracle Java Platform, Standard Edition (JDK has been removed from the official software repositories of Ubuntu and only provides a binary (.bin) version. You can get the JDK from the Java SE Downloads.

Procedure

  1. Check which version of the JDK your system is using:
    $ java -version

    If Oracle Java is used, the results should look like:

    java version "1.8.0_65"
    Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_65-b17)
    Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.65-b01, mixed mode)
  2. If necessary, go to Oracle Java SE Downloads, accept the license agreement, and download the installer for your distribution.
    Note: If installing the Oracle JDK in a cloud environment, accept the license agreement, download the installer to your local client, and then use scp (secure copy) to transfer the file to your cloud machines.
  3. Make a directory for the JDK:
    $ sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/jvm
  4. Unpack the tarball and install the JDK:
    $ sudo tar zxvf jdk-8u65-linux-x64.tar.gz -C /usr/lib/jvm

    The JDK files are installed into a directory called /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-8u_version.

  5. Tell the system that there's a new Java version available:
    $ sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0_version/bin/java" 1

    If updating from a previous version that was removed manually, execute the above command twice, because you'll get an error message the first time.

  6. Set the new JDK as the default:
    $ sudo update-alternatives --set java /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0_version/bin/java
  7. Make sure your system is now using the correct JDK. For example:
    $ java -version
    java version "1.8.0_65"
    Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_65-b17)
    Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.65-b01, mixed mode)