Although some may dislike my use of default Kubuntu directories for Java rather than /usr/local, Kubuntu has Sun Java 5 (not sure which specific minor version) in its repositories. I wanted to share how to update such to the latest version. If you already have installed the default Sun binaries on Kubuntu, then the links are already around for you to update to the latest Java version. If you have not installed Kubuntu's default Sun Java, you can do so in the command line by: sudo apt-get install sun-java5-jdk Thereby, to update my Java to the current version, I download the Linux tar from Sun's website and untar it (using Kubuntu's graphical utilities) to my Desktop. Thereby, as root I move the file as follows: sudo mv Desktop/someSunJavaVersionFolder /usr/lib/jvm Next, we need to let Kubuntu change to the right version to use. First, go into the /usr/lib/jvm folder and create a symbolic link to the current version: cd /usr/lib/jvm; ln -sf ./someSunJavaVersion java-6-sun Now you are ready to tell Kubuntu to use the current version. Kubuntu stores symbolic links to some programs so that it can change between different versions easily without having to reinstall everything. Thereby, in /etc/alternatives we can find all the programs Kubuntu is currently set to use. To update these links, you can do so by hand, but there is a utility to do it for you called update-alternatives . The following will do the trick to change to the current version by asking you what you want to use for Java. sudo update-alternatives --config java You can also update many of the other Java tools and symbolic links, listed below jar javac javap jconsole jinfo.1.gz jsadebugd.1.gz jstatd.1.gz jar.1.gz javac.1.gz javap.1.gz jconsole.1.gz jmap jstack jarsigner javadoc java-rmi.cgi jcontrol jmap.1.gz jstack.1.gz jarsigner.1.gz javadoc.1.gz java_vm jdb jps jstat java javah javaws jdb.1.gz jps.1.gz jstat.1.gz java.1.gz javah.1.gz javaws.1.gz jinfo jsadebugd jstatd Just use the same command above: sudo update-alternatives --config [SOME JAVA LINK] on each tool or symbolic link you want to update. Lastly, if you never installed the default Kubuntu Java 5 from its repositories, then you could just place the correct files in the right place, and create all the links listed by yourself in /etc/alternatives . I hope update-alternatives will work likewise without the default install, but I haven't tested that. -Maulik Mistry -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/
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