Java doesn't work

Question

I was writing a program on my laptop to run on my server in Java. However, my laptop has Java 7 running, my server Java 6. This messed up. I tried to upgrade my server by installing openjdk-7-jre and openjdk-7-jdk packages. This didn't work.

So I followed a guide helping me removing all java associated files and then re-install the needed packages. Something went wrong here. I installed all the available java 7 packages and now I cannot use the java command anymore. I probably screwed up, does anyone knows how to fix it? I tested it with both the 7 and 6 install, nothing works anymore.

Answer 1

I'm using ubuntu server 11.10, how to fix broken packages? (from the comments)

On the command line type:

sudo apt-get -f install

And you can also use this:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

And as written here:

If the problem of a broken package still exist the solution is to edit the dpkg status file manually.

$ sudo nano /var/lib/dpkg/status (you can also use vi instead of nano)

Locate the corrupt package, and remove the whole block of information about it and save the file.

It will fix the problem of broken packages.

Answer 2

Ubuntu fix broken package http://www.iasptk.com/ubuntu-fix-broken-package-best-solution

Answer 3

After trying:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

and

sudo apt-get install -f

the problem of a broken package still exist.

The solution is to edit the dpkg status file manually:

$ sudo nano /var/lib/dpkg/status

Locate the corrupt package, and remove the whole block of information about it and save the file.

Answer 4

Here explains how to install Oracle Java 7 packages on 12.04.
The step #6 might solve the problem.