Replacing the OpenJDK with the Oracle JDK

Question

I've had the archive file for Oracle's JDK for some time and have been running java applications through ~/Downloads/jdk1.7.0/bin/java -jar <jarfile> for some time, but I'm wondering if there's an actual way to "install" the JDK without running through the fiasco with apt-get that I ran into with a previous installation. Also, can I point IcedTea's Applet launcher to the Oracle VM vs the OpenJDK one?

Answer 1

Follow these instructions to add the source to your repositories.

In a terminal run:

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install update-sun-jre
• sudo update-alternatives --config firefox-javaplugin.so and select the one that's in /opt (This enables Sun Java in Firefox)

With this package you don't have to worry about constantly checking for updates. The maintainer takes good care to keep it current for you. It also adds all the update-alternatives links for you, so it's a lot less work than the above comment on your question.