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Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and Java

Summary: I just made a mildly unpleasant discovery about Ubuntu Lucid Beta 2. It's late (or early, depending on how you look at it), I'm tired, and I'm not sure that this actually affects many people.

J.A. Watson

By for Jamie's Mostly Linux Stuff |

I just made a mildly unpleasant discovery about Ubuntu Lucid Beta 2. It's late (or early, depending on how you look at it), I'm tired, and I'm not sure that this actually affects many people. So I am going to make a very brief mention of the problem here. If you are affected by this, and need more information that I am giving, feel free to ask.

sun-java6 is no longer in the standard repositories. Installing ubuntu-restricted-extras will get you openjdk6 and icedtea, NOT Sun java6. There are still some significant applications, especially at the corporate security level, which do not work with openjdk and/or icedtea. To get around this problem, you have to remove openjdk and icedtea, and install sun-java6 from the "partner" repository.

jw

Topic: Linux

About

I started working with what we called "analog computers" in aircraft maintenance with the United States Air Force in 1970. After finishing military service and returning to university, I was introduced to microprocessors and machine language programming on Intel 4040 processors. After that I also worked on, operated and programmed Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-8, PDP-11 (/45 and /70) and VAX minicomputers. I was involved with the first wave of Unix-based microcomputers, in the early '80s. I have been working in software development, operation, installation and support since then.

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12 comments
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  • One of the reasons I switched a lab of 25 machines from CentOS to Ubuntu was because Sun Java was the default and the SDK was in the repositories. Not too big of a deal though, now I just need to enable another repository, remove and install the correct packages. *SIGH*
    inetken
    Reply Vote
  • I ran into a similar issue yesterday when I installed Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Beta 2. However, the default install didn't give me either OpenJDK or IcedTea. To get Java, I had to enable the partner repositories (I did it via Synaptic Package Manager just because I'm lazy), Sun Java6 then showed up, I installed it, and that was it. I didn't have to set any alternatives because that was the only Java install on the system.
    cschuck
    Reply Vote
  • Yes, beta 2 blew me out of the water as well, My Gateway netbook worked fine on beta 1. However, the ATI driver in Beta 2 made scrambled eggs of my display. Need to update to the open source ATI driver tonight.
    makitso
    Reply Vote
  • I see how this will affect serious Java users. However, from the open source advancement standpoint this is a sound decision. And if it still leaves the final choice to users, it's alrighty by me.

    OpenJDK is in a mostly useable state, exposing it to a wider audience to get some final bugs fixed is sensible. At least Canonical is wise enough to not push it for ideological reasons and didn't do it too prematurely. Remember, Lucid is an LTS, so going with OpenJDK might make long term support easier than with a proprietary Sun Java.
    1000030281
    Reply Vote
  • I wonder if this why I have a problem using FF3.6? I cannot get java installed ans some apts do not work. I had read that one had to update java, PRIOR to updating to FF3.6 or you could not add java6. I do not know if I have openJDK installed.
    May1864
    Reply Vote
  • I am not sure but you have to install it via Synaptic Package Manager or from repo,
    sat_02
    Reply Vote
  • Gosh, I really didn't think when I wrote this that it would be of interest to anyone, anyway. Thanks to all of the above for reading and commenting, and I'm glad I could bring up something that might help a few people.

    @inetken: one of the reasons I tend to install and use Linux Mint more often than Ubuntu is that not only is Sun Java the default in the repository, it is pre-installed in the base system. I hope it stays that way with the Mint 9 distribution that will be based on Ubuntu 10.04.

    @GhostRaven: I don't recall for sure if openjdk/icedtea was installed by default, of if it came in when I installed "ubuntu-restricted-extras", which I always do as one of the first steps after completing a fresh installation. From what you say, perhaps it was the latter.

    @makitso: I didn't have any problem with the ATI driver on my HP dv2-1010ez, which has an ATI Mobility Radeon 3410. It sounds like other ATI adapters might not be so fortunate.

    @1000030281: I don't agree, particularly in the case of Ubuntu. You state the reason in your comment - "OpenJDK is in a mostly useable state". Mostly useable is simply not good enough. Particularly in this case, because the "problem" with the very commonly used Juniper Networks client has been known for quite a long time, and this client is very commonly used in corporate environments. The result will give Ubuntu an unnecessary black eye. I hope that they reconsider before the final 10.04 release, but I suspect that it is too late in the development cycle for that. The fact that it is an LTS release makes it even worse, in my opinion.

    @ChiefH: Make sure that openjdk is not installed - you probably know this, but just in case you can try about:plugins in FF3.6 to see what version, if any, is installed. If openjdk is installed, you have to either remove it or change the "alternatives" to set Sun Java as the default.

    jw
    j.a.watson@...
    Reply Vote
  • @ChiefH - I had the same problem when testing out 10.4 beta 1 & 2. For some reason Firefox 3.6 isn't picking up that Java is installed. The solution is fairly easy though. Once you add the Lucid partner repositories via Synaptic or Software Sources, open Synaptic and install the following:

    sun-java6-bin
    sun-java6-jre
    sun-java6-plugin

    Once these are installed, open terminal and paste the following command (without quotes):

    "sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so mozilla-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so 50"

    Hit Enter and you should be good to go now. Java should show up under "Plugins" in Firefox's "Add-on Manager" (restart Firefox if it happened to be up).
    bandersnatch42vt
    Reply Vote
  • Fedora / Red Hat has also been doing the same thing for quite some time now. I agree that openjdk still has compatibility problems with certain things. In Fedora, I simply remove the "java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin" package (which removes the IcedTea Firefox plugin), then install the Sun Java package from Sun's website which installs the full Sun Java plugin. This ensures compatibility with everything.
    Chris_Clay
    Reply Vote
  • they could at least make open java the default and make sunjava in the repos...
    travisman28
    Reply Vote
  • Don't underrate the addition of this info! Without it, I could not have gotten Webex working again, and that is a major business tool for me. I had tried the cure I found for v9.04 and 9.10 Ubuntu; it didn't work for 10.04 Ubuntu. The addition from kmb42vt worked perfectly. Kudos
    rogerw05465
    Reply Vote
  • I did the following steps.

    Get the latest version of JDK from http://sun.com

    I took from JDK bundled with Netbeans

    http://cds.sun.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/CDS-CDS_Developer-Site/en_US/-/USD/VerifyItem-Start/jdk-6u20-nb-6_8-linux-ml.sh?BundledLineItemUUID=COuJ_hCyMXEAAAEoLyVwTbz.&OrderID=5HaJ_hCywVUAAAEoJCVwTbz.&ProductID=tXFIBe.nY_cAAAEoMrdvkQJ.&FileName=/jdk-6u20-nb-6_8-linux-ml.sh

    Save the file at a known place.
    After that select the permissions tab and make sure that the check box is marked selected for "Allow executing file as program".

    press close and now double click it and you will see a dialog box, select the first option of run in terminal.

    After the installation if you want to run netbeans then open the terminal client
    go the directory where netbeans is installed.
    in my case it was installed in /home/kalyan/netbeans6.8
    now go to bin directory.
    so now I am in the following directory
    $home/kalyan/netbeans6.8/bin

    type sudo apt-get install netbeans
    type the password when asked.

    Now after this process netbeans must be in Applications->Programming->Netbeans 6.8

    Enjoy...:)

    Hope this may help few.

    Kalyan
    nrkkalyan
    Reply Vote
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