Hi, and thanks for reading this HOWTO! Although these instructions are made for Fedora Core 2, they will more than likely work on any machine that has RPM support such as Mandrake, Suse, etc.

Requirements:
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1. You need to have at least a small knowledge on working the terminal and some basic commands that you will use.

First off, you will need to download the RPM from Sun's web site (http://www.java.com)
The file will be called something similar to j2re1_4_2_05-linux-i586-rpm.bin. After downloading the package for the VM, put it in a place where you can find it from the terminal such as your home directory.

Next, open a terminal session and do an SU to become root and enter the root password.
$ su
$ password: ******
# cd /home/kevin

Navigate to the directory using cd where you saved the RPM (EX: cd /home/kevin/)

Use the following command to run the self-installer.
# ./j2re1_4_2_05-linux-i586-rpm.bin (or whatever the package name is)

Then, read the agreement, pressing space to scroll down until you are at the end of the document. Type "yes" to agree to the license agreement. This will create an actual RPM in the same directory that you downloaded the RPM Binary.

After agreeing to the license, you will verify you know the name of the file using the dir command. The RPM should be called j2re1_4_2_05-linux-i586.rpm or similar according to the version you have downloaded.

Now, you are going to want to install the RPM for the VM, still as root, type the following command:

# rpm -ivh j2re1_4_2_05-linux-i586.rpm (or whatever the name of the file is)

If this is done correctly you should see something saying that it was completed with 100%.

CRUCIAL PART OF THE PROCESS:
---------------------------------------------------

I have had a lot of problems with making the Java VM work under FC2, because when you install the RPM, it actually doesn't make it work, it just installs it. So here is the steps to make the VM the default java vm for the OS:

First, make sure to have a terminal open and logged in using the SU command by entering the root password.

Then verify the directory that you have java installed under by doing this:

$ cd /usr/java
$ ls

You should see that there is a directory called j2re1.4.2 or something similar. If not, try this installing the RPM again, maybe something didn't go right.

Then you will have to remove all the default java associations by doing the following:

# cd /usr/bin
# rm java javac jar

If you get an error in removing any of the files java, javac, OR jar, it's okay, it's just to make sure you remove them. You will have to confirm to remove these files by typing a y at the prompt.

Next, you will have to create a link between the newly installed VM and the defaults for FC2 java vm by using the following command:

# cd /usr/bin
# ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.1_01/bin/java java

Be sure to replace the /usr/java/j2re1.4.1_01/bin java with whatever version you are running, but it should always point to the /bin/java directory under that folder.

Now, you should have a clear link between the two files so that you can install programs that require a Java VM installed.

If you are wanting to install LimeWire, enable java in Firefox or Mozilla, then read further, otherwise, Congratulations, you now have Sun's Java VM installed and configured.

LimeWire Install Instructions:
---------------------------------------

Since you have already installed the Java VM, all you should need to do now is navigate to the directory where you downloaded the Binary and type the following command:

$ sh ./LimeWireLinux.bin

After that, the program should install normally.


Firefox Instructions:
--------------------------

Navigate to the directory where Firefox is installed using the cd command as root in a terminal. Then you will see another directory called plugins, go to this directory and type this command while in the ./plugins directory of your firefox installation:

# ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.1_01/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so

This will create a link from the java vm to Firefox plugins, to test the browser, simply go to a web site that requires java installed, such as http://www.java.com

Mozilla Instructions:
--------------------------

To install the java vm for mozilla, simply use the Firefox instructions, with the exception of the directory where mozilla is installed. Then go to the ./plugins directory as above and create a link using the command above.