MEPIS Community Forum

Somewhat of a noob here... I have searched the VMs/Emulators board without finding any reference to java virtual machines; so I hope someone might be able to tell me if it is possible to use one with Mepis, or not.
I'm using Mepis 11, and I am trying to apply for a Canadian pension online. The government website says that they support Apple JVM, IBM JVM, or Sun JVM.
For Linux the Java options are:
Linux RPM filesize: 20.2 MB
Linux (self-extracting file) filesize: 20.7 MB
Linux x64 * filesize: 20.3 MB
Linux x64 RPM * filesize: 19.7 MB
Since I'm using Mepis with 32 bit I downloaded the self-extracting file. But they only mention supporting the following distros: Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux, Oracle Linux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, SLES, and Ubuntu.
Note: For downloading Java for other flavors of Linux see Java for Ubuntu, Java for Fedora

Anyway, I downloaded the file and tried without success to install it.
Instructions for downloading and installing:

Change the permission of the file you downloaded to be executable. Type:
chmod a+x jre-6u<version>-linux-i586.bin
<version> refers to Java update version you just downloaded.
For Example: To install jre-6u30, above command will become
chmod a+x jre-6u30-linux-i586.bin
Verify that you have permission to execute the file. Type:
ls -l

I did this in a console:
ubazza@mepis1:~$ chmod a+x jre-6u<version>-linux-i586.bin
bash: version: No such file or directory
ubazza@mepis1:~$ ls -l
total 40
drwxr-xr-x 2 ubazza users 4096 Jan 22 15:35 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 24 ubazza users 4096 Jan 6 20:38 Dhamma
drwxr-xr-x 11 ubazza users 4096 Jan 22 15:51 Dhamma Talks
drwxr-xr-x 12 ubazza users 4096 Feb 7 17:58 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 4 ubazza users 4096 Feb 7 17:38 Downloads
drwxr-xr-x 3 ubazza users 4096 Jan 7 20:58 flix
drwxr-xr-x 9 ubazza users 4096 Jan 7 10:22 Music
drwxr-xr-x 7 ubazza users 4096 Jan 6 18:20 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 4 ubazza users 4096 Feb 7 15:42 temp
drwxr-xr-x 8 ubazza users 4096 Jan 23 21:33 Videos
ubazza@mepis1:~$

the file jre-6u30-linux-i586.bin is in Downloads, but I can't access it. I also tried when logged in as root with the same result.

I saw in that in the Synaptic Package Manager there was a sun java-6 jre that contains a java virtual machine. I wonder if that package might do the trick?
Any help appreciated. Don't have Windows, so might be forced to install Suse or Ubuntu to get this happening. Big headache for this old brain... would like to keep it simple...

The wiki has some info on changing from the openjdk java to sun java6: http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php?title=Java_How-tos#MEPIS_11. The version that will be installed is 'update 26' and may have some security issues because of it's age.



You will probably have the same java related problem with Ubuntu and Suse. I know Ubuntu removed sun java6 from it's repos, not sure about Suse.

Debian removed sun java6 from the sid & testing (aka Wheezy) repos a couple months ago, older sun java6 packages are still available in the Squeeze and Lenny repos.

thanks for that, kmathern... considering that there might be security issues, I check to see if they (the government) still have paper application forms.

kmathern, if you are still here, a further question... if I were to try installing sun java-6 how would I enter the following command?
su -c 'apt-get install sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts openjdk-6-jre*-'

Would I have to first have to log in as root? Or could I just copy and paste the command "as is"? What about the 'quote marks'?
Perhaps I should post this query in the General Help Newbies form?

Copy and paste the command as is (including quotes) into a konsole and press the enter key.

You'll then be prompted for the root password, type it in and press the enter key again and the apt-get command will be executed.

Thank you for the quick reply.