Install Java OpenJDK 7 on Amazon EC2 Ubuntu

Machine Specs:

• Ubuntu Server 12.04.1 LTS 64-bit

Installing OpenJDK7:

1) Download openjdk-7.

sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk

Use "java -version" to check what version java is being used.

You may have multiple versions of JDK installed. Run update-alternatives to choose the java version.

sudo update-alternatives --config java 

  Selection    Path                                            Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1061      auto mode
  1            /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1061      manual mode
  2            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1051      manual mode

Choose 2 when it prompts.


2) To find out where Java is installed:

which java

3) Setting JAVA_HOME

sudo vi ~/.bashrc
append "export JAVA_HOME=$(readlink -f /usr/bin/java | sed "s:bin/java::")" to .bashrc and save the filesource ~/.bashrc

source ~/.bashrc  

echo $JAVA_HOME

Make sure you are modifying ~/.bashrc as root. If you are doing it as a user (ex. ubuntu), the root will not have JAVA_HOME set.