sun-java6-jre

[jonantice]

Does anyone know if the sun-java6-jre package replaces the sun-java5-jre?
I am just wondering if I need both.

[craigevil]

Doesn't hurt anything to have 5 and 6. In my case Frostwire and Azureus will only recognize java5, while java6 works great in Iceweasel.

DO not remove 5 before installing 6.

Install 6 then do update-alternatives --config java : older version can then be removed

[jonantice]

Thanks that helps. Didn't know about the update-alternative command.

jonandtice@socrates:~$ sudo update-alternatives --display java
java - status is auto.
 link currently points to /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun/jre/bin/java - priority 53
 slave java.1.gz: /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun-1.5.0.10/jre/man/man1/java.1.gz
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java - priority 63
 slave java.1.gz: /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.00/jre/man/man1/java.1.gz
Current `best' version is /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java.

I guess this means java6 is already my default. So programs that need java5 still use java5? Wouldn't java6 be backwards-compatible?

[craigevil]

Ran update-alternatives --config java

It showed:
There are 2 alternatives which provide `java'.

Selection Alternative
-----------------------------------------------
* 1 /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun/jre/bin/java
+ 2 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java

Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number: 2
Using `/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java' to provide `java'.
root@craigevil:/home/craig# java -version
java version "1.6.0"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0-b105)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0-b105, mixed mode, sharing)

I then tried running Frostwire and Azureus and they both worked just fine. The first time I tried using java6 I stupidly uninstalled java5 first and had problems.