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    How to Install Java 8 on Ubuntu and Linux Mint

    By 2 Mins Read

    Optimize your Java development and runtime environment with this comprehensive guide on installing Java Development Kit (JDK) and Java Runtime Environment (JRE) on Linux systems. Java developers need both JDK and JRE to craft and run Java applications and applets efficiently. JDK offers the essential tools for developing Java applications, including the Java compiler, while JRE provides a runtime environment necessary for Java applications.

    How to Install Java on Ubuntu and Linux Mint

    This guide simplifies the process of installing OpenJDK Java on popular Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint. OpenJDK, an open-source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition, ensures your Java applications run securely and efficiently.

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    Installation Steps

    1. Update Your Package Index

      2. Begin by updating your package index to ensure you have access to the latest software versions. Execute the following command in your terminal:

      sudo apt update

    2. Install Java OpenJDK

      3. Install OpenJDK 8 by running the following command. This command installs both the JDK and JRE, setting up your system for Java development and execution.

      sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk openjdk-8-jre

    3. Verifying the Java Installation

      4. After installing Java, verify the installation to ensure Java is correctly installed on your system. Run the following command to check the installed Java version:

      java -version

      This command will display the installed OpenJDK version, confirming the successful installation.

    4. Setting Up JAVA_HOME and JRE_HOME Environment Variables

      5. To ensure Java applications can locate the Java libraries, it’s crucial to set the JAVA_HOME and JRE_HOME environment variables. These variables point to the installation directories of JDK and JRE, respectively. You can set these environment variables in the /etc/environment file with the following commands:

      cat >> /etc/environment <<EOL
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64
JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre
EOL

    Conclusion

    Successfully installing and configuring Java on your Linux system is a foundational step for any Java developer. By following the steps outlined in this guide, developers can efficiently prepare their Linux systems for Java development and application execution. This setup not only facilitates the creation of Java applications but also supports running Java-based software. Whether you’re developing new Java applications or running existing ones, having both JDK and JRE properly installed and configured ensures a robust development and execution environment for your Java projects.

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    189 Comments

    1. roshini on

      cat >> /etc/environment <<EOL
      JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64
      JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre
      EOL

      USING THESE STEPS PERMISSION DENIED

      Reply
    3. Costin C-tin on

      As Benjamin Hecht (and others) pointed out “Permission denied” is raised when trying “cat >> /etc/environment <<EOL ” . Even with “sudo cat >> ” the same applies. To be able to write to /etc/environment this needs to be used:
      cat | sudo tee -a /etc/environment <<EOL
      JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64
      JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre
      EOL

      Reply
      • Kamsala Rajesh on

        How to upgrade or how to remove java-8 version and install java7 how to set environment variable, can anyone help me with my question?

        Reply
    4. Benjamin Hecht on

      Hi, I’m getting ‘permission denied’ as an error:

      (base) benjamin@benjamin-desktop:~$ java -version
      openjdk version “1.8.0_252”
      OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_252-8u252-b09-1~18.04-b09)
      OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.252-b09, mixed mode)
      (base) benjamin@benjamin-desktop:~$ cat >> /etc/environment < JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64
      > JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre
      > EOL
      bash: /etc/environment: Permission denied
      (base) benjamin@benjamin-desktop:~$ cat >> /etc/environment < JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64
      > JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre
      > EOL
      bash: /etc/environment: Permission denied

      Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Trying to use java for loading a jnlp file so using Java 8 on 18.04.4 appears to be the only way.

      Reply
      • Mattis on

        Try: sudo nano /etc/environment (or use any other text editor)
        Then add the lines:
        JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64
        JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre

        Reply
    5. Levent GUREN on

      There is a space after equal sign at this line:
      JAVA_HOME= /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64
      This must not be there. 🙂

      Reply
    8. Marcus Siqueira on

      Interesting stuff! Keep the site up you have a lot of good content! You just helped me and I believe you helped a lot more people

      Reply
      • Rahul on

        I have corrected the title. Earlier this tutorial was for the Oracle Java installation, But as of now, Oracle Java 8 is not available directly, So we change it to OpenJDK.

        Reply
    15. Sathishkumar on

      Hi, I’m using Ubuntu 18.04 and I’m getting below error :

      Package oracle-java8-installer is not available, but is referred to by another package.
      This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
      is only available from another source

      E: Package ‘oracle-java8-installer’ has no installation candidate

      Reply
    17. Edwin Smith Velandia Salazar on

      work for me,

      sudo apt-get install default-jdk
      sudo apt autoremove
      sudo apt-get install default-jre
      java –version
      sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk

      sudo update-alternatives –config java
      Existen 2 opciones para la alternativa java (que provee /usr/bin/java).

      Selección Ruta Prioridad Estado
      ————————————————————
      0 /usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64/bin/java 1101 modo automático
      1 /usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64/bin/java 1101 modo manual
      * 2 /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java 1081 modo manual

      Pulse para mantener el valor por omisión [*] o pulse un número de selección:

      *** in my case, i used java-8, press 2

      and my app work.

      Reply
    18. Jignesh on

      It’s not working and it won’t work. You need to update your article. Oracle has made it mandatory to create an account and download the required version. The PPA method is deprecated and it won’t work.

      TIP: Make sure you download the binary version or the Oracle 8 JDK.

      Reply
    19. sirius2834 on

      Actually it is possible to install Java 8 u 131 to Mint 19+ or Ubuntu 18+.

      Search for these files on the Internet:

      oracle-java8-installer_8u131-1_webupd8_2_all.deb
      oracle-java8-set-default_8u131-1_webupd8_2_all.deb
      oracle-java8-unlimited-jce-policy_8u131-1_webupd8_2_all.deb

      Then:

      sudo oracle-java8-installer_8u131-1_webupd8_2_all.deb
      sudo oracle-java8-set-default_8u131-1_webupd8_2_all.deb
      (and you can install the unlimited one, but not necessary by defalut)

      In contrary to the abandoned PPA, you can install these without problems and the ‘Oracle Java 8 Plugin Control Panel’ will work too.

      If the .jnlp files don’t open in Firefox, then select “open with” and enter “javaws” .

      There is virtually no info of Java 8 for the latest Mint/Ubutu installation over the internet and I had to figure it out too.

      I hope it helps!

      Reply
      • Rahul on

        Hi,

        Java 8 is no more available to download from Oracle site. But if you have any existing installation on another system, can be used to install to your system.

        Reply
    20. Harshit on

      This is not working. It is showing this error E: Package ‘oracle-java8-installer’ has no installation candidate

      Reply
    21. krishna on

      Hi
      when i try to intall the java8. By these commands
      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
      sudo apt update; sudo apt install oracle-java8-installer
      after the second command i am getting error like this
      “Package oracle-java8-installer is not available, but is referred to by another package.
      This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
      is only available from another source”
      what to do ? and i have tried everything to come out of this i can’t able to do this
      plzz help me out.

      Reply
    22. Va Sja on

      Unfortunately don’t work anymore 🙁
      >
      >~/Downloads/jdk1.8.0_202$ sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-set-default
      >[sudo] password for i1:
      >Reading package lists… Done
      >Building dependency tree
      >Reading state information… Done
      >E: Unable to locate package oracle-java8-set-default

      Reply
    23. Chuanpeng Hu on

      Hi, there,

      Thanks so much for your post. It’s helpful.
      But I failed to install java,

      > sudo apt install oracle-java11-installer

      I got this error message:

      Resolving login.oracle.com (login.oracle.com)… 209.17.4.8
      Connecting to login.oracle.com (login.oracle.com)|209.17.4.8|:443… connected.
      HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 401 Authorization Required

      Username/Password Authentication Failed.
      download failed
      Oracle JDK 8 is NOT installed.
      dpkg: error processing package oracle-java8-installer (–configure):
      installed oracle-java8-installer package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
      Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (1.9-2) …
      Setting up oracle-java11-set-default (11.0.2-2~linuxuprising1) …
      Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-11ubuntu1.1) …
      Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) …
      Processing triggers for fontconfig (2.12.6-0ubuntu2) …
      Errors were encountered while processing:
      oracle-java8-installer
      E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

      One possibility is that “401 is because 8u211 is the first version that is paid only. The previous 8u201 was the last freely available version.” as suggested by one comment here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46815897/jdk-8-is-not-installed-error-404-not-found

      Reply
    24. Neha on

      I need jdk version to be like this

      Java version “1.8.0_40”
      Java™ SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_40-b25)
      Java HotSpot™ 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.40-b25, mixed mode)

      How do I do it for Ubuntu 18.10

      Reply
    25. Alexandre Pedro on

      Linux Mint 19.1, couldn’t do the last step as the guide says. Ended up doing:
      sudo nano /etc/environment

      Paste in:
      JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle
      JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/jre

      Save and exit.

      Thank you for the guide!

      Reply
    27. Veda on

      But live-streaming of the game can affect their job and makes these enjoy theirs favored game on laptop or pc.

      Reply
    28. Ramonita on

      If they bests the seller he gets twice the total amount
      of money inside the payout than he’d have if he had gained without doubling.

      Reply
    31. vanderlei on

      sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer
      sudo: não foi possível resolver máquina leni
      Lendo listas de pacotes… Pronto
      Construindo árvore de dependências
      Lendo informação de estado… Pronto
      Alguns pacotes não puderam ser instalados. Isto pode significar que
      você solicitou uma situação impossível ou, se você está usando a
      distribuição instável, que alguns pacotes requeridos não foram
      criados ainda ou foram retirados da “Incoming”.
      A informação a seguir pode ajudar a resolver a situação:

      Os pacotes a seguir têm dependências desencontradas:
      oracle-java8-installer : Depende: java-common (>= 0.24) mas não é instalável
      Recomenda: gsfonts-x11 mas não é instalável
      Recomenda: oracle-java8-set-default mas não será instalado
      E: Impossível corrigir problemas, você manteve (hold) pacotes quebrados.

      Reply
    32. Ankit Tiwari on

      Hello

      Connecting to download.oracle.com (download.oracle.com)|104.122.105.69|:80… connected.
      HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
      2018-01-22 13:59:51 ERROR 404: Not Found.

      download failed
      Oracle JDK 8 is NOT installed.
      dpkg: error processing package oracle-java8-installer (–configure):
      subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
      Errors were encountered while processing:
      oracle-java8-installer
      E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

      I am getting this error while running install command on terminal on linux mint 17.2.

      Reply
    33. Bill Schwob on

      when i do this all i get is

      download failed
      Oracle JDK 8 is NOT installed.
      dpkg: error processing package oracle-java8-installer (–configure):
      subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
      Errors were encountered while processing:
      oracle-java8-installer
      E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

      Reply
    34. Nathan on

      Great information. Appreciate the time you took to share this feedback for us computer nerds. Love your blog too. Java is still one of the best options out there.

      Reply
    35. Jari on

      step 1 Can do add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java && apt-get update && apt-get install oracle-java8-installer allso little bit easy 🙂

      Reply
    36. BK on

      hi,
      there is an error with python-samba while installing oracle-java8-installer.
      [/var/cache/apt/archives/python-samba_2%3a4.3.11+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.9_i386.deb
      E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)]
      how can i solve this problem?

      Reply
      • Icthyo on

        Hello:

        You you either open ‘Files’ or ‘nautilus’ with root privileges, you will be able to open the etc/environment file, edit it and save afterward.

        Reply
      • Armando on

        the easiest way is to do it through the terminal using sudo for root access (which enables you to edit sensitive files)
        $ sudo gedit /etc/environment
        add the lines
        then save.
        done.

        Reply
    38. Tim Cooper on

      This seems to install JRE _not_ JDK as the title of the article states.
      Several people have pointed this out in the comments yet these queries remain unanswered.
      Perhaps the title of the article is incorrect…

      Reply
      • Rahul K. on

        Hi Tim,

        This installs JDK and JRE both. After installation you can check install java compiler.

        $ javac -version

        javac 1.8.0_111

        Reply
    39. Jeff on

      Thank you! This works Great! I was also able to integrate Apache Solr on my website

      I am thinking about keeping this up and going on my vps server

      Reply
    40. meya on

      Hello, i f i understand this will install JDK too. But i cant find my JDK directory.
      any help or explanation ? thank you in advance

      Reply
    51. Manjunath on

      If you get “Cannot add PPA ‘ppa:cooperjona/lightread’ . Please check that the PPA name or format is correct.” error

      sudo -E add-apt-repository ppa:ppaname/ppa
      instead of

      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ppaname/ppa

      Reply
      • tohuuu on

        Encountered the same issue – i had to modify the timeout settings in /var/lib/dpkg/info/oracle-java8-installer.postinst to make it run. Sadly, the installer script doesn’t use the system-wide /etc/wgetrc but creates its own wgetrc each time it runs. So, you’ll have to search for the line “echo “timeout = 15″ >> wgetrc” in the postinst file i’ve mentioned above. Now, just set a longer timeout or remove the line completely.

        Reply
    80. Ian on

      I’m getting an error when running the command:

      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java

      The error is:
      Cannot add PPA: ‘ppa:~webupd8team/ubuntu/java’.
      ERROR: ‘~webupd8team’ user or team does not exist.

      Reply
    81. lanowar on

      Thanks but it’s not working for me, this is the message i got:

      ~ $ sudo apt-get update
      E: Type ‘sudo’ is not known on line 1 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-xamarin.list
      E: The list of sources could not be read.

      Reply
    83. Allen Burns on

      Sure wish this wasn’t the first item coming up in a google search of “installing java 8 jdk on ubuntu” because this isn’t the jdk!

      Reply
    108. Leenie on

      Webupd8 Java PPA DOWN!!!!! When will it be updated?

      W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty Release: The following signatures were invalid: BADSIG C2518248EEA14886 Launchpad VLC

      W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/java/ubuntu/dists/trusty/Release

      W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

      Reply
    112. Harshita on

      Hi Rahul,
      I am new to Ubuntu. I tried the setps to install jdk 1.8.
      While setting environment, I found the error
      Error: Could not open input file: /usr/java/jre1.8.0_45/lib/rt.pack
      jsse.jar…
      Error: Could not open input file: /usr/java/jre1.8.0_45/lib/jsse.pack
      charsets.jar…
      Error: Could not open input file: /usr/java/jre1.8.0_45/lib/charsets.pack
      localedata.jar…
      Error: Could not open input file: /usr/java/jre1.8.0_45/lib/ext/localedata.pack
      jfxrt.jar…
      Error: Could not open input file: /usr/java/jre1.8.0_45/lib/ext/jfxrt.pack
      plugin.jar…
      Error: Could not open input file: /usr/java/jre1.8.0_45/lib/plugin.pack
      javaws.jar…
      Error: Could not open input file: /usr/java/jre1.8.0_45/lib/javaws.pack
      deploy.jar…
      Error: Could not open input file: /usr/java/jre1.8.0_45/lib/deploy.pack
      /var/lib/dpkg/info/jre1.8.0-45.postinst: line 641: /usr/sbin/alternatives: No such file or directory
      dpkg: error processing package jre1.8.0-45 (–configure):
      subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127
      Setting up oracle-java8-set-default (8u45+8u33arm-1~webupd8~1) …
      Errors were encountered while processing:
      jre1.8.0-45
      E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

      What should I do to set environment ?

      Reply
      • Zoli1972 on

        Same here, HARSHITA.

        Worse: I can’t install any package since I’ve tried to install this using this tutorial. Can someone help please?

        Zoli

        Reply
        • Zoli1972 on

          EDIT: Maybe a helpful hint, I did a…

          java -version

          …this shows me…

          java version “1.9.0-ea”
          Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.9.0-ea-b70)
          Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 1.9.0-ea-b70, mixed mode)

          So the error messages seem to come from an older installation, that I have to remove. But how?

          Zoli

          Reply
    116. Amit on

      Hi,

      I would like to thank you for helping the non techs like myself first. Could you help me with a problem I get? I am using LM 17.1 and trying to do the installation I get the Binary Code License Agreement display at mt terminal window. There is no way to click ok or accept those terms, failing which the installation aborts. Can you tell me a way around, or what am I doing wrong?

      Thanks
      Amit

      Reply
    128. Zoltan on

      Hi,
      I could install java 8 as you wrote, but I still can not set java 8 as a default JRE. And when I would like to add it to the installed JREs I cant find it. Where should it be?
      Thank you!

      Reply
    137. Divine Martins Jr. on

      Wonderful and helpful.
      A written tutorial on how to install using the already downloaded tar.gz file will be helpful too. Thanks

      Reply
      • Tiru on

        Packages can be removed with
        >sudo apt-get –purge remove packageName

        apt-get remove may some times leave behind some files.
        –purge will remove all files.

        Reply
    141. PK on

      Hi,

      I am getting an error stating the following. Please help.

      Cannot add PPA: ‘ppa:webupd8team/java’.
      Please check that the PPA name or format is correct.

      Reply