I tried that and it still says "Couldn't find package...."

did you read this?
You'll need activate the multiverse repository.
make sure you have the linein your source.list
When you have done that make sure you update your package list too (sudo apt-get update).
It is in the repository because I installed it from there.

Okay so I successfuly installed JRE (or so I thought I did). In the terminal it said the installation was successful and all that and that I had Java Runtime Environment ver. 1.5.0 installed. But when I go to the Java test site, it says I do not have it. Am I missing something? Macromedia or something? I'm really confused.

anybody have an answer?

You are missing the part where you link the JRE files to the browser plugins, which browser are you using?

http://www.java.com/en/download/help...500.xml#enable That is what did it for me. The file you have to link will depend on which browser though.

i succefully installed the java package from the site

i installed the rpm with the command rpm -iv javafilename.......rpm

installed successfully

i then went changed in the terminal to this directory /usr/lib/firefox-1.5.0.1/plugins then i linked jre to the browser with the following command

ln -s /usr/java/jre1.5.0_07/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

still doesnt work with the browser.and yes the firefox plugins directory is the correct one since my flash player and other plugins are in there.i also see the jre files in the plugins folder,still firefox says i dont have it.

any ideas?

nevermind

i just rebooted the computer and all works fine now