I have a question I'm pretty confused on. If I'm not mistaken I read on threads here that Ubuntu does not use the 'rpm' command? Is this true? I could of sworn I was messing around on terminal and used rpm to unpack a file. I'm trying to install java on ubuntu so I can run a program and am running into problems. After I have gone into root, created /usr/local/java, chmod x+a the .bin, installed the .rpm in the same directory, and now I can't seem to rpm -iv the .rpm file because it keeps giving me a bash: rpm: command not found

Please help, I'm still new to this. Thanks in advance

Ubuntu uses *.deb files. Here's a guide to installing java/other software on Ubuntu.

Ubuntu uses apt-get.

You should head over to the Ubuntu forum on this site and read the stickys. You can use this site as well for referencing package names: http://packages.ubuntu.com/
It's hard to say what package you need from your description, buy the basics of the command are:

sudo apt-get install packagename

If there isn't a "ubuntu package" for what you need you can try a .deb and install with dpkg.
The ubuntuguide in the sticky has directions on all the stuff a new person will need and with basic package installations like you're looking for. I think easyubuntu and synaptic will probably help the most for you. The synaptic program has a GUI and will let you install a lot just by clicking the name of the program. I think another good one is Automatix.

I think you meant that Ubuntu uses Debian packages (*.deb). Apt-get is just a nifty frontend to the underlying Debian dpkg packaging system with a lot extra features and enhancements. Other distros use apt-get with RPM, Slack packages etc but they are not related in anyway to Ubuntu or Debian.

You're right. Apt-get is the tool. The packages are .deb

You may have. I just checked and I have RPM installed on my Kubuntu system. It's just not the "native" package format, so you don't really want to use RPM to install anything if you can avaoid it.

If you can only get RPM packages and not DEBs, you might try converting them with "alien". It's a tool that can be used to convert other package formats, including RPMs, into DEBs that you can install with dpkg. Alien is available in the standard APT repositories if it's not already installed.

Hi guys,

Thanks for the reply! I did java -version in terminal and received this message hoping Java is correctly installed on 1.4.2 like it's supposed to, let me know if this is legit.

root@gabe-laptop:~# java -version
java version "1.4.2"
gij (GNU libgcj) version 4.1.0 (Ubuntu 4.1.0-1ubuntu8)

Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.