im trying to install a .bin file that i downloaded to my home folder and i try to switch user to root and when it asks me for my password in the terminal and it wont let me type my password. Anyone have any idea???

Thanks in Advance
Nathan Hill

When you say it won't let you type the password, exactly what do you mean? Is it rejecting it or when you hit enter does nothing happen?

Its rejecting any keyboard input except enter it wont let me type anything

Most likely whatever you type just doesn't get echoed on the screen. The text is there, but for security reasons it's not shown (someone could be peeking ower your shoulder or something). Just type your password normally and hit enter

well that worked but then it said permission denied under root. heres what it said

[nathan@localhost nathan]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost nathan]# ./jre-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin
bash: ./jre-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin: Permission denied
[root@localhost nathan]#

.bin probably doesn't have exec permission, do:

chmod a+x ./jre-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin

and then run it.

chmod 755 jre-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin

ok that worked but heres another question i tried running a program that requires java and i got this

[nathan@localhost nathan]$ frostwire
Starting FrostWire...
Java exec not found in PATH, starting auto-search...
ls: /usr/lib/j*: No such file or directory
OOPS, unable to locate java exec in /usr/lib/ hierarchy
You need to upgrade to JRE 1.4.x or newer from http://www.java.com
ls: /usr/java/j*: No such file or directory
OOPS, unable to locate java exec in /usr/java/ hierarchy
You need to upgrade to JRE 1.4.x or newer from http://www.java.com
ls: /opt/j*: No such file or directory
OOPS, unable to locate java exec in /opt/ hierarchy
You need to upgrade to JRE 1.4.x or newer from http://www.java.com
[nathan@localhost nathan]$

Running the jre-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin just extracts the Java SDK and modifies /etc/mailcap. For other applications (like frostwire) to find the Java executable, you should make a couple of changes to your setup.

If you extracted jre-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin in /usr/local:

- Add /usr/local/jdk1.5.0_06/bin to your path;
- Create the JAVA_HOME environment variable as /usr/local/jdk1.5.0_06

Both of these can be done in .bash_profile in your home directory if you are the only user, or in /etc/profile if there are several users on the box. The lines to add are:

You can also type them at the command prompt and they will take effect for your current session, but no others.

i tried that and when i put it in the terminal it just brought up another line. heres what i did

[nathan@localhost nathan]$ export JAVA_HOME="/usr/local/jdk1.5.0_06"
[nathan@localhost nathan]$

and

[nathan@localhost nathan]$ export PATH="${JAVA_HOME}/bin:$PATH"
[nathan@localhost nathan]$

I am a total newbie and dont know much about this, so any more help would be greatly appreciated.

Setting the 2 environment variables just allows Java to be found by frostwire. Can you try typing the following at the command prompt and post back any errors that it produces please?

heres the results

[nathan@localhost nathan]$ export JAVA_HOME="/usr/local/jdk1.5.0_06"
[nathan@localhost nathan]$ export PATH="${JAVA_HOME}/bin:$PATH"
[nathan@localhost nathan]$ frostwire
Starting FrostWire...
Java exec not found in PATH, starting auto-search...
ls: /usr/lib/j*: No such file or directory
OOPS, unable to locate java exec in /usr/lib/ hierarchy
You need to upgrade to JRE 1.4.x or newer from http://www.java.com
ls: /usr/java/j*: No such file or directory
OOPS, unable to locate java exec in /usr/java/ hierarchy
You need to upgrade to JRE 1.4.x or newer from http://www.java.com
ls: /opt/j*: No such file or directory
OOPS, unable to locate java exec in /opt/ hierarchy
You need to upgrade to JRE 1.4.x or newer from http://www.java.com
[nathan@localhost nathan]$

any help guys

First of all, you don't seem to have jdk, but jre (judging from the name of .bin package), so the JAVA_HOME should be /usr/local/jre1.5.0_06 or /usr/local/java/jre1.5.0_06, provided that jre really is installed under /usr/local hierarchy (which I think is the case since FrostWire seems to check every other possible location). Other potential locations are: /usr/java/jre1.5.0_06, /usr/lib/jre1.5.0_06 and /opt/jre1.5.0_06, but if java would have been there, FrostWire would have been able to find it.

To check, be root and do:

updatedb

it takes a while to run and after that:

slocate jre

that will tell you where it is.

Secondly you could make a symlink for FrostWire to be able to locate your java installation correctly:

ln -s [whereverjavais]/jre1.5.0_06 /usr/lib

This however shouldn't be necessary if you have JAVA_HOME and PATH variables set correctly. When setting variables there is no immediate output, so when you do:

export JAVA_HOME=[whereeverjavais]jre1.5.0_06
export PATH="${JAVA_HOME}/bin:$PATH"

getting new prompts is exactly what should happen.

Thirdly, you could just find another program to replace FrostWire and ditch the whole java, it's crap anyway Just kidding of course... or am I?

Sorry - my mistake, I copy/pasted from the window with my setup instead of the message window