Adding Java to root users PATH?

infornography · 05-25-2005, 06:03 AM

I am running Slackware 10.1 with Dropline GNOME 1.10.1 and I'm trying to install a chess program. The program requires java to be installed, which it is. When I run the installer as a normal user it works fine, but I can only install to my home directory. I want to install system wide, but when I run it as root I get this message:

No Java virtual machine could be found from your PATH
environment variable. You must install a VM prior to
running this program.

Is it possible to add it to my PATH environment variable somehow? I did try google, but every page seemed to give totally different explinations.

Thanks.

gerrit_daniels · 05-25-2005, 08:17 AM

The file "/etc/profile" should have a line that starts with "PATH=". Add the path to the java bin directory to this variable. Note that all the paths have to be separated by a colon (':').

example:

PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/path/to/java/bin

Hope this helps

infornography · 05-26-2005, 04:53 AM

It didn't work. The path to the java bin seems to be /usr/lib/java/bin. So I added it, and now the relevent section of /etc/profile lookslike this:

# Set the default system $PATH:
PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/usr/lib/java/bin"

It hasn't helped though, I still get the same error message. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for the help so far.

JunctaJuvant · 05-26-2005, 06:06 AM

So now as root user, when you enter $PATH on the command line, you see the path to java? And by the way, on my system the java_vm is located in the jre directory (java runtime environment). So on your system this is maybe /usr/lib/java/jre/bin? Try "slocate java_vm" to find it, or whatever filesearch program you prefer.

rickh · 05-26-2005, 07:31 AM

By the looks of these forums, a lot of people have trouble getting Java to work right. Recently ran across a little different technique that works beautifully on Debian. Haven't tried it on Fedora yet, where I often have to create a plugin type link to JAVA ... Anyway, if you want to, you might try this.

From http://www.crazysquirrel.com/debian/...l-sun-java.php

Quote:

Dealing with Packages that Require JAVA_HOME

Unlike a lot of packages many (most) Java packages need to know where the Java VM is installed and they do this through use of an environment variable called JAVA_HOME. You can set this for each package or you can set this globally in "/etc/profile".

Step 1 - Create a Virtual Java

All versions of Java you install will be placed in /usr/lib with names like j2sdk1.5-sun. Create a symlink to one of these called java using the following command (typed at the root prompt):

ln -s /usr/lib/j2sdk1.5-sun /usr/lib/java

Keep this link up-to-date and pointing at which ever version of Java you want as the default. It would be nice if there was a package to do this. Sigh. Maybe there is - anyone know of one?

Step 2 - Adding the Environment Variable to /etc/profile

Once modified your profile file should have changed from something that looks a little like this
# /etc/profile: system-wide .profile file for the Bourne shell (sh(1))
# and Bourne compatible shells (bash(1), ksh(1), ash(1), ...).
<...snip...>
export PATH
umask 022

to this

# /etc/profile: system-wide .profile file for the Bourne shell (sh(1))
# and Bourne compatible shells (bash(1), ksh(1), ash(1), ...).
<...snip...>
export PATH
JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/java"
export JAVA_HOME
umask 022

zord · 05-26-2005, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by infornography
# Set the default system $PATH:
PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/usr/lib/java/bin"

It hasn't helped though, I still get the same error message. Any other suggestions?

did you login as root directly, or did you use 'su' to become root?
if you su'ed, type "source /etc/profile" in a terminal. it should work afterwards