No more spoonfeeding, the Sun doc's are there for a reason.

oh yeah, of course. actually i wasnt hunting for more help. thx alot for all help you have given me

ok, this is me desperate. i might have f*cked up $PATH quite severe...

but hey, is it like this;

:/home/pontus(usr?)/jre1.5.0_04/bin/

?

my $PATH looks like :

bash: /usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/bin/X11:
/usr/games:/home/pontus(usr?)/jre1.5.0_04/bin/ : The file or the catalogue does not exist.

typing in terminal : java works, geez, im getting f*ucked up, and tired. is it too much to ask for help?

I don't mind helping you out, but you might have to do more apt-getting.
The problem is really that you have to go one way or the other--either installing from source or installing from repositories. I would go with repositories for several reasons:

1. It's easier. You just click a few things or type sudo apt-get install packagename
2. It's easier to update.
3. There's more consistency if all of your packages are coming from the same place.
4. You're more likely to find support from the Ubuntu community, as we are all using apt-get Synaptic to install stuff.

That said, I realize you're having problems with apt-get, but it really does work. How deep are you into Ubuntu? Have you configured everything to your liking? Because if you haven't, I'd consider doing a clean reinstall and following only the directions I gave you with regard to repositories and apt-getting. You may also want to post this issue on the Ubuntu Forums. People there are extremely knowledgeable and helpful, and they could probably trouble-shoot a lot better than I can. Better yet, they all use Ubuntu.

plainly, im planning on a clean re-install. but Im using a 64bit version, could it make things turn out like this? or perhaps that ive chosen swedish? its my first day with linux ever, so well...

I really would encourage you to post to the Ubuntu Forums. They are quite helpful there--it's one of the major reasons I'm even using Ubuntu. I'm trying to help, but I'm a newbie myself and not that knowledgeable.

ok i will do! i would like to thank you two guys for helping me out as much as you could!

I noticed you posted it in the Ubuntu part of the LinuxQuestions forums. That's fine. But you may also want to post it in these forums:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

It's totally not associated with LinuxQuestions--it's just for Ubuntu users, and that was what I was originally referring to.
Wouldn't hurt to post both places, though.

long time since i met such patience and kindness in a forum. thanks alot

I think you'll find it's the general trend in Linux forums. Sure, you get the odd grouchy person who's not in a good mood, but for the most part users just want to help each other out. I don't know how I would have ever migrated to Linux four months ago if it weren't for the good-hearted people on Linux forums. Ah, now I'm getting all teary-eyed...

I imagine this will be falling on deaf ears, but if we spoonfeed every new user we will end up with legions of Window like users; those that don't know how to use their computer, or care to put the time in. No matter how much Ubuntu and Mandriva and other friendly distros try to hold the user's hand, it really is important to learn in Linux, and become independant and competent. The docs for installing the Sun JRE are available, clear, and simple to follow. If meeep had done reading about the subject, he would have learned about bash environmental variables, making files executable, and apt-get.
Like the old saying goes, "teach a man to fish...", and I'm afraid that as certain outspoken Linux users clamor to gain widespread acceptance, we will see an inrush of newbies who do not care to learn, and will therefore remain newbies forever.
Just my 2 cents.

I agree in theory, but how do you teach someone something, especially over the internet (i.e., not in person)?
In person, it's far easier. You just point them in a direction and watch over their shoulders. If you see them messing up, you point it out and say, "Hold on. You're not following the directions. Look there."

On forums, it's a lot more difficult to draw that line. Now, there's a balance to be had. On the one hand, when people keep saying, "Okay. Now what do I do? Okay. Now what do I do?" they're just asking to be spoonfed, but when they've supposedly tried what they were supposed to do, and it still doesn't work, I think it makes sense to help them out.

I'm a newbie myself, and I can't say I understand every single thing about Linux. Very seldom have I compiled from source, but I've done it. I usually do RTFM, and so my questions are usually answered, but I also am pretty good about following instructions. I recently gave a workshop to my co-workers on how to use a particular computer program, and a number of them had difficulty even though the instructions were very clear and step-by-step.

I think there's a little bit of give-and-take. When a newbie posts a question, if the question is "How do I install Azureus?" with no indication whatsoever of any effort on the part of the OP, I'm not going to handhold, certainly. And, in fact, if you look back through the thread, I initially just gave a few links. That's what I do. I give links. Read this. Look at this. Follow these directions. But when people start getting errors, sometimes RTFM is not enough.

Yeah, I really think this will be an interesting development to see in how Linux goes. Hopefully it doesn't split too far on those that want user friendly and those that don't.
And I think that the OP had as much help as would be expected, the documentation from Sun _is_ extensive, and as you said in the previous posts there is apt-get as well. So then it seemed to me that he wasn't trying at that point. I just know that I did a lot of learning on my own, and I think it was for the best in the end.
Either way, like I said it will be interesting to see, especially with the huge drive (both community and monetary) that Ubuntu has.

The real problem is that troubleshooting is extremely difficult to do over the internet.
That's how newbies get weeded out. Most people don't have friends in real life who are Linux experts, so if they can't read the manual or copy and paste commands into the terminal, then they most likely will not get Linux up and running, no matter how "user friendly" the distro is.