How to Install 32-bit Java in 64-bit Mepis8
 

I want to test some 32-bit .so files that are designed to be called from a Java program. That only works if Java itself is 32-bit. I want to do the tests on my 64-bit Mepis8 system. (Note, this is a large stand alone GUI program written in Java. It is not Java script invoked by a browser or anything like that.)

I assume there is no way to do this correctly with Synaptic, especially without disturbing my existing installed 64-bit Java.

Should I try to get and install 32-bit Java binaries direct from Sun, or should I download a 32-bit Java .deb file from a Mepis or Debian repository and manually unpack it?

In Mepis7, I installed some 32bit packages by manually unpacking .deb files, dragging each file to directories of slightly different names than their normal targets (typically changing "lib" to "lib32"), and redoing all the symbolic links (which don't seem to survive the manual unpack process correctly).

That process is pretty easy for a small self-contained package, but it gets pretty painful when the package has dependencies and the dependencies have dependencies, etc. and it all must be done manually.

Do you know any better way for 32-bit .deb files in general?

Do you know any specifics about the .deb file(s) for 32-bit Java and/or installing directly from Sun?


If anyone cares, the Java program is
http://controlremote.sourceforge.net/
which is used for PC programming of certain models of IR remote control that weren't intended by the manufacturer to be programmed that way by end users, but which we know how to program.
The .so files are various C programs that handle the serial, parallel or USB communication with various cable designs for various models of remote.
I'm also testing 64-bit versions of the .so files, but that's a separate problem.

You need to install 32bit libraries.
Hmm.
There needs to be a folder called emul and 32 bit libs installed in that.