Set JAVA_HOME :

echo "JAVA_HOME=/etc/alternatives/jre" >> ~/.profile
source ~/.profile
echo $JAVA_HOME

locating java

Try using this command:

$ type java

to find out where Oracle Java is installed. Also open JDK is the opensource project's version of Java, you have to download and install Oracle Java from the Java website. It comes as an RPM you can install.

• http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp?locale=en

Java package

If you've used FedoraUtils to automatically install packages then these should be showing up when you query the RPM database:

$ rpm -aq | grep jdk
java-1.6.0-openjdk-javadoc-1.6.0.0-55.1.9.10.fc14.x86_64
jdk-1.6.0_26-fcs.x86_64
java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel-1.6.0.0-55.1.9.10.fc14.x86_64
java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin-1.6.0.0-55.1.9.10.fc14.x86_64
java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-55.1.9.10.fc14.x86_64

Backtracking with alternatives

I typically do it like this.

1. locate within alternatives

   $ alternatives --display java |grep best
   Current `best' version is /usr/java/default/bin/java.
   

2. confirm with type

   $ type -a /usr/java/default/bin/java
   /usr/java/default/bin/java is /usr/java/default/bin/java
   

3. query RPM

   $ rpm -qf /usr/java/default/bin/java
   jdk-1.6.0_26-fcs.x86_64
   

NOTE: The jdk... packages are what Oracle's label's their Java packages as. Go figure, it stands for Java Development Kit. There is also a JRE package you'll see from time to time, that's the Java Runtime Environment.

You can add in your .bashrc file:

export JAVA_HOME=$(readlink -f /usr/bin/java | sed "s:bin/java::")

and it will dynamically change when you update your packages.

If you want to install the Oracle JDK on Fedora you have to options (check your CPU's architecture).

• Download the tar.gz file from Oracle's website
• Download the rpm file from Oracle's website

Option 1 - tar.gz

IMHO the easiest and less invasive option is to download the tar.gz file. Let's assume you downloaded the file jdk-8u161-linux-x64.tar.gz. After the download open a terminal and extract the file to an appropriate place, eg a sub folder in your user's home directory /home/myuser/programs by executing

cd /home/myuser/programs
tar -xvzf <PATH-TO-DOWNLOADED-FILE>/jdk-8u161-linux-x64.tar.gz

After that the you have a directory jdk1.8.0_161 in /home/myuser/programs which you can now reference. To have all the binaries in /home/myuser/programs/jdk1.8.0_161/bin available use

export JAVA_HOME=/home/myuser/programs/jdk1.8.0_161
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

This sets the environment variable JAVA_HOME to the directory where you extracted all the files and puts all binaries in the sub dir bin into the environment variable PATH.

Test it with:

java -version

The output should be:

java version "1.8.0_161"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_161-b12)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.161-b12, mixed mode)

After that was successful remember to persist the environment settings by adding them to you ~/.profile file or ~/.bashrc.

Option 2 - rpm file

Discalimer: I have not tested this way.

For this way you need root access. After you downloaded the rpm file you may want to check if all requirements to install the JDK are matched by executing

rpm -i --test  <PATH-TO-DOWNLOADED-FILE>/jdk-8u161-linux-x64.rpm

After that was successfull, change to root (su root) and install the rpm by

rpm -i <PATH-TO-DOWNLOADED-FILE>/jdk-8u161-linux-x64.rpm

Maybe you can also use sudo

sudo rpm -i <PATH-TO-DOWNLOADED-FILE>/jdk-8u161-linux-x64.rpm

After installing the rpm file you maybe have to add the binaries to you PATH variable as above (see option 1).