Ubuntu: OpenJDK 8 – Unable to locate package

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UPDATE: installation without root privileges below

I advise you to not install packages manually on ubuntu system if there is already a (semi-official) repository able to solve your problem. Further, use Oracle JDK for development, just to avoid (very sporadic) compatibility issues (i’ve tried many years ago, it’s surely better now).

Add the webupd8 repo to your system:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update

Install your preferred version of jdk (versions from java-6 to java-9 available):

sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer

You can also install multiple version of jdk, mixing openjdk and oracle versions. Then you can use the command update-java-alternatives to switch between installed version:

# list available jdk
update-java-alternatives --list

# use jdk7
sudo update-java-alternatives --set java-7-oracle

# use jdk8
sudo update-java-alternatives --set java-8-oracle

Requirements

If you get add-apt-repository: command not found be sure to have software-properties-common installed:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common

If you’re using an older version Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties

JDK installation without root privileges

If you haven’t administrator rights on your target machine your simplest bet is to use sdkman to install the zulu certified openjdk:

curl -s "https://get.sdkman.io" | bash
source "$HOME/.sdkman/bin/sdkman-init.sh"
sdk install java

NOTE: sdkman allow to install also the official Oracle JDK, although it’s not a the default option. View available versions with:

Install the chosen version with:

sdk install java <version>

For example:

sdk install java 9.0.1-oracle

Glossary of commands

  • sudo <command> [command_arguments]: execute a command with the superuser privilege.
  • add-apt-repository <PPA_id>: Ubuntu (just like every Debian derivatives and generally speaking every Linux distribution) has a main repository of packages that handle things like package dependencies and updating. In Ubuntu is possible to extend the main repository using a PPA (Personal Package Archive) that usually contains packages not available in the system (just like oracle jdk) or updated versions of available ones (example: LibreOffice 5 in LTS is available only through this PPA).
  • apt-get [install|update|upgrade|purge|...]: it’s “the” command-line package handler used to manipulate the state of every repository on the system (installing / updating / upgrading can be viewed as an alteration of the repository current state).

In our case: with the command sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java we inform the system that the next repository update must retrieve packages information also from webupd8 repo.

With sudo apt-get update we actually update the system repository (all this operations requires superuser privileges, so we prepend sudo to the commands).

sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer

  • update-java-alternatives (a specific java version of update-alternatives): in Ubuntu several packages provides the same functionality (browse the internet, compile mails, edit a text file or provides java/javac executables…). To allows the system to choose the user favourites tool given a specific task a mechanism using symlinks under /etc/alternatives/ is used. Try to update the jdk as indicated above (switch between java 7 and java 8) and view how change the output of this command:ls -l /etc/alternatives/java*

In our case: sudo update-java-alternatives --set java-8-oracle update symlinks under /etc/alternatives to point to java-8-oracle executables.

Extras:

  • man <command>: start using man to read a really well written and detailed help on (almost) every shell command and its options (every command i mention in this little answer has a man page, try man update-java-alternatives).
  • apt-cache search <search_key>: query the APT cache to search for a package related with the search_key provided (can be the package name or some word in package description).
  • apt-cache show <package>: provides APT information for a specific package (package version, installed or not, description).

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