Installing Java 1.6 on CentOS 6

By Andres Jaimes

October 29, 2013

Java 1.5 is the default Java version you get when you ask yum to install it on CentOS. However, several applications need 1.6 in order to run. Just follow the next steps to install it.

Remove Java 1.5

yum remove java-1.5-*

Install the rpmforge repository

cd
rpm --import http://apt.sw.be/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt

Check if you have a 32 or 64 CentOS version

uname -a

For 32 versions (i686) download and install the following repository

wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.i686.rpm
rpm -Uhv rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.i686.rpm

For 64 version (x64) download and install the following repository

wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm
rpm -Uhv rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm

Install Java 1.6

yum -y install java-1.6.0-openjdk

If the rpmforge repository is not enabled (it should be, but just in case) try the following command instead

yum -y --enablerepo=rpmforge install java-1.6.0-openjdk

Check your Java version

java -version

java version "1.6.0_24"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea6 1.7.9) (rhel-1.36.b17.el6_0-x86_64)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 14.0-b16, mixed mode)

Done!