Ubuntu 14.04 Oracle Java Setup & Install

-Download the 32-bit or 64-bit Linux "compressed binary file" - it has a ".tar.gz" file extension.

Uncompress it

tar -zxvf jdk-8-linux-x64.tar.gz (64-bit)

The JDK 8 package is extracted into ./jdk1.8.0_xx directory. N.B.: Check carefully this folder name since Oracle seem to change this occasionally with each update.

Now move the JDK 8 directory to /usr/lib/jvm

sudo mv ./jdk1.8.0_xx /usr/lib/jvm/

Remove existing and make a symbolic link in the /usr/lib/jvm to the new java version. The symbolic link facilitates things when updating Java revisions.

rm java-1.8.0-oracle-amd64
ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0_xx java-1.8.0-oracle-amd64

Now run

sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-oracle-amd64/bin/java" 1
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javac" "javac" "/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-oracle-amd64/bin/javac" 1
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javaws" "javaws" "/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-oracle-amd64/bin/javaws" 1

This will assign Oracle JDK a priority of 1, which means that installing other JDKs will replace it as the default. Be sure to use a higher priority if you want Oracle JDK to remain the default.

Correct the file ownership and the permissions of the executables:

sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/java
sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/javac
sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/javaws
sudo chown -R root:root /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0_xx

N.B.: Remember - Java JDK has many more executables that you can similarly install as above. java, javac, javaws are probably the most frequently required. This answer lists the other executables available.

Run

sudo update-alternatives --config java

You will see output similar to the one below - choose the number of jdk1.8.0 - for example 3 in this list (unless you have have never installed Java installed in your computer in which case a sentence saying "There is nothing to configure" will appear):

$ sudo update-alternatives --config java There are 3 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

  Selection    Path                                            Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1071      auto mode
  1            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1071      manual mode
* 2            /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/bin/java                   1         manual mode
  3            /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-oracle-amd64/bin/java    1         manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 3

update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0/bin/java to provide /usr/bin/java (java) in manual mode

Repeat the above for:

sudo update-alternatives --config javac
sudo update-alternatives --config javaws

Note for NetBeans users!

You need to set the new JDK as default editing the configuration file.