Solaris Operating System Installation (64-bit)

JDK Documentation

For system requirements, see Solaris system requirements.

Installing the 64-bit JDK for the Solaris operating system on SPARC, x64, and EM64T platforms is a two-step process. These steps can be performed in either order, but you must install both sets of bundles for a given platform:

  • On SPARC processors:  Install solaris-sparc (32-bit) with solaris-sparcv9 (64-bit)
  • On x64/EM64T processors:  Install solaris-i586 (32-bit) with solaris-x64 (64-bit)
  1. Install the 32-bit JDK using the 32-bit JDK Installation Notes.
  2. Install the supplemental files for 64-bit support using the following 64-bit installation instructions.

64-Bit Installation Instructions

As with the installation of the 32-bit JDK, the 64-bit supplemental support is available in two installation formats; use the same installation format as you used for the installation of the 32-bit JDK.

Note: For any text on this page containing <update>, you must substitute the appropriate JDK update version number (such as "_01"). For example, if you are installing update 1.6.0_01, the following command:

chmod +x jdk-6<update>-solaris-sparcv9.sh

would become:

chmod +x jdk-6_01-solaris-sparcv9.sh

Note: The jre-1_6_0<update>-solaris-x64.sh installer provides support for all processors that support the AMD 64-bit extensions to the Intel x86 architecture, including EM64T.

Installation of Self-Extracting Binary

Follow these instructions to add 64-bit support to the JDK which has already been installed using the self-extracting binary. If you want to install Solaris packages comprising the JDK, see Installation of Solaris Packages.

  1. Download the self-extracting binary and check the file size to ensure that you have downloaded the full, uncorrupted software bundle.

    2. You can download to any directory you choose; it does not have to be the directory where you want to install the JDK.

    Before you download the file, notice its byte size provided on the download page on the web site. Once the download has completed, compare that file size to the size of the downloaded file to make sure they are equal.

  2. Make sure that execute permissions are set on the self-extracting binary:
    1. On SPARC processors:

      chmod +x jdk-6<update>-solaris-sparcv9.sh

    2. On x64/EM64T processors:

      chmod +x jdk-6<update>-solaris-x64.sh

  3. Change directory to the same directory from where you ran the self-extracting binary for the 32-bit install.

    4. This is the directory that contains the jdk1.6.0<update> directory of the 32-bit JRE. The next step installs the JDK into the current directory.

  4. Run the self-extracting binary.

    Execute the downloaded file, prepending the path to it. For example, if the downloaded file is in the current directory, prepend it with "./" (necessary if "." is not in the PATH environment variable):

    1. On SPARC processors:

      ./jdk-6<update>-solaris-sparcv9.sh

    2. On x64/EM64T processors:

      ./jdk-6<update>-solaris-x64.sh

    The binary code license is displayed, and you are prompted to agree to its terms.

    The supplemental files for 64-bit support are installed in directories named for the machine architecture model, which are added at several locations within the same jdk1.6.0<update> directory where the 32-bit JDK was installed. For example, on SPARC processors the 64-bit Java VM Library file ( libjvm.so) is stored in the jre/lib/sparcv9/server, whereas the version for x64/EM64T is stored in jre/lib/x64/server.

Installation of Solaris Packages

Use these instructions if you want to use the pkgadd utility to install 64-bit support for the JDK.

  1. Download and check the file size to ensure that you have downloaded the full, uncorrupted software bundle.

    2. It's best to create a new directory to save the download bundle to, as the next step will extract several directories and files into this directory. The directory can be anywhere you choose.

    Before you download the file, notice its byte size provided on the download page on the web site. Once the download has completed, compare that file size to the size of the downloaded file to make sure they are equal.

  2. Extract the contents of the compressed tar file:
    1. On SPARC processors:

      zcat jdk-6<update>-solaris-sparcv9.tar.Z | tar -xf -

    2. On x64/EM64T processors:

      zcat jdk-6<update>-solaris-x64.tar.Z | tar -xf -

    This creates several directories (SUNWj6rtx and SUNWj6dvx) in the current directory, which contain 64-bit support for the JDK.

  3. Become root by running su and entering the super-user password.
  4. Uninstall any earlier installation of 64-bit packages for this version of the JDK.

    5. If your machine has an earlier 64-bit version of the JDK installed in the default location (/usr/jdk/jdk1.6.0), you must remove it before installing a later 64-bit version at that location.

    You can skip this step if you intend to install the 64-bit version of the JDK in a non-default location. For more details, see Selecting the Default Java Platform.

    To uninstall the Solaris packages for the JDK, remove them by running:

    On all processors:

    pkgrm SUNWj6rtx SUNWj6dvx

  5. Run the pkgadd command to install the packages.

    6. On all processors:

    pkgadd -d . SUNWj6rtx SUNWj6dvx

    This command installs the files for 64-bit support into the JDK installation at /usr/jdk/jdk1.6.0.

  6. Delete the tar files and extracted SUNW* directories.
  7. Exit the root shell. No need to reboot.