How to install Java 8 on Ubuntu Server 14.04

There is a difference between installation Java 8 on Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04. On the 16.04 you can simply execute apt-get with Java 8 installer, whereas on 14.04 you’ll need to add PPA for Java 8. Here’s how to do this on 14.04:

Step #1: Add the WebUpd8 Personal Package Archive (PPA)

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:webupd8team/java

Step #2: Update

Let’s use the best practice and execute

sudo apt-get update

Step #3: The installation

sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer

Let’s check our installation by running the following:

javac -version

The output should be the following:

javac 1.8.0_121

It may very depend on the latest java version, but it should definitely start with javac 1.8.****.

The last step is to set up Java Home environment variable by executing:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle

Let’s make sure that our variable is set correctly:

printenv JAVA_HOME

The output should be the same as a value of JAVA_HOME, i.e.:

/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle