Installing IDEA on Ubuntu 11.10

Question

I am trying to install IDEA on Ubuntu 11.10. First, I installed openjdk-7-jdk. Then I tried running the idea.sh file as instructed. However it complains:

ERROR: cannot start IntelliJ IDEA.
No JDK found to run IDEA. Please validate either IDEA_JDK, JDK_HOME or JAVA_HOME 
environment variable points to valid JDK installation.

Press Enter to continue.

Trying to echo these three variables prints an empty line to the screen. How (and to what values) do I set these variables and proceed with the installation? Thanks.

Answer 1

UPDATE:

It's recommended to use the bundled JetBrains Runtime on Linux to run IntelliJ IDEA. At the moment IntelliJ IDEA requires Java 8 to run on this platform. It's possible to switch to a system or some other Java version, please check the FAQ.

---

Original answer (obsolete):

It's recommended to use OpenJDK 1.7+ or Oracle JDK to run IntelliJ IDEA on Linux, OpenJDK 1.6 is strictly unsupported because of the known performance and visual issues.

Starting from IntelliJ IDEA 16, custom JRE is bundled with Linux distributions.

The tricky part is that Oracle JDK is no longer distributed via .deb packages and you can't just install it with apt-get or Ubuntu Software Center.

Their site is also confusing and you can easily download JRE instead of the JDK (which will not work as IntelliJ IDEA needs tools.jar that is missing from JRE package).

Here is the correct URL for the JDK downloads (version 1.6.0_29). From this URL download the appropriate .bin file, for example jdk-6u29-linux-i586.bin if you need 32-bit Java or jdk-6u29-linux-x64.bin for 64-bit version.

chmod +x jdk-6u29-linux-i586.bin
./jdk-6u29-linux-i586.bin

to install in the current directory.

Inside bin/idea.sh add the following on the second line:

export IDEA_JDK=/path/to/jdk1.6.0_29

Normally resides under /usr/lib/jvm/<YOUR_JDK>. Now IntelliJ IDEA should start fine under Oracle JDK 1.6.0_29. You can verify it in Help | About.

Answer 2

i also face a question... in firs day all works without problems, but then... i solve a problem: add to file idea.sh line with path to JDK IDEA_JDK="/opt/java/32/jdk1.6.0_45/"

add after 46 line

Answer 3

You can set JAVA_HOME variable and add to your PATH, by doing the following. As root open up /etc/bash.bashrc and add the following to the end of the file.

JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java
export JAVA_HOME

When you reboot, try running the following:

$ echo $JAVA_HOME

Answer 4

I have had this problem a few times...

1. Add the IDEA_HOME/bin to your PATH Make sure JAVA_HOME & other variables are correct.

then run it from the terminal:

$ idea projects-name;

OR 2: navigate into the IDEA_HOME/bin and run it from there.

Answer 5

If you had installed java, try:

type java

if you see like this:

java is /usr/java/default/java

then you should edit .bash_profile, add:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/default

then execute:

source .bash_profile

if you did not install java, you should install manual or auto.

Answer 6

Actually, you can configure the JAVA_HOME in bash. But, IDEA use javac and java from standard bin folders. So, you have to configure like this.

• Download the JDK to home(~) folder
• extract the zip file

• use these command to mv to jvm folder under /usr/lib/jvm

  sudo mv -r ~/jdk-xx-version /usr/lib/jvm
  

• use these commands to configure the JAVA_HOME

  sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-xx-version/bin/java" 1 
  sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javac" "javac" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-xx-version/bin/javac" 1 
  sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javaws" "javaws" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-xx-version/bin/javaws" 1
  

Answer 7

You install JDK 8 with:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk

Then, sometimes the problem lies on the default version of JAVA you are running. For this, use update-alternatives to modify it:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

See how I did it:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config java
There are 2 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/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1069      manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 2
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java to provide /usr/bin/java (java) in manual mode

And now Intellij IDEA 2016.3 is running fine.

Answer 8

This might not be the root cause for the original question, but it is the top hit when searching for this error:

ERROR: cannot start IntelliJ IDEA.
No JDK found to run IDEA. Please validate either IDEA_JDK, JDK_HOME or JAVA_HOME 
environment variable points to valid JDK installation.

Short answer: If you were upgrading IDEA and run into this error and are using JBRE (JetBrains Runtime), export your previous runtime path to JAVA_HOME to load up the latest version of IDEA and allow the import wizard to copy configs over.

• The issue appears on my development environment when there's no default JAVA_HOME installed.
• I updated from 2019.2 to 2019.3, which causes the latest version of IDEA to temporarily have no config files.
• This would mean there would be no 'valid Java runtime'.

Solution

1. Look into your previous configuration and lookup what runtime you're using:

% cat ~/.IntelliJIdea2019.2/config/idea.jdk /home/username/.IntelliJIdea2019.2/config/jdks/jbrsdk-8u232-linux-x64-b1638.3

2. In my case above it is jbrsdk-8u232-linux-x64-b1638.3 and the path is as shown above. Export that temporarily as JAVA_HOME.

EXPORT JAVA_HOME=/home/username/.IntelliJIdea2019.2/config/jdks/jbrsdk-8u232-linux-x64-b1638.3

3. Run idea &.

You should now have the first time run dialog show up to copy the config over, and you won't need to export the variable again.

Answer 9

the solution arch linux takes with intellij idea 2020 is here: https://git.archlinux.org/svntogit/community.git/tree/trunk?h=packages/intellij-idea-community-edition

if [ -z "$IDEA_JDK" ] ; then
  IDEA_JDK="/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk/"
fi
# open-jfx location that should match the JDK version
if [ -z "$IDEA_JFX" ] ; then
  IDEA_JFX="/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjfx/"
fi
# classpath according to defined JDK/JFX
if [ -z "$IDEA_CLASSPATH" ] ; then
  IDEA_CLASSPATH="${IDEA_JDK}/lib/*:${IDEA_JFX}/lib/*"
fi

exec env IDEA_JDK="$IDEA_JDK" IDEA_CLASSPATH="$IDEA_CLASSPATH" /usr/share/idea/bin/idea.sh "$@"

Answer 10

Here is a bash script for developers that installs IDEA so that you can run it from the shell via idea.sh

It also:

• Tests if the operating system is running on VirtualBox
• If it runs on VirtualBox, tests if IdeaProjects is set up for sharing
• If yes, writes a mount command to the bootstrap script to automount projects from host to guest
• Also creates a script to mount and unmount idea projects on-the-fly

#!/bin/bash
#Author: Yucca Nel http://thejarbar.org
#Modify these variables as needed...
tempWork=/tmp/work
defaultStartScript=/etc/init.d/rc.local
defaultIDEA=11.0.1
locBin=/usr/local/bin

read -p "Please [Enter] full path name of your local startup script ($defaultStartScript is the default). Please
make sure on this before providing a value by consulting documentation for your system:" locStartScript
locStartScript=${locStartScript:-$defaultStartScript}

read -p "Please [Enter] IDEA Version ($defaultIDEA is default):" ideaVersion
ideaVersion=${ideaVersion:-$defaultIDEA}


if [ ! -f $locStartScript ]
then
    echo "The file you provided could not be found. Remember to include the full path and try again. Exiting in 7 secs..."
    sleep 7
    exit 1
fi

mkdir -p /$tempWork
cd /$tempWork

sudo wget http://download-ln.jetbrains.com/idea/ideaIC-$ideaVersion.tar.gz;
tar -zxvf ./*;

#Move it to a better location...
mv ./idea-IC-* $HOME/;

sudo ln -f -s $HOME/idea-*/bin/* /usr/bin/;

#If you use VirtualBox , you can share your projects between Host and guest. Name of shared
#folder must match 'IdeaProjects'
mkdir -p $HOME/IdeaProjects

if [ -f /sbin/mount.vboxsf ]
then
    sudo /sbin/umount $HOME/IdeaProjects
    sudo /sbin/mount.vboxsf IdeaProjects $HOME/IdeaProjects
fi

if mountpoint -q ~/IdeaProjects
then
#Add it to the start script to automate process...
if ! grep "sudo /sbin/mount.vboxsf IdeaProjects $HOME/IdeaProjects" $locStartScript
then
    echo "sudo /sbin/mount.vboxsf IdeaProjects $HOME/IdeaProjects" | sudo tee -a $locStartScript
fi
    sudo chmod +x $locStartScript

#Create a mount and unmount script file...
    rm -rf $tempWork/*
    echo '#!/bin/bash' > $tempWork/idea-mount.sh
    echo "sudo /sbin/mount.vboxsf IdeaProjects $HOME/IdeaProjects" >> $tempWork/idea-mount.sh
    echo "echo 'mounted IdeaProjects'" >> $tempWork/idea-mount.sh
    echo "exit 0" >> $tempWork/idea-mount.sh

    echo '#!/bin/bash' > $tempWork/idea-umount.sh
    echo "sudo umount $HOME/IdeaProjects" >> $tempWork/idea-umount.sh
    echo "echo 'unmounted IdeaProjects'" >> $tempWork/idea-mount.sh
    echo 'exit 0' >> $tempWork/idea-umount.sh

#Script for mounting ALL VirtualBox shared solders....
#If there isn't one create one...
if [ ! -f $locBin/mount-all-from-host.sh ]
then
    echo '#!/bin/bash' > $tempWork/mount-all-from-host.sh
    echo "sudo /sbin/mount.vboxsf IdeaProjects $HOME/IdeaProjects" | sudo tee -a $tempWork/mount-all-from-host.sh
    echo "exit 0" | sudo tee -a $tempWork/mount-all-from-host.sh

#Otherwise if there is one, but no mount, add one...
elif ! grep "sudo /sbin/mount.vboxsf IdeaProjects" $locBin/mount-all-from-host.sh
then
    sudo sed -ie '$d' $locBin/mount-all-from-host.sh
    echo "sudo /sbin/mount.vboxsf IdeaProjects $HOME/IdeaProjects" | sudo tee -a $locBin/mount-all-from-host.sh
    echo "exit 0" | sudo tee -a $locBin/mount-all-from-host.sh
fi

#Script for unmounting ALL VirtualBox shared folders...
#If there isn't one create one...
if [ ! -f $locBin/umount-all-from-host.sh ]
then
    echo '#!/bin/bash' > $tempWork/umount-all-from-host.sh
    echo "sudo umount -a -t vboxsf" | sudo tee -a $tempWork/umount-all-from-host.sh
    echo "echo 'unmounted all VirtualBox shared folders'" | sudo tee -a $tempWork/umount-all-from-host.sh
    echo "exit 0" | sudo tee -a $tempWork/umount-all-from-host.sh
fi

    sudo chmod +x $tempWork/*
    sudo mv -f $tempWork/*.sh $locBin/
    rm -rf $tempWork
fi

sudo rm -rf $tempWork

exit 0