1) Change the permission of the file you downloaded to be executable. Type: chmod a+x jre-6u -linux-i586.bin 2) Verify that you have permission to execute the file. Type: ls -l 3) Change to the directory in which you want to install. Type: cd For example, to install the software in the /usr/java/ directory, Type: cd /usr/java/ 4) Run the self-extracting binary Type: ./jre-6u -linux-i586.bin 5) Verify that the jre1.6.0_ sub-directory is listed under the current directory.