I’m continuing to run RHEL 6 on my laptop and encountered a recent challenge getting a Java based collaboration tool called Elluminate Live! (now known as Blackboard Collaborate) to run on it.  The necessary package is installed by default in Fedora and it ran fine there so I never paid much attention.

This took way longer to figure out than I thought it should so here is the bottom line:  If you are using the version of Java that comes by default in RHEL 6.0 you need the java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin found in the “Optional” channel on RHN (or in RHEL6.1 and thereafter icetea-web).

If you’re running RHEL 6.0, java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin is unavailable. I logged bug 678806.

[root@localhost ~]# yum install java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin
Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit, rhnplugin
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin.x86_64 1:1.6.0.0-1.21.b17.el6 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: java-1.6.0-openjdk = 1:1.6.0.0-1.21.b17.el6 for package: 1:java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin-1.6.0.0-1.21.b17.el6.x86_64
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: 1:java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin-1.6.0.0-1.21.b17.el6.x86_64 (rhel-x86_64-workstation-optional-6)
           Requires: java-1.6.0-openjdk = 1:1.6.0.0-1.21.b17.el6
           Installed: 1:java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-1.39.b17.el6_0.x86_64 (@rhel-x86_64-workstation-6)
               java-1.6.0-openjdk = 1:1.6.0.0-1.39.b17.el6_0
           Available: 1:java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-1.21.b17.el6.x86_64 (rhel-x86_64-workstation-6)
               java-1.6.0-openjdk = 1:1.6.0.0-1.21.b17.el6
           Available: 1:java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-1.31.b17.el6_0.x86_64 (rhel-x86_64-workstation-6)
               java-1.6.0-openjdk = 1:1.6.0.0-1.31.b17.el6_0
           Available: 1:java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-1.36.b17.el6_0.x86_64 (rhel-x86_64-workstation-6)
               java-1.6.0-openjdk = 1:1.6.0.0-1.36.b17.el6_0
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest

 

Update: 2011-03-29.  It turns out the latest available openjdk package which fixed some security issues did not contain a new openjdk-plugin and thus the reason for the problem above.  If you are on RHEL 6.0 there is no current work-around except to try a different java jdk like Sun or IBM–also available on RHN.

In the RHEL 6.1 Beta and thereafter things should install fine.

 

$ su -c 'yum install icetea-web'

 

To get access to the public beta of RHEL6.1 enable the RHEL 6 beta channels for your system in RHN.