There is a similar question on how to install JRE 7

There is a similar question on how to install JRE 7.

Install the JDK

• Download he 32bit or 64bit Linux "compressed binary file" - it has a ".tar.gz" file extension i.e. "[java-version]-i586.tar.gz" for 32bit and "[java-version]-x64.tar.gz" for 64bit

• Uncompress it

  tar -xvf jdk-7u2-linux-i586.tar.gz (32bit)

  tar -xvf jdk-7u2-linux-x64.tar.gz (64bit)

JDK 7 package is extracted into ./jdk1.7.0_02 directory.- Now move the JDK 7 directory to /usr/lib

sudo mv ./jdk1.7.0_02 /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0

• Now run

sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/bin/java" 1
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javac" "javac" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/bin/javac" 1
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javaws" "javaws" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/bin/javaws" 1

• Run

sudo update-alternatives --config java

You will see output similar one below - choose the number of jdk1.7.0 - for example 3 in this list:

$sudo update-alternatives --config java
There are 3 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

Selection Path Priority Status
————————————————————
* 0 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 1061 auto mode
1 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 1061 manual mode
2 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java 63 manual mode
3 /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/jre/bin/java 3 manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 3
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/jre/bin/java to provide /usr/bin/java (java) in manual mode.

Check the version of you new JDK 7 installation:

java -version

java version “1.7.0”
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0-b147)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 21.0-b17, mixed mode) 

Repeat the above for:

sudo update-alternatives --config javac
sudo update-alternatives --config javaws

Enable mozilla firefox plugin:

32 bit:
ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so ~/.mozilla/plugins/

64 bit:
ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so ~/.mozilla/plugins/

Depending on your configuration, you might need to update the apparmor profile for firefox (or other browsers) in /etc/apparmor.d/abstractions/ubuntu-browsers.d/java

# Replace the two lines:
#  /usr/lib/jvm/java-*-sun-1.*/jre/bin/java{,_vm} cx -> browser_java,
#  /usr/lib/jvm/java-*-sun-1.*/jre/lib/*/libnp*.so cx -> browser_java,
# with those (or adapt to your new jdk folder name)
/usr/lib/jvm/jdk*/jre/bin/java{,_vm} cx -> browser_java,
/usr/lib/jvm/jdk*/jre/lib/*/libnp*.so cx -> browser_java,

Then restart apparmor:

sudo /etc/init.d/apparmor restart

Confirm that the JRE has been successful by using the official oracle website.