Selected directory is not a valid home for JDK - Intellij IDEA on Ubuntu

Question

After installing Intellij Idea 14, with OracleJDK 1.8 u25 (64 bit) on my 14.04 Ubuntu system, I cannot configure the Java SDK to use any JDK. When I navigate to Module Settings->SDK and click configure SDK, the add button, and then select /usr/java/jdk1.8.0_25 in the dialog, I get an error popup stating that "The selected directory is not a valid home for JDK."

I've checked the contents of the directory, which contains a bin folder with both java and javac inside, a lib folder and a jre folder.

I've tried selecting each of those in turn, to no avail, which I expected.

Answer 1

I had the same problem, in my case I wasn't able to select any of the "openjdk" directories under /usr/lib/jvm/, I solved with:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk

When restarting intellij it will find the path to the jdk automatically.

Answer 2

For the ones who run into this problem even though you select the right directory under /usr/lib/jvm, there is something you should know : The directories under /usr/lib/jvm are created when your system installs the minimum set of java tools. But it doesn't mean you have the development files available. You need to install the development files :

sudo apt-get install java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel 

After installing this package, try to select the directory again and it should work.