You will need Java installed if you want to:

• Run the 'Universal Jar' Fabric Installer
• Install a Fabric server. Linux/CLI guide available
• Run Minecraft in MultiMC or Prism Launcher
• Run ATLauncher or Technic Launcher
• Change the default “JAVA EXECUTABLE” to other than the bundled Java runtime in a Minecraft Launcher “Installation”

Open a terminal window and execute java -version.

If it returns with something like this, Java is already installed.

saiko@invader ~ % java -version
openjdk version "14.0.1-internal" 2020-04-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 14.0.1-internal+14-adhoc..jdk14u-jdk-14.0.17)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 14.0.1-internal+14-adhoc..jdk14u-jdk-14.0.17, mixed mode, sharing)

Install Java using your distribution's package manager. This step will vary across distros, so in case it is not listed here, please refer to your distro's documentation.

Convention: commands starting with a # must be run with privilges like so sudo [command] [options].

Install the latest JRE with this command:

# pacman -S jre-openjdk

If you're only running a server without the need for a graphical environment, the headless JRE is enough:

# pacman -S jre-openjdk-headless

If you want to also develop mods, you need to install the JDK instead.

# pacman -S jdk-openjdk

For more information, see the Arch Linux Wiki article.

Install the JRE for Java 8 with this command:

# dnf install java-1.8.0-openjdk

If you're only running a server without the need for a graphical environment, the headless JRE is enough:

# dnf install java-1.8.0-openjdk-headless

If you want to also develop mods, you need to install the JDK instead.

# dnf install java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel

For more information, see the Fedora Wiki article.

Install the latest JRE with this command:

# emerge -a jre

If you're only running a server without the need for a graphical environment, the headless JRE is enough, for that you can enable USE=headless-awt and then emerge a JRE that supports it, such as dev-java/openjdk or dev-java/openjdk-jre-bin for the precompiled version:

# euse -E headless-awt # or manually change make.conf/package.use
# emerge -a dev-java/openjdk

If you want to also develop mods, you need to install the JDK instead.

# emerge -a jdk

For more information, see the Gentoo Wiki article.

Install the latest JRE with this command:

# xbps-install openjdk-jre

If you want to also develop mods, you need to install the JDK instead.

# xbps-install openjdk