I am trying to figure out how to update my RH/Plesk server to a more reasonable version of Java (JDK 1.5) from the 1.4.2 that it came with. I have downloaded the jdk-1_5_0_07-linux-i586.rpm from Sun, FTPed it to my new dedicated server, but can't seem to install it on the server. rpm -Uvh or rpm -ivh seems to fail with "error: can't create transaction lock" every time. I don't get it.
I have a decent amount of Linux experience though I haven't used RedHat in years now, I've been on a strict diet of MEPIS and Ubuntu recently and have become thoroughly spoiled by apt-get. Does this have something to do with Plesk? Maybe I made a mistake by not getting a plain vanilla RHES server.
How can I upgrade to Java 1.5? Is there something about permissioning on ev1servers.net dedicated servers that I just don't get? Or did I manage to already hose my server in less than 5 minutes of use? Help!