Java upgrade to 7

You need to prepend the bin directory of the new version to PATH and preferably set JAVA_HOME to the new installation dir

If you do both, do them in the opposite order ;)

As you have become aware over the past few months CEHJ I know enough about java and Linux to be dangerous.  After looking a little around the web I executed the following commands.

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.7.0_21/bin/java

Followed by

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/java/jre1.7.0_21/bin

Again, obviously I don't know what I am doing as the same problem occurs

You should probably make those two lines the last ones of ~/.bashrc

JAVA_HOME should be the path to the java directory, not the binary.

Also, echo $PATH and make sure you don't still have the Java 6 path in there. You are appending the Java 7 bin path to the end, and it will look in the directories in sequential order.

Quick response cehj ;)

But I'm glad to see we agree.

Just try to uninstall old jre's. what is the result of this command?
java -version


the following is the info how to uninstall old jre:
====================================================================
Java Uninstall
 There are two ways to uninstall Java. Please use the method that you used when you installed Java. For example, if you used RPM to install Java, then use the RPM uninstall method.
 
RPM uninstall
 Note: If you have RPM on your Linux box, you should first find out if Java is already installed using RPM. If Java is not installed using RPM, you should skip reading.1.Open Terminal Window
2.Login as the super user
3.Try to find jre package by typing: rpm -qa
4.If RPM reports a package similar to jre-<version>-fcs, then Java is installed with RPM.

 Note: Normally, you do not need to uninstall Java with RPM, because RPM is able to uninstall the old version of Java when installing a new version! You may skip reading, unless you want to remove Java permanently.
5.To uninstall Java, type: rpm -e jre-<version>-fcs

CEHJ, I looked around for the jdk and noticed it is the development kit for writing java apps.  Do I need that if all I am going to do is execute a java program on the Suse 10.2 computer.

No you probably don't - but i got the idea (obviously wrongly ;)) that you did write stuff

OK, I will proceed.  I do write some stuff but that is done on another computer and I am trying to get the results to run on the 10.2 computer.  I will continue and let you know.  
I have included by .bashrc file below in case you see something I have incorrect.  I'll keep working on it in the mean time.

Thanks.


# Sample .bashrc for SuSE Linux                                                            
# Copyright (c) SuSE GmbH Nuernberg                                                        
                                                                                           
# There are 3 different types of shells in bash: the login shell, normal shell            
# and interactive shell. Login shells read ~/.profile and interactive shells              
# read ~/.bashrc; in our setup, /etc/profile sources ~/.bashrc - thus all                  
# settings made here will also take effect in a login shell.                              
#                                                                                          
# NOTE: It is recommended to make language settings in ~/.profile rather than              
# here, since multilingual X sessions would not work properly if LANG is over-            
# ridden in every subshell.                                                                
                                                                                           
# Some applications read the EDITOR variable to determine your favourite text              
# editor. So uncomment the line below and enter the editor of your choice :-)              
#export EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim                                                                
#export EDITOR=/usr/bin/mcedit                                                            
                                                                                           
# For some news readers it makes sense to specify the NEWSSERVER variable here            
#export NEWSSERVER=your.news.server                                                        
                                                                                           
# If you want to use a Palm device with Linux, uncomment the two lines below.              
# For some (older) Palm Pilots, you might need to set a lower baud rate                    
# e.g. 57600 or 38400; lowest is 9600 (very slow!)                                        
#                                                                                          
#export PILOTPORT=/dev/pilot                                                              
#export PILOTRATE=115200                                                                  
                                                                                           
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.7.0_21
export PATH=$(JAVA_HOME)/bin:$PATH

test -s ~/.alias && . ~/.alias || true

Yes that looks ok. Just remember you might want to fix that JAVA_HOME if and when you install a JDK

OK, good advice.  It still does not work and whenever I bring up a konsole the top line says,

bash: JAVA_HOME: command not found

then I get the command prompt as usual

Hang on - there IS an error. You copied my post wrongly (am i getting deja vu at this error?)

WRONG

export PATH=$(JAVA_HOME)/bin:$PATH

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RIGHT

export PATH=${JAVA_HOME}/bin:$PATH

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(you use brackets, i use curly braces)

:)