I run Sun 1.4.2 (released from sun as j2sdk-1_4_2_12-linux-
ia64.bin). I found reference to an ia64 1.5 release, but couldn't
find it at sun. This version is available at by going to:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html
And clicking on 'Download J2SE SDK'. As for installation: I
expanded it, put the resulting directory in /usr (/usr/
j2sdk1.4.2_12) and symlinked /usr/java to it. Then I added /usr/
java/bin to the global path in /etc/profile, and set JAVA_HOME to /
usr/java. This allows easy upgrade to 1.5 whenever I get around to
finding it (or someone gets around to releasing it).