Installing j2sdk1.4.2_04 on Unstable

[jensp@strategicdata.com.au (Jens Porup)]

G'day,

After following the Debian Java FAQ Chapter 11, plus a good deal of
other experimentation, I remain stuck with the following error:

$ java -version
Error occurred during initialization of VM
java/lang/NoClassDefFoundError: java/lang/Object
$

but:

$ echo $CLASSPATH
.:/usr/local/lib/j2sdk1.4.2_04/lib:/usr/local/lib/j2sdk1.4.2_04/jre/lib

$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games:/usr/local/lib/j2sdk1.4.2_04/bin:/usr/local/lib/j2sdk1.4.2_04/bin

$ echo $JAVA_HOME
/usr/local/lib/j2sdk1.4.2_04

$ echo $JAVA_COMPILER
javacomp


Muchly Baffled. Help?

Jens