How to set JAVA_HOME environment variable in Ubuntu

One way that you can set your JAVA_HOME variable and add to your PATH, is be doing the folowing. 

As 'sudo' open up /etc/bash.bashrc and add the following to the end of the file. 

NOTE: Set the java path to whatever the actual path is on your environment if it does not match /usr/lib/jvm/java

JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java
export JAVA_HOME
PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
export PATH

When you reboot, try running the following:

$ echo $JAVA_HOME
/usr/lib/jvm/java
 echo $PATH
[probably lots of paths]:/usr/lib/jvm/java/bin

Credits : http://www.zimbio.com/the+ubuntu+guy/articles/82/How+set+JAVA_HOME+environment+variable+Ubuntu