Inorder to make a symlink you should first be logged in as root. The reason for being logged in as root is that usually you will want the symlink to be created in a location such as /usr/bin and only root has write permissions there. Open a terminal window and type ln -s followed by the path to the executable such as /usr/java/j2re1.4.1_01/bin/java followed by the location where you want the symlink to be located including the name of the symlink /usr/bin/java then hit enter. This would be one command and would look like this, ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.1_01/bin /usr/bin/java . That would create a symlink to java, the symlink would be called java and would be located in the directory /usr/bin. Any reference to java would find the symlink which would direct the program to the appropriate location.