Recently, Oracle withdrew the ability for Linux distributions to repackage Java and distribute their own packages.  This has been widely regarded as a bad idea.  I tend to agree.

So, let's re-roll an old sun-java6 deb file, with a new content to contain the latest 6u30 java release.

You will need: 

1. 1. A set of build packages (I've got a set for lucid, so if this goes away, I'll find some way to host them.) from http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/pool/partner/s/sun-java6/
2. The latest Java packages: http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/6u30-b12/jdk-6u30-linux-i586.bin and http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/6u30-b12/jdk-6u30-linux-x64.bin
3. dch.  just install devscripts package to get this. 
4.  Some idea of how packaging on debian/ubuntu works.

Let's get started.

mkdir package-build
cd package-build
wget http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/pool/partner/s/sun-java6/sun-java6_6.26-2lucid1.dsc
wget http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/pool/partner/s/sun-java6/sun-java6_6.26-2lucid1.debian.tar.gz
wget http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/pool/partner/s/sun-java6/sun-java6_6.26.orig.tar.gz
wget http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/6u30-b12/jdk-6u30-linux-i586.bin
wget http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/6u30-b12/jdk-6u30-linux-x64.bin
tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build$ ls -1
jdk-6u30-linux-x64.bin
jdk-6u30-linux-i586.bin
sun-java6_6.26-2lucid1.debian.tar.gz
sun-java6_6.26-2lucid1.dsc
sun-java6_6.26.orig.tar.gz
tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build$ dpkg-source -x *.dsc
gpgv: Signature made Tue 13 Dec 2011 22:31:53 GMT using RSA key ID CC559573
gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found
dpkg-source: warning: failed to verify signature on ./sun-java6_6.26-2lucid1.dsc
dpkg-source: info: extracting sun-java6 in sun-java6-6.26
dpkg-source: info: unpacking sun-java6_6.26.orig.tar.gz
dpkg-source: info: unpacking sun-java6_6.26-2lucid1.debian.tar.gz
tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build$ cd sun-java6-6.26/
tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build/sun-java6-6.26$ ls
debian  jdk-6u26-dlj-linux-amd64.bin  jdk-6u26-dlj-linux-i586.bin
tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build/sun-java6-6.26$ rm *.bin
tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build/sun-java6-6.26$ ../jdk-6u30-linux-i586.bin jdk-6u30-dlj-linux-i586.bin
tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build/sun-java6-6.26$ ../jdk-6u30-linux-x64.bin jdk-6u30-dlj-linux-amd64.bin
tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build/sun-java6-6.26$ vim debian/rules

Head down to the block "# check if the sources are the "same"

Then find and comment the block following it, out, so you get this.

#       : # check if the sources are the "same"
#       set -e; set -- $(all_archs); a1=$$1; shift; \
#       unzip -q -d tmp-$$a1/src $$a1-jdk/src.zip; \
#       for a2; do \
#         unzip -q -d tmp-$$a2/src $$a2-jdk/src.zip; \
#         echo "Comparing sources: tmp-$$a1/src tmp-$$a2/src ..."; \
#         echo "    diff -ur $(diff_ignore)"; \
#         diff -ur $(diff_ignore) tmp-$$a1/src tmp-$$a2/src; \
#       done

Save that file, and then run:

dch -v 6.30

This will create a changelog entry for version 6.30, and open $EDITOR to edit the changelog entry. 

Enter a stub entry.. 

I put something like 

* Updating internal contents to 6u30

.. There's some output, but you can ignore this.

dch warning: New package version is Debian native whilst previous version was not
dch warning: your current directory has been renamed to:
../sun-java6-6.30
dch warning: no orig tarball found for the new version.

tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build/sun-java6-6.26$ cd ..
tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build$ cd sun-java6-6.30/
tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build/sun-java6-6.30$ dpkg-buildpackage -b -uc

... LOTS OF STUFF ...

tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build/sun-java6-6.30$ cd ..
tom.oconnor@charcoal-black:~/package-build$ ls
ia32-sun-java6-bin_6.30_amd64.deb     sun-java6_6.26-2lucid1.dsc  sun-java6-6.30                sun-java6-bin_6.30_amd64.deb   sun-java6-fonts_6.30_all.deb   sun-java6-jdk_6.30_amd64.deb  sun-java6-plugin_6.30_amd64.deb
sun-java6_6.26-2lucid1.debian.tar.gz  sun-java6_6.26.orig.tar.gz  sun-java6_6.30_amd64.changes  sun-java6-demo_6.30_amd64.deb  sun-java6-javadb_6.30_all.deb  sun-java6-jre_6.30_all.deb    sun-java6-source_6.30_all.deb

Woo. Debs.

What you want to do with them now is up to you.  Next blogpost, I'm going to go over creating a package repository with reprepro.

Thanks  to @mibus for his similar article, which this is based partially on.