PRISM was unable to find the directory which contains your Java distribution. Please specify this manually to make as in the following example: make JAVA_DIR=/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2 If you don't know where your Java distribution is, try typing: which javac If the output is of the form 'javac: Command not found' or 'which: no javaccc in...' then either you don't have Java installed or your path is not set up to include Java. If the output is something like: /bham/java/packages/j2sdk1.4.2/bin/javac then the directory is /usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2 (i.e. with the '/bin/javac' removed). One situation where this doesn't work is when javac has been set up as a symbolic link. In this case, type: ls -l `which javac` which will tell you where javac actually is (the part displayed after the -> arrow. You can then deduce what the directory is as above.