Оказывается, есть замечательный пакет под названием java-package, который позволяет собрать пакеты из файлов .tar.gz, скаченных с http://www.oracle.com
Пример использования:
There are a couple of things that you need to be sure prior to upgrade. The most important that your app is supported by the latest Sun JDK. Once you are sure start up by downloading the latest JDK package direct from sun.
Using wget: http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/7u3-b04/jdk-7u3-linux-x64.tar.gz
In the above example we downloaded the latest 64bit version of JDK for Linux.
Extract the tar file let's say in your /home directory and follow the instructions below: