Linux – install sun java 6 and sun java 7 side-by-side on linux (fedora 16) using rpm

This is what I would like to achieve, but I'm failing (I'm a newbie in Linux).

I have a Fedora 16 box (64 bit) and would like to install multiple versions of oracle java (java 6 and java 7 for the moment).
I'm trying to install java using the rpm software and I would like to install both of them under /opt.

I downloaded the required packages from the Oracle site:

jdk-6u30-linux-x64-rpm.bin
jdk-7u2-linux-x64.rpm

and extracted the rpm package from inside the .bin file running

./jdk-6u30-linux-x64-rpm.bin -x

obtaining the following situation:

jdk-6u30-linux-amd64.rpm
jdk-7u2-linux-x64.rpm

Then I looked inside jdk-6u30-linux-amd64.rpm with:

rpm -qpl ~/Downloads/jdk-7u2-linux-x64.rpm

and obtained that java 6 will install its files into:

/etc                   (some files)
/usr/java/jdk1.6.0\_30 (the majority of the files)

In a similar way java 7 will install into:

/etc
/usr/java/jdk1.7.0\_02

Because I want to install into /opt I tried to install using rpm relocation.
Both packages seem to be rpm-relocatable, in fact:

rpm -qpi ~/Downloads/jdk-6u30-linux-amd64.rpm | grep -i reloc

gives as result

Relocations : /usr/java

and

rpm -qpi ~/Downloads/jdk-7u2-linux-x64.rpm | grep -i reloc

gives as result

Relocations : /usr/java

Attempt 1 (install java 6 and then java 7)

sudo rpm -i --relocate /usr/java=/opt/java ~/Downloads/jdk-6u30-linux-amd64.rpm

this runs almost smoothly because rpm says

ln: failed to create symbolic link '/usr/java/jdk1.6.0\_30': No such file or directory`

rpm -q jdk

says

jdk-1.6.0\_30-fcs.x86\_64_ ... OK!

then

sudo rpm -i --relocate /usr/java=/opt/java ~/Downloads/jdk-7u2-linux-x64.rpm

fails tremendously saying:

file /etc/init.d/jexec from install of
jdk-2000:1.7.0\_02-fcs.x86\_64*     conflicts with file from package
jdk-2000:1.6.0\_30-fcs.x86\_64*

Attempt 2 (install java 7 and then java 6)

having yet installed java 6 I'll remove it first:

sudo rpm -e jdk*
sudo rpm -q jdk*

gives:

package jdk is not installed* <- OK, uninstalled!

then let's try installing java 7

sudo rpm -i --relocate /usr/java=/opt/java ~/Downloads/jdk-7u2-linux-x64.rpm*

gives the usual error:

ln: failed to create symbolic link '/usr/java/jdk1.7.0_02': No such file or directory`*

and now java 6

sudo rpm -i --relocate /usr/java=/opt/java ~/Downloads/jdk-6u30-linux-amd64.rpm*

fails saying two things:

package jdk-2000:1.7.0\_02-fcs.x86\_64 (which is newer than jdk-2000:1.6.0\_30-fcs.x86\_64) is already installed*

and

file /etc/init.d/jexec from install of jdk-2000:1.6.0\_30-fcs.x86\_64
conflicts with file from package jdk-2000:1.7.0\_02-fcs.x86\_64*

My questions are:

1. symbolic link creation problem:
   is there a way to fix it? the installation process seems not to be aware that I
   tried to use
   the relocation mechanism, even if the package is relocatable (as far as I see)
2. am I missing something in the installation process? Is it really possible to have both java 6 and java 7
   on the same Linux machine? How? What am I doing wrong?
3. Is there another way to achieve my goal?

PS: this is my first question here. I apologize in advance if something is wrong (from my English to the formatting and anything)
PS2: I tried to add the tag sun-java7-jdk to this question but I haven't enough reputation to do it… should this tag be created?