checking for a JDK home directory... configure: error: "A JDK home directory could not be found. "

[Albretch Mueller]

 after downloading the checking the hash signatures of icedtea web I
got a "JDK home not found" kind of error message:

./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking how to create a pax tar archive... gnutar
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... yes
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
. . .
checking for bash... /bin/bash
checking whether to compile ecj natively... no
checking for zip... /usr/bin/zip
checking for a JDK home directory... configure: error: "A JDK home
directory could not be found. "
~
 I found on the askubuntu site and explanation about why does it happen:

 https://askubuntu.com/questions/56104/how-can-i-install-sun-oracles-proprietary-java-jdk-6-7-8-or-jre/173951

 but when I try their suggestions I find not reason for that error to
bomb the configuration since there is only one java installation:

# uname -a
Linux IBMThnkPdT60 3.16.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.16.36-1+deb8u1
(2016-09-03) i686 GNU/Linux

$ which java
/usr/bin/java

$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_111"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea 2.6.7) (7u111-2.6.7-1~deb8u1)
OpenJDK Client VM (build 24.111-b01, mixed mode)

# update-alternatives --config java
There is only one alternative in link group java (providing
/usr/bin/java): /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-i386/jre/bin/java
Nothing to configure.

 How can I troubleshoot that problem?

 lbrtchx