found drama

Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) is here, and that’s plenty exciting. All the refinements–in the UI and under the good–are getting their due play ¹. One of those refinements: all of Java’s roads lead to 64-bit Java SE 6 ².

If you’re not panicking (or at least a little alarmed) then don’t bother reading onward.

If (however) you’re asking about giving priority to the 32-bit version and/or if you’re looking for J2SE 5.0, you may find this article on the OneSwarm wiki to be helpful.

1. If all you need to do is give priority to the 32-bit mode, try launching the Java Preferences app (in /Applications/Utilities) and re-ordering the preferred modes.
2. If you need J2SE 5.0, try downloading and untarring the 1.5 version that shipped with Leopard (OS X 10.5).  The instructions from OneSwarm:

   	cd /tmp/
   	wget http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/isdal/snow_leopard_workaround/java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz
   	tar -xvzf java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz
   	sudo mv 1.5.0 /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0-leopard
   	cd /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/
   	sudo rm 1.5.0
   	sudo ln -s 1.5.0-leopard 1.5.0

   view raw gistfile1.eclass hosted with by GitHub

3. And if all else fails, don’t forget to check where your ${JAVA_HOME} is pointed.

1. Either in the marketing literature or in blog posts circulating “discovered” improvements.[]
2. Which is to say, when you see 1.5.0 in /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions, you’re just seeing a symlink to 1.6.0.[]

About Rob Friesel