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Installing Java 6 on Mac OS X

March 30, 2008

Mac OS X
As I mentioned previously, installing Woopra on a Mac requires installing the beta of Java 6. Unfortunately, how to get that done may not be terribly obvious to some users (it wasn’t to me, to begin with).

You can find the Java SE 6 beta for OS X at Apple Developer Connection. If you’re not an ADC member, you can log in with your normal Apple login. You’ll be prompted to join ADC Online, but it’s free to do. Once you’ve gotten logged in, go to Downloads, select “Java” on the right hand side of the page, and download the Java SE 6 beta. Note: this is only available for Intel Macs running Tiger or Leopard — if you’ve got a G4 or G5, you’re out of luck right now.

Update 04/29/08 - The update has been released and is no longer available from ADC, but generally available from Apple downloads — see details here.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the Java beta, there’s another not-terribly-obvious step you have to do. Go to /applications/utilities/java and run the Java Preferences app.Mac OS X Java Preferences

On the General tab, under Java Applet Runtime Settings, select “Java SE 6″. In Java Application Runtime Settings, re-arrange the list of Java versions so that Java SE 6 is the top item (click the image for a full-size picture of the proper settings).

Once you’ve done that, hit “Save”, and you’re good to go for running Java 6 applications. Remember that this is a beta, so use a bit of caution if you’re doing anything mission critical with it.

I installed this so I could install Woopra — if you’re installing Java 6 for OS X, tell us a little bit about why you’re doing so in the comments — I’m sure we’d all love to find more uses for it!

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Written by User ImageChuck Lawson · Filed Under Tech 
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Comments

19 Responses to “Installing Java 6 on Mac OS X”

  1. no imageJessica (Check me out!) on March 31st, 2008 9:50 am

    Bummer! Why don’t the PowerPC users get any love? I really wanted to install Woopra on my home machine and see those gorgeous screens on my big widescreen LCD. *pout*

    Rate this:
    		3.2 (1 person)
  2. no imageChuck Lawson (Check me out!) on March 31st, 2008 10:29 am

    I agree. My oldest son just picked up a 12″ 1.5 GHz Powerbook that I’ve been drooling over — it’d be much easier to pack around than my Macbook Pro, but I just don’t know how much longer there’ll be much support around for them. I’m afraid that the writing is starting to be on the wall.

    Rate this:
    		3.0
  3. no imageOpenSourceMarketer (Check me out!) on April 1st, 2008 6:49 am

    Chuck, your a life saver man. I’ve been scratching my head for two days on this. I’m new to Mac so after I downloaded and installed Java SE 6, I was a little lost when it didn’t run.

    After I made the changes you suggested, everything worked. I’m running a MacBook with the 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

    WordCamp was the best $20 bucks I’ve ever spent. Let me know if you go to any other events in the Dallas area and maybe we can have a coffee.

    Rate this:
    		3.2 (1 person)
  4. no imageChuck Lawson (Check me out!) on April 1st, 2008 9:28 am

    Glad it helped, Charles! This about drove me nuts when I was installing Woopra — I figured I probably wasn’t the only one that was going to have this problem :-)

    WordCamp was great! My allergies were killing me (Texas in the spring hates me), so I wimped out the second day and watched the streaming video on uStream but I’m glad I got to go — lots of good stuff.

    We need more things going on in the area, even if it’s only just local informal meetups. I was amazed at the turnout this weekend — back in the version 1.2 - 1.3 days, when Ryan Boran (one of the other major authors on WordPress) was still living in the area, monthly WordPress meetups were lucky to get 4 - 5 people to show up. Of course, there are a whole lot more WordPress users now.

    If you hear of anything great going on local let me know, and I’ll do the same!

    Rate this:
    		3.0
  5. Tracking Realtime Statistics Using Woopra - Open Source Marketer » Internet Marketing Tips For Everyone - OpenSourceMarketer.com on April 2nd, 2008 8:32 pm

    [...] installing Java 1.6 I found that I couldn’t install Woopra because, I still needed to change the Java preferences on the Mac. Once I did that I installed Woopra without [...]

  6. no imageRichard Giles (Check me out!) on April 2nd, 2008 9:33 pm

    Thanks for this. Spent a good amount of time trying to figure it out. Might pay for Woopra to add that little tip to their site.

    Rate this:
    		3.3 (1 person)
  7. no imageChuck Lawson (Check me out!) on April 2nd, 2008 9:52 pm

    Glad it helped — it was a pretty non-obvious to me too at first…

    Rate this:
    		3.0
  8. no imagedanielthepoet (Check me out!) on April 14th, 2008 12:20 pm

    Thanks, Chuck. I’ve been sitting on this for two weeks because i didn’t understand the activation part.

    You the man.

    danielthepoet’s last blog post..Twitter Users Will Eventually Privatize

    Rate this:
    		3.3 (1 person)
  9. no imageChuck Lawson (Check me out!) on April 15th, 2008 10:33 pm

    Glad I could help, Daniel!

    Rate this:
    		3.2
  10. Woompra on April 27th, 2008 7:56 am

    [...] cliente foi um tormento. Primeiro, o requisito é por um JAVA que ainda está em beta e requer uma receita mágica, ok, talvez não tão mágica para instalar. Não sofri para realizar a instalação, mas isto não [...]

  11. Woopra on April 27th, 2008 9:22 am

    [...] cliente foi um tormento. Primeiro, o requisito é por um JAVA que ainda está em beta e requer uma receita mágica, ok, talvez não tão mágica para instalar. Não sofri para realizar a instalação, mas isto não [...]

  12. Woopra - Theme Update to TMA with Widgets | Construct ICT... on April 28th, 2008 2:54 pm

    [...] were a few problems with using the client on a Mac without the beta Java download, but thanks to Metaphoric Labs its pretty easy to set up so it [...]

  13. no imageJohn (Check me out!) on April 29th, 2008 2:15 pm

    Frustratingly, the Java SE 6 isn’t showing up as a downloadable option. I’m on an Intel MacPro with 10.5.2.

    Rate this:
    		2.4
  14. no imageChuck Lawson (Check me out!) on April 29th, 2008 2:37 pm

    Hi John…

    I just checked, and you appear to be correct — even though it’s listed on the page I link to, it no longer shows up under “Java” in the downloads section.

    I wonder if this might be preparatory to a release version of the SDK coming soon, maybe in conjunction with the runtime in 10.5.3?

    In any event, this is way frustrating for anyone who needs it right now.

    Rate this:
    		3.2
  15. no imageChuck Lawson (Check me out!) on April 29th, 2008 4:08 pm

    Ah. This makes sense — it’s available as a non-ADC download now. Still only for Intel machines running Leopard.

    Info - Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1 adds support for Java SE 6

    Download - Download Page

    Note for Woopra users — If you install this, you have to go back into Java Preferences and put Java SE 6 at the top of the list for Java applications again, as described above, otherwise Woopra won’t start. It seems to run fine with it once you do.

    Enjoy!

    Rate this:
    		3.2
  16. no imageJohn (Check me out!) on April 29th, 2008 4:52 pm

    Thanks so much, Chuck. I had just installed Java on VMWare Fusion/Vista because I couldn’t find it for Mac. Happy to have a native-ish solution.

    Rate this:
    		2.4
  17. Stavelin.com » Blog Archive » Woopra live stats on May 7th, 2008 6:25 am

    [...] noe som var pyton, da det ikke var intuitivt hvordan java 1.6 settes aktivt i kontrollpanelet. Se denne, hvordan skal jeg vite at man må dra versjonene over hverandre for å sette dem som aktive? I det [...]

  18. no imageJörg Butzer (Check me out!) on July 24th, 2008 2:57 pm

    Thanks for the write-up, very helpful.
    The link for the download seems to have changed.
    New Download Page

    Rate this:
    		2.5
  19. Other How-Tos | alkalias on October 10th, 2008 1:57 am

    [...] http://www.metaphoriclabs.com/articles/installing-java-6-on-mac-os-x/ [...]

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