Apple does it again! (java update)

Oracle's instructions above are wrong or at best out-of-date.

The following two Terminal commands have been successfully used by one user to remove the Java 7 plugin and restore the Java 6 plugin:

sudo rm -rf /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

sudo ln -s /System/Library/Java/Support/Deploy.bundle/Contents/Resources/JavaPlugin2_NPAPI .plugin /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

Finally Time Machine saved me:

At the end it was not that much of a hack.

I have removed the /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin and re symlinked it as descripted by Oracle (so I feel good with that one), copied /Applications/Utilities/Java Preferences.app back and exchanged the following three folders:

/System/Library/Java

/Library/Java

/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework

I am not sure if the following is necessary, too (it worked for me without....)

/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaFrameEmbedding.framework

seb0815 wrote:

I have removed the /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin and re symlinked it as descripted by Oracle

I guess you missed the instructions Apple posted Java for OS X 2012-006: How to re-enable the Apple-provided Java SE 6 applet plug-in and Web Start functionality or are you running OS X 10.6?

Question for MadMacs0

If you type java -version from within terminal, would you post your results for me. I just want to check mine.

java -version

java version "1.6.0_35"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_35-b10-428-11M3811)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.10-b01-428, mixed mode)

TimPetro wrote:

If you type java -version from within terminal, would you post your results for me. I just want to check mine.

I'm running Leopard on a PPC with J2SE 5.0, so that's not going to help you. You need to track down somebody that has either not run the latest update or successfully used TimeMachine to revert. I haven't been keeping track, so I don't know who that might be.

Have you approached Cisco about fixing their Utilities to work with 1.6.0_37? At least one vendor issued a "workaround" for a single error they had made in their Java code to get it working again.

This is exactly what I was looking for. Internet Searches and searching the Apple site never brought this up so I'm glad I stumbled across this forum.

I've got a browser app that I use for work that requires 1.6, so the last couple days have been killing me.

Thank you.

TimPetro wrote:

Question for MadMacs0

If you type java -version from within terminal, would you post your results for me. I just want to check mine.

java -version

java version "1.6.0_35"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_35-b10-428-11M3811)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.10-b01-428, mixed mode)

Using 10.7.5 without the most recent java "update" installed and with java turned off in its preferences app, I get:

"Unable to locate a Java Runtime to invoke."

After turning java on in its preferences app, I get:

"java version "1.6.0_35"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_35-b10-428-11M3811)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.10-b01-428, mixed mode)"

Yes, I have missed that and then I tried to fix it and messed it all up. But now I am fine. Acutally I would need 1.6.0_31 for enterprise usage, but now I will simply stick with it.

seb0815 wrote:

Acutally I would need 1.6.0_31 for enterprise usage, but now I will simply stick with it.

I hope you realize that anything less than 1.6.0_35 contains the Flashback CVE-2011-3544 vulnerability. Most of the A-V labs consider Flashback to be extinct now, but there are a few other less previlent pieces of malware that use that same drive-by vulnerability which could still be around.

MadMacs0 wrote:

...Most of the A-V labs consider Flashback to be extinct now, but there are a few other less previlent pieces of malware that use that same drive-by vulnerability which could still be around.

Since there seem to be a few specific websites that legitimately require Java to function properly and it looks like posters here know which they are, would it be unreasonable to encourage them to make use of the Java Preferences app in the utilities folder (which should still be there if the latest update hasn't been installed and could be copied from a backup or Time Machine if it has) to turn Java on when accessing those sites and off otherwise? It requires user participation in a computing experience we've come to expect should be effortless, but it's a lot harder to get out from under malware than it is to block it in the first place.

FatMac\>MacPro wrote:

would it be unreasonable to encourage them to make use of the Java Preferences app in the utilities folder (which should still be there if the latest update hasn't been installed and could be copied from a backup or Time Machine if it has) to turn Java on when accessing those sites and off otherwise?

Most of us have been preaching for months (some even longer) to disable Java in their browsers except for the short period of time they needed it to accomplish something on a specific site. Even on the day Apple came out with 1.6.0_37 somebody had already created a proof-of-concept exploit for a vulnerability in it. There have been no threats discovered yet, but it's probably only a matter of time.

Turning it off completely would probably be a good idea, but no exploits have yet been observed with regard to desktop apps. In my case I need it on for CrashPlan to run at random times, so that's not an option.

The success rate for trying to restore Java Preferences has been running about 50%-50% from what I've observed in the Forum. Not really clear what's involved there yet.

At the end, i hope you will agree with me. Why have we to deal with this ????

trifero wrote:

At the end, i hope you will agree with me. Why have we to deal with this ????

No, I'm just here to help as best I can. If you have issues with Apple, then you need to feed that back to them directly @ http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

I also had problems with the whole Java saga on Mountain Lion. I really don't use it much, except for running some java stand-alone applications. But I also use my company's web-conferencing system that is based on Java and uses Java Web Start to launch it (so using jnlp files).

That used to work fine except that it did not last time I had to use it - which caused me major embarassment. I then realized (thanks to this forum) that one update actually disabled java. So I went through the steps to install the latest java 7 (1.7.0_09-b05). I also had to manually set the JNLP files to automatically open using Java Web Start. So I am a happy camper again.

I am still confused about the whole Java story. When I check java version using the command line, I get:

$ java -version

java version "1.6.0_37"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_37-b06-434-11M3909)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.12-b01-434, mixed mode)

How can that be ? It looks like I have two java runtimes available ? That is fine, but how can I control the version I use - like how can I use java 7 from the command line ?

I remember there was a setting that would list all installed versions and select the one to use. That no longer exists ? The Java Preferences app lets me view and manage the runtime versions, but that only shows java 7.

Can any of you point to a document or a place where all this is explained ?

Albert

Hi TimPetro

The javadeveloper_for_os_x_2012005__11m3811.dmg is no longer available from the Apple developer site. Apple does all that we don't have a working java version. (1.7 has to many bugs and isn't an alternative solution for me at the moment.)

Do you have a working link to a JDK or JRE 6 installer for OS X 10.8.2?

Regards, Mike