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Java update 2012-006 did not remove Java plugin from any browser

I successfully installed Java update 2012-006 via Software Update on my iMac running OS X Lion 10.7.5 (German) and it updated the Java runtime to version 1.6.0_37 and removed the Java Preferences application as expected, but it did not remove the Java plugin from any browser!

Safari and Firefox can still use the Java plugin as before.

I repaired permissions, rebooted, manually downloaded Java update 2012-006 and successfully installed it again without any change to the Java plugin: it is still present on my system and fully functional from any browser!

The web is full with messages from users missing the Java plugin after installing this update - but I could not find anything about the plugin not being removed!

Is anyone experiencing the same behaviour under Lion? I thought this would happen only under Snow Leopard...

What should I do now? Can I really trust this "successfull installation" of Java update 2012-006 on my system?

Thanks,

Michael

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Oct 20, 2012 9:35 AM

22 replies

Oct 21, 2012 3:00 PM in response to Caledonia80

Caledonia80,

as I mentioned above in one of my posts, on my system the name of the plugin in the Deploy bundle of Java 1.6.0_37 is

"JavaPlugin2_NPAPI.plugin" (Version 14.5.0)

and it is located in

/System/Library/Java/Support/Deploy.bundle/Contents/Resources/

The symlink in /Library/Internet Plug-Ins points to this file on my system.

This means the command to create the symlink on your system could be the following:

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

Hope this helps...

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,227 points

Oct 21, 2012 2:58 PM in response to TheGoodLife99

TheGoodLife99 wrote:

I verified that no trace of MRT is left on my system.

This means it must have run successfully at some point in time - at least it removed itself completely from my system.

In giving it some additional thought, I think the log entry is just telling us that the script tried to unload the MRT in case it was running at the time, but since it apparently wasn't, it logged it as an error.

but I think this is not related to the Java Plugin symlink not being removed.

I agree.

By the way - it's not only the Java Plugin symlink , on my system the Java-Web-Start application still lives in /System/Library/CoreServices ... and it was updated yesterday with the time stamp of my Java update 2012-006 installation. As far as I know most people are missing the Java-Web-Start application, too...

That might explain some of the other reports I've read about trying to get applets to launch.

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,227 points

Oct 21, 2012 3:11 PM in response to TheGoodLife99

TheGoodLife99 wrote:

Caledonia80,

as I mentioned above in one of my posts, on my system the name of the plugin in the Deploy bundle of Java 1.6.0_37 is

"JavaPlugin2_NPAPI.plugin"

Which means that Oracle guidance is totally wrong and out-of-date. This is going to be a lengthy transition.

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,227 points

Oct 22, 2012 7:32 PM in response to TheGoodLife99

TheGoodLife99 wrote:

I successfully installed Java update 2012-006 via Software Update on my iMac running OS X Lion 10.7.5 (German) and it updated the Java runtime to version 1.6.0_37 and removed the Java Preferences application as expected, but it did not remove the Java plugin from any browser!

In analysing the install script for this update, it is clear that if there is a Java plugin present before installation, then it will still be there after the update, but will be linked to

/System/Library/Java/Support/CoreDeploy.bundle/Contents/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin. So the documentation is either wrong or misleading when it says:

This update uninstalls the Apple-provided Java applet plug-in from all web browsers.

I can only guess that this plug-in is what re-directs the user to Oracle's Java 7 download site.

The new document that Apple posted today explains how to re-enable the Java 6 plug-in by:

- Creating a new directory /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/disabled and moves the existing JavaAppletPlugin.plugin to it.

- Creates a new symlink to /System/Library/Java/Support/Deploy.bundle/Contents/Resources/JavaPlugin2_NPAPI .plugin

- Re-enables Java SE 6 Web Start with another symlink

Oct 23, 2012 1:07 AM in response to MadMacs0

In analysing the install script for this update, it is clear that if there is a Java plugin present before installation, then it will still be there after the update, but will be linked to

/System/Library/Java/Support/CoreDeploy.bundle/Contents/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin.

This - for whatever reason - didn't happen on my system...

The new document that Apple posted today explains how to re-enable the Java 6 plug-in by:

- Creating a new directory /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/disabled and moves the existing JavaAppletPlugin.plugin to it.

- Creates a new symlink to /System/Library/Java/Support/Deploy.bundle/Contents/Resources/JavaPlugin2_NPAPI .plugin

- Re-enables Java SE 6 Web Start with another symlink

Instead of creating the symlink to the plugin in the CoreDeploy bundle (possible re-directing users to Oracle), the above mentioned symlink to the JavaPlugin2_NPAPI.plugin in the Deploy bundle was created (ore left?) on my system (and the Web-Start symlink, too).

There is no /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/disabled directory on my system - meaning the Java 2012-006 installation differs at least in this point from the instructions given by Apple yesterday.

With all information gathered from this (and other) threads I now regard my system being in a "safe state".

Refering to offical documents from Apple my system looks like it should be after having applied Java 2012-006 followed by manually re-enabling the Java plugin (except the /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/disabled directory).

The remaining mystery is the fact, that I never manually re-enabled the plugin and all this happened just by installing Java 2012-006...

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,227 points

Oct 23, 2012 2:23 AM in response to TheGoodLife99

TheGoodLife99 wrote:

There is no /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/disabled directory on my system - meaning the Java 2012-006 installation differs at least in this point from the instructions given by Apple yesterday.

That part is correct, in that it won't be there unless you created it in step two of the reversal process. I'm not certain why they do it that way. At first I thought it was so they could easily reverse the process by swapping the two files, but instead they tell you to "Download and re-install the Oracle Java 7 JRE".

So I'm out of ideas on what might have happened since your installation.log gives us no indication that anything in that postinstall action script failed, but it looks like it must not have worked, for some reason. When I tested it last night on my setup, it should have failed because the plugin does not exist in my setup. It created the symlink anyway without giving me an error, but when I tried to "Show original" it correctly said the "alias" was broken and the original did not exist there.

Sounds like all is well and I hope it continues to work for you.

Oct 23, 2012 4:23 AM in response to MadMacs0

MadMacs0 wrote:

I'm not certain why they do it that way. At first I thought it was so they could easily reverse the process by swapping the two files, but instead they tell you to "Download and re-install the Oracle Java 7 JRE".

That's exactly what I thought.

If someone needs to switch between Java 6 and 7 on a regular basis it may be worth a try to just swap the two files...

Sounds like all is well and I hope it continues to work for you.

No alarming observations so far.

Thank you very much for your support!

Java update 2012-006 did not remove Java plugin from any browser