install java 6 on mac 10.8?

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install java 6 on mac 10.8?

I use Netbeans for development and have tried 3 versions, however, they are always appearing blurry on my retina display. Further to this I have installed the latest version of java 7 which has made no difference.

From what I have read the only way to get Netbeans to display correctly on a retina display is to use java 6, however, prior to java 7 Apple managed java for Mac. I have been unable to find java 6 in the App Store or anywhere else for Mac.

How can I downgrade from java 7 to java 6?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Oct 26, 2012 4:33 AM

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Answer 1

CT

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23,987 points

Oct 26, 2012 4:46 AM in response to isaac.scott

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5559

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Answer 2

isaac.scott Author

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Oct 26, 2012 4:49 AM in response to CT

This has made no difference to Netbeans and running the following command from a terminal window still reports the java version as 7.

java -version

java version "1.7.0_09"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_09-b05)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.5-b02, mixed mode)

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Answer 3

CT

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23,987 points

Oct 26, 2012 5:09 AM in response to isaac.scott

Ok! You're welcome!

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Answer 4

Oct 29, 2012 3:58 PM in response to isaac.scott

I've had the same problem, fonts look so thin and hard to read in NetBeans once the upgrade happened. I followed the instructions in the kb article but then also ran this command:

sudo ln -sf /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Commands/java /usr/bin/java

After that ran:

java -version

Just to confirm that it did in fact downgrade to 1.6. This is what I got:

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)

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Answer 5

isaac.scott Author

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Oct 31, 2012 6:01 AM in response to tomjnsnApple

Thanks for your post, I have run the command as you suggested and now get the java version reported as 1.6.

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)

Unfortunately this still doesn't solve my Netbeans, I have tried version 7.2 / 7.2.1 / Dev but all are still blury. What version of Netbeans are you using?

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Answer 6

Oct 31, 2012 4:31 PM in response to isaac.scott

Hmmm, it seems with the latest version from Apple in the 1.6 line it stopped working for me now 😟 I've seen over on netbeans forums discussion about this same issue but no resolution.

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Answer 7

Feb 4, 2013 6:36 PM in response to isaac.scott

I'm on Lion, not Mountain Lion, but I experienced the issue with the fonts too after upgrading to Java 7. On my system the Java 6 SDK is still available at System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk.

Since I still wanted Java 7 to be the default version and just change it for NetBeans, I edited the netbeans.conf file to tell it to use Java 6. To get to netbeans.conf, right-click on the NetBeans application and select Show Package Contents. Then navigate to Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc and open netbeans.conf. Uncomment the netbeans_jdkhome option and set it as follows:

netbeans_jdkhome="/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Ho me"

The fonts should now be fixed (and when you go to NetBeans > About NetBeans it should show that it's running Java 6).

I'm not sure if this will help for Mountain Lion, but if it's just a matter of not having Java 6 installed, then you could simply download the Java 6 SDK from Oracle's site, or copy it from a Mac running Lion (or earlier maybe would work too).

And make sure you run Software Update first, since I know Apple disabled Java temporarily until the latest update, due to a security concern (although that may have only affected the browser plugin).

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