Java for OS X 2012-006 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 11
Apple has released Java updates for Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7.x and 10.8.x. There’s good news and bad news with these updates, so I’m going to lead off with the good news.
Good news:
Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 11 updates Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_37 and otherwise has the same behavior of Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 10.
If you’re using my Java enabler script to make sure that the Java plug-in is active for your web browsers, I’ve verified that this script continues to work.
Bad news:
Java for OS X 2012-006 uninstalls the Apple-provided Java applet plug-in from /Library/Internet Plug-Ins, which means that web browsers will not be able to launch Java applets from inside the browser. It also removes the Java Preferences application from /Applications/Utilities.
The rest of the Java 6 framework is still installed, so CrashPlan and other applications that use Java 6 outside of a browser will still work fine.
However, if you try to access a Java application in a web browser, you will see a Missing Plug-In message.
The fix is to click on the Missing Plug-In message and be directed to Oracle’s Java download page for Mac OS X. From there, the Java installer will need to be downloaded and installed.
It’s important to note that this process no longer taps into Apple’s Software Update mechanism to install Java. Instead, you would download a disk image from the Oracle website and install an installer package stored inside the disk image.
Update – 10-22-2012:
Apple has released a KBase article on how to re-enable the Apple-provided Java SE 6 applet plug-in and Web Start functionality: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5559
Deployment:
Oracle’s installer can be installed silently from the command line and does not require a reboot. Oracle has built in a Sparkle-based update mechanism to handle Java updates from Oracle.
If you need to update multiple Macs, you should be able to distribute the Oracle Java installer package using your system management tools. Any tool that can install a standard Apple installer package should be able to distribute the new Java installer.
Does this change the VM offered by the browser from (Apple’s) Java 6 to (Oracle’s) Java 7?
For applets run through the browser, Oracle’s Java 7 is being used. However, it looks like Java 6 is still the default Java outside of the browser. Here’s the output when I run “java -version” on my own 10.8.2 Mac:
computername:~ rtrouton$ 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)
computername:~ rtrouton$
So what are we supposed to do for web apps that still need Java 6? Sounds like our only option is to avoid 2012-006 like the plague. I hate this…
Could one not just use a Time Machine backup to restore the plugin and Java Prefs app or will they not work with the new Java version?
One of the MACENTERPRISE contributors noted the following:
“I opened the package with Pacifist, selected JavaEssentials.pkg from the package contents, and clicked Install. I chose to replace existing files whenever prompted, and that restored Java 6 plugin functionality.”
By “the package” he’s referring to Java 2012-005, still available from developer.apple.com.
I love you right now. This solved my problem, it was being a b*tch to figure out, and I had lost a lot of Chrome functionality due to the “Missing Plug-In” bs. I hope Apple sorts it out
I’m digging to find how we can manage the settings in the new Java Control Panel and specifically the update notifications and Java Updater.app.
So far…
~/Library/Application Support/Oracle/Java/Deployment/deployment.properties
deployment.macosx.check.update=false
Or maybe Sparkle itself?
~/Library/com.oracle.java.JavaAppletPlugin.plist
JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Info.plist
https://github.com/andymatuschak/Sparkle/wiki/customization
From what I can tell, we can disable the update check by placing a file at:
/Library/Application Support/Oracle/Java/Deployment/deployment.properties
…with the contents:
deployment.macosx.check.update=false
Normally all Oracle’s Java plugin preferences would be stored in the user’s home (followed by the path above), but it seems that preferences can first be overridden here.
Once this is set, if I open the Java control panel, the “Check for Updates Automatically” checkbox is unchecked. It still does a check right then upon opening the panel, but I’d hope this should at least prevent it from checking in the background and prompting the user.
For reference, here’s Java 6 documentation on deployment overrides, though I don’t know how much of this is still valid for 7. I wasn’t able to find an equally-detailed list for 7:
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/deployment/deployment-guide/properties.html
Great work, thanks!
You’re good!
No, it turns out I was wrong:
http://macops.ca/everything-youll-wish-you-didnt-know-about-disabling-java-7-updates
I had been messing with plists and mcx with no luck. Putting the deployment.properties file in /Library/Application Support/Oracle/Java/Deployment is the only way I have had success. The check for updates box is unchecked and I do not receive the pop up about updating to a newer version. I tested this with Java 7 Update 13. Seems to work! I will check out your link. Thanks!
It looks like Apple’s JavaAppletPlugin.plugin is just a symlink to /System/Library/Java/Support/CoreDeploy.bundle/Contents/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin.
The 2012-006 update just deletes that symlink.
So if you want to restore functionality to Apple’s Java 6, you should be able to run: sudo ln -s /System/Library/Java/Support/CoreDeploy.bundle/Contents/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
If however, you would like Java 6 and 7 plugins installed, create the symlink with a unique name such as: sudo ln -s /System/Library/Java/Support/CoreDeploy.bundle/Contents/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin6.plugin
In my quick test, this gets Java working in Chrome again but Firefox only sees the Java 7 (which I guess is good since browsers don’t have a java picker).
YMMV
Below link provides the proper and detailed fix.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5559
thanks for the informative post..