Wasn't broken but Apple fixed it anyhow

July 8, 2009 8:45 AM

Why did the latest OS X update break Java and how do I fix it?

Pretty self explanatory, but - I recently updated me MacBook to 10.5.7. Now, numerous websites employing Java interfaces don't work at all, or only work partially. For instance, clicking various buttons (e.g. "Login" - pretty crucial) does nothing on some of these, like Westlaw which I use for both school and work (I'm a law student). On others, Java and now that I think of it, Flash-based entities just never load - what I'm talking about here is stuff like games on armorgames.com or whatever.

Is this just me or are other people running into this? Any way to fix it? It happens in Firefox and Safari but seems worse in Safari.

posted by R_Nebblesworth to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Best answer: I haven't had your exact problem, but I've noticed that the latest Java update broke the NetBeans IDE when running it in Java 5 on OS X. The solution I found was to open the app using Java 1.6. MacOSHints has a script that will let you set the system-wide default JRE version easily (try using JRE 1.6/JRE6 -- same thing, by different names). It requires a little terminal work, but everything is well-documented. Note, however, that this only works if you have OS 10.5.x on a 64-bit Intel Mac -- there's no powerPC or 32-bit Intel support. I'm not 100% sure this will fix your issue, but it's worth a shot.
posted by Alterscape at 9:06 AM on July 8, 2009

You're not alone; I've seen other people grumbling about this as well, but I haven't seem any detailed information on what broke or how to fix it. (My guess is that the update was rushed out to fix a nasty security hole).
posted by hattifattener at 9:09 AM on July 8, 2009

Best answer: In regards to trying to change the default system JRE, in your Applications/Utilities folder should be an app called Java Preferences. You can change it there, plus do some other things, which may help.
posted by disaster77 at 9:27 AM on July 8, 2009

My guess is that the update was rushed out to fix a nasty security hole

Nasty indeed, but given that the security hole was first reported in August 2008 and was fixed by Sun in December 2008, and that it's been well known in industry for at least that long, I'm not sure "rushed" is the right word here...

Good to see that they finally fixed it, though (if that's what they've done).
posted by effbot at 10:14 AM on July 8, 2009

Any word on a solution to this. Lack of facebook is killing me. :P
posted by vegetableagony at 9:52 AM on July 19, 2009

Response by poster: Alterscape and disaster77's fix seemed to rectify the problem for 99% of the time.
posted by R_Nebblesworth at 10:02 AM on August 12, 2009