Java Preferences won't start

[Pranav Bhat]

On May 17, 2013, at 8:49 AM, Anthony Petrov <anthony.petrov at oracle.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> My ls -l /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/ looks like this:
> 
> total 0
> drwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel  102 Mar 28  2012 1.6.0_31-b04-413.jdk
> drwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel  102 Aug 24  2012 jdk1.7.0_06.jdk
> drwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel  102 Sep 18  2012 jdk1.7.0_10.jdk
> drwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel  102 May 17 15:51 jdk1.8.0.jdk
> 
> All the JDKs are usable when I run commands specifying their full path names. Also, the "default" jdk is the 7u10 one, so that running 'java -version' in the command line will say "1.7.0_10". The 1.8 is b90 installed just now.
> 
> However, when I'm trying to start Java Preferences in order to select the default JDK for the command-line use, I get a small dialog box with an error saying:
> 
> Cannot launch "Java Preferences"
> No compatible version of Java 1.5+ is available.
> 
> After I click Quit, the console output is as follows:
> 
> [JavaAppLauncher] Requested [1.5+], launching in [(null)] instead.
> [JavaAppLauncher Error] unable to find a version of Java to launch
> 
> I tried searching this on the Internet but didn't find anything useful.
> 
> I don't even want to run this GUI tool actually. Is there a way to switch the default JDK from command line?

Yes.

/usr/libexec/java_home 

See the man pages for java_home at http://www.unix.com/man-page/all/1/java_home/

Thanks,
- Pranav

> (Yes, I know I can modify my PATH and JAVA_HOME, but I actually want to do the same thing that the Java Preferences tool does).
> 
> Any tips?
> 
> --
> best regards,
> Anthony