Java Preferences won't start

[Anthony Petrov]

On 05/17/2013 05:16 PM, Pranav Bhat wrote:
>
> 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/

This tool returns the default value for JAVA_HOME, and in my case it 
returns the path to the 7u10 JDK. But the java_home can't change the 
default value. Where does this tool get it from and how do I change it?

--
best regards,
Anthony

>
> 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
>