WARNING: Installing on 32-bit Mac? Read this!

Okay, a little background: My CraftBukkit server runs from a Mac OS X 10.5.8 Mac mini machine, and the CraftBukkit applet runs 100% successfully, but certain plugins (WorldEdit, WorldGuard and Essentials all fell victim to the curse) complained about the Mac running Java version 1.5.0 - which is out-of-date and won't allow some of the more complex plugins to function properly.

What this means for you is that if you have a 32-bit Leopard Mac, you could bare the brunt of hours of headaches, stress & frustration with plugins complaining about outdated Java... The reason why all Mac's aren't kitted out with the latest & greatest Java versions is because Apple produce their own seperate version of Java for the Mac OS X platform. I don't know why, but I do know it presents a problem for 32-bit Mac users as Java 1.6.x is not natively supported. This guide (should) enable your server to run Java 1.6.x without a hitch.

If you don't know if you're 32- or 64-bit Mac, read this tutorial to work out which you have.
If you do have a 64-bit Leopard (or Snow Leopard), Java 1.6.0 should be installed and running as first priority natively; you have no need for this guide.

What you need:

• Administrator access to your server
• Software Update must have been ran within the last 24 hours
• Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 9 (this will not be included in Software Update)
• The latest recommended version of CraftBukkit

What you need to do:

1. Mount and install the update you downloaded
2. Reboot your system - don't just hold down the power button, click the Apple logo and then Restart...
3. Open up Java Preferences (in Applications/Utilities/Java Preferences)
4. Drag Java SE 6 to the top of the list and check the On property if it's not already - don't untick any of the other Java versions - they might still be used for non-Bukkit related processes.
5. Open up Terminal (in Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type killall java - this reboots Java without rebooting your entire system.

That's all you need to do. It honestly astounded me how simple the process is, I'd spent a good 48 hours attempting to make my 32-bit Mac run Java 1.6.0 over 1.5.0 (which it seems to prefer), but I found no documentation telling me what to do. Now, I realise that few of you actually use Mac's, but I hope this thread will offer some useful guidance to the confused few.

Thank you for reading, if you encountered any problems or have any feedback with this tutorial, please feel free to PM me.

 

I've got a local server running perfectly fine on my 32-bit Macbook. Java 1.60, OS X 10.6.6.

 

The problem only occurs on Leopard (10.5) 32-bit machines. Edited the post to make this more apparent. Thank you.

 

Thank you!!! Only plugin i could run before i saw this, was Essentials.
Now it runs Worldedit and other great plugins!
Thank you!

 

Does ServerHelper work on 32-bit?