OS X Minecraft requires old Java SE-6

[cairene2011]

I updated my old 2011 MBA to Yosemite when the OS was first released and never had a problem with playing Minecraft on it.
Recently, I migrated to a new rMBP 2014 and now - whenever I click on the Minecraft Launcher, it refuses and tells me instead "To open Minecraft, the old Java SE-6 Runtime Version needs to be installed". A clean install of the game did not help, so I googled and found numerous workarounds (where people would install said old Java version), but not a real fix. I don't really want to install outdated software on my new Mac and I'm surprised there is not an actual solution for this bug provided by Mojang.

I'm sure there are many Minecraft players on Macs, how are you handling this? Revert back to old Java or sit it out till this is fixed? I also read that some are using a Linux launcher to forgo the dilemma, but - since I'm not tech savvy at all - I don't want to run the Linux OS. Ideas?

 

[goMac]

It's fine. Java is meant to have more than one version installed at a time. You won't be wiping out a newer version of Java. It'll just fall back to the older one for Minecraft.

 

[960design]

I'm sure there are many Minecraft players on Macs, how are you handling this?

I created an app launcher with Automator that points Minecraft to Java8. Added the Minecraft icon, double clicked it and saved the automator app to the dock.

 

[cairene2011]

It's fine. Java is meant to have more than one version installed at a time. You won't be wiping out a newer version of Java. It'll just fall back to the older one for Minecraft.

I had no idea about that! Thanks so much, I'll go ahead and install SE-6 then

I created an app launcher with Automator that points Minecraft to Java8. Added the Minecraft icon, double clicked it and saved the automator app to the dock.

I'm not really sure what to make of all of this, but can I just say that I'm always in awe when people are so smart, they just write their own app when they stumble across a problem with the stock one? Kudos to you!!

 

[antonis]

I had no idea about that! Thanks so much, I'll go ahead and install SE-6 then

That's not a very good idea. Java 1.6 (that's the SE-6) is deprecated and no longer supported. It has lots of security/vulnerability flaws that will not be fixed.

It will be much better if you run everything with Java 1.8 as suggested above.

 

[cairene2011]

That's not a very good idea. Java 1.6 (that's the SE-6) is deprecated and no longer supported. It has lots of security/vulnerability flaws that will not be fixed.

It will be much better if you run everything with Java 1.8 as suggested above.

Okay, thank you for the warning. I won't do it then.
I googled creating apps with Automator and it appears to be lot to read into on the first glance, so I'll make this a later project. I hope I can still come back with all the confusion and questions I will inevitably have!

 

[antonis]

Okay, thank you for the warning. I won't do it then.
I googled creating apps with Automator and it appears to be lot to read into on the first glance, so I'll make this a later project. I hope I can still come back with all the confusion and questions I will inevitably have!

Until you'll be able to create an automator script, you could try the following:

Open Terminal app (just type in spotlight: terminal to find it)
When opened, just type the following in the command prompt (I don't have Minecraft, just using the command suggested above, it should work with any java application):

java -d64 -Xms4096m -Xmx5120m -jar /Applications/Minecraft.app/Contents/Resources/Java/Bootstrap.jar

 

[cairene2011]

I shall do this!

I suppose with the terminal command, I must re-enter it after every reboot? Whereas Automator "re-enters" it for me whenever I click on it? Or are there any other benefits of creating an Automator script?

 

[Janichsan]

I created an app launcher with Automator that points Minecraft to Java8. Added the Minecraft icon, double clicked it and saved the automator app to the dock.

Is that really necessary? In Minecraft's own profile editor, you can choose a Java executable.

 

[antonis]

I shall do this!

I suppose with the terminal command, I must re-enter it after every reboot? Whereas Automator "re-enters" it for me whenever I click on it? Or are there any other benefits of creating an Automator script?

You can save the command in a script and run it. But if you're not familiar with the terminal, I don't want to add to the confusion.

Yes, Automator should work as you described.

 

[cairene2011]

You can save the command in a script and run it. But if you're not familiar with the terminal, I don't want to add to the confusion.

Yes, Automator should work as you described.

Copy+Pasting the above command into the Terminal works like a charm! I'm blown away how stunning Optifine looks on the Retina display! Thanks so much again for your help

 

[Graeme43]

I just downloaded the linux minecraft.jar and it used the java 8 on my system fine

https://minecraft.net/download then show all platforms

If you want it to look better then ‘get info’ on both the minecraft.app and minecraft.jar files. You can drag the minecraft.app icon from the preview bit in get info up to the top of the jar get info and it will make it look like the app

 

[960design]

Is that really necessary? In Minecraft's own profile editor, you can choose a Java executable.

It's like the chicken before the egg. To open the profile editor you need Java6 executable. We don't want to install Java6, we only want Java8. The only way to do this, that I know of is to use Automator to run a script that opens Minecraft with Java8.
That presents a pretty icon to store in the dock and no need to jump to terminal to run commands.

java -d64 -Xms4096M -Xmx5120M -jar /Applications/Minecraft.app/Contents/Resources/Java/Bootstrap.jar

That is the script I currently use.

 

[Janichsan]

It's like the chicken before the egg. To open the profile editor you need Java6 executable.

Good point. I didn't think of that.