problems with java installation (xerces) on mac

Question

I\'m using MacOsX 10.6.4.

Some time ago I run into problems with Eclipse (it wouldn\'t start anymore - I opened a question here and followed all the suggestion but w

Answer 1

Thanks Trashgod,

Have a Huginn on me.

That not only solved my Eclipse/Android issue (Same as Nicola's) but also the failure of the Netbeans updater (Every version from 6.5 to 7.2) to work properly.

I found my little xerces bomb lurking in /User//Library/Java/Extensions and everything in there was from 2003/4 (Before I bought the Mac. Hmm...). Anyhow, being a cautious type I just renamed the offender to xerces.jar.old. That doesn't work. Netbeans still had it open when I interrogated the task today. So, I moved the entire Java folder to Previous_Java eh voila!

Machine behaves normally, java runs (7 from Oracle not 6.x from Apple and SDK), Android does stuff, Eclipse does stuff, Netbeans starts without bombing or going into a death spiral re-start loop.

A note for any Netbeans users with this problem... It can be amazingly frustrating trying to track it down.

regs

Tim

Answer 2

Some things to try:

1. Look for adventitious xerces JARs that may have been inadvertently left in one of the directories of the System property java.ext.dirs.

   /Users/*/Library/Java/Extensions
   /Library/Java/Extensions
   /System/Library/Java/Extensions
   /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home/lib/ext
   

2. Use spotlight to search for extraneous xerces JARs outside of Eclipse.

3. Remove /Applications/eclipse and ~/.eclipse; reinstall Eclipse.

4. Reinstall Java from the the installer DVD: /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/Optional Installs/Xcode Tools/Packages/JavaSDK.pkg.

5. Check Software update.