Mac OS X -=- Installing Java 1.5 on Snow Leopard

By default, Snow Leopard does not include Java 1.5 anymore. All the Java 1.5 softlinks points to the Java 1.6 library. If you want to install Java 1.5, you must install it manually.


In the terminal: 


Get the java 5 that was included in 10.5 "leopard" and unpack

cd /tmp/
curl -o java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz http://icebergsofts.com/static_content/java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz
tar -xvzf java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz

Move it to your System java folder (password needed)

sudo mv 1.5.0 /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0-leopard

Tell OS X that java 5 actually is java 5

cd /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/
sudo rm 1.5.0
sudo ln -s 1.5.0-leopard 1.5.0
sudo rm 1.5
sudo ln -s 1.5.0 1.5

Open Java Preferences

open "/Applications/Utilities/Java Preferences.app"

Change the properties to use Java 5 32-bit by default:

Credits goes to http://wiki.oneswarm.org/index.php/OS_X_10.6_Snow_Leopard