Mac OS X Mountain Lion missing 32-bit Java

[Bigtoad]

This has been driving me crazy for days now. I just recently got a new NXT kit and started working with my Lego Robotics stuff again. (I have two old RCX kits, one 1.0 and the other 1.5, but I haven't touched them for years.) In the intervening time, I switched to using a Mac. I already use Eclipse for other software development, including a small amount of Java, but I'm a neophyte at Java, really. I thought I had everything setup and working and then, when I tried to run my tiny little test project, I got this:

Linking ...
Error: This Java instance does not support a 32-bit JVM.
Please install the desired version.
Linking the file failed with exit status 1

That's where I've been stumped for the last three days of extensive web searching. I cannot, for the life of me, find a 32-bit JVM/JDK/whatever that I can install on my Mac OS X 10.8.2 system. I even tried installing the MacPorts openjdk6, but that build failed too. Has anybody got this working on Mac OS X 10.8.2 with Eclipse? Where can I find a functional 32-bit JVM for this platform? The JVM that Oracle supplies, which is the only official JVM for this OS version, does not appear to support 32-bit operations at all. It is strictly 64-bit.

Apple has been pissing me off more and more with the direction they are taking Mac OS X. I don't think I'll be buying another Mac unless something changes before I need a hardware upgrade.

[skoehler]

You have installed Oracle's Java for OS X right?
What you need is Apple's Java 6. I'm pretty sure it's available for Mountain Lion.
So please google for Java 6 on Mountain Lion. I found the following, which looks primising:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/41 ... 0&tstart=0
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1365 ... ntain-lion

It seems, Apple's Java 6 JDK is available on developer.apple.com.

BTW: the root problem is that Lego provides a 32Bit driver only (it works on 64bit OS, but not with 64 bit applications) and that we haven't found a way to bypass it yet.

[Bigtoad]

Thanks, I got it working from the command line with the Java 6 tools from developer.apple.com. I'm still struggling with the Eclipse piece of it but I'll figure it out eventually. I think I need to get the -d32 JVM switch configured in the right place in Eclipse and, so far, I haven't found the right place. I have been using Eclipse for a while but it was for Perl, not Java.

[moosooboo]

I feel your pain, I've used Macs for many years and they are quickly going off the boil. I'm running linux in a virtual machine hosted by OS X, but am also looking at dual booting my mac between the two. I'd go all the way and totally ditch OS X now, but there are some apps that I really can't find good alternatives for. Anyway, a linux virtual machine works very well, VM Ware Fusion works almost flawlessly if that is any help.