Install JDK on OSX Yosemite

For some reason, Oracle blocked the installers to run only on a fixed OSX version range with a nice and explanatory error message. This range doesn’t include Yosemite, which makes sense, since nobody running Yosemite will ever want to write some Java. Anyway, here is how to fix it.

First, download and open the JDK .dmg file. Then, unpackage and edit the Distribution file:

$ pkgutil --expand "/Volumes/JDK 7 Update 67/JDK 7 Update 67.pkg" /tmp/jdk7.unpkg
$ cd /tmp/jdk7.unpkg
$ vim Distribution

PS: I’m using vim, but you can use whatever editor you want, since it is vim.

Replace this function:

function pm_install_check() {
  if (!(checkForMacOSX("10.7.3") == true)) {
    my.result.title = "OS X Lion required";
    my.result.message =
      "This Installer is supported only on OS X 10.7.3 or Later.";
    my.result.type = "Fatal";
    return false;
  }
  return true;
}

with this:

function pm_install_check() {
  return true;
}

just remove that if statement.

Then, just package and run the installer with:

$ pkgutil --flatten /tmp/jdk7.unpkg /tmp/jdk7.pkg
$ open /tmp/jdk7.pkg

The JDKs will be installed in the /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/ folder.

You can also clean up your mess:

$ rm -rf /tmp/jdk7.*pkg

You can use this tip for JDK 8 too.