fixed: SPSS 17 / Mac OS X Snow Leopard issues

36 Replies

SPSS 17 refuses to run or even install under Snow Leopard, due to incompatibility/neglect of Java 6 JRE. This can easily be fixed:

STEP 1:
run the following commands in Terminal or as a shell script (can be copied and pasted without individualization to your System)

cd ~/
curl -o java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/isdal/snow_leopard_workaround/java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz
tar -xvzf java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz
sudo rm /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5
sudo rm /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0
sudo mv 1.5.0 /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0-leopard
sudo ln -s /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0-leopard /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5
sudo ln -s /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0-leopard /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0
say "Now, in Utilities - java preferences edit the list entailing what your computer should use with programs: drag java1.5 32bit onto the top of the list. Happy analysis."
echo "Now, in Utilities - java preferences edit the list entailing what your computer should use with programs: drag java1.5 32bit onto the top of the list. Happy analysis."

STEP 2:
Please make sure to follow the suggestion this script outputs in the end: “Now, in Utilities -> java preferences edit the list entailing what your computer should use with programs: drag ‘java1.5 32bit’ onto the top of the list.”

What will this do to my machine? This will download and ‘install’ Java Version 5, which comes with OS/X Leopard on your machine bypass the reason for Snow Leopard incompatibility. Don’t worry, as V. 6 remains installed, no incompatibility issues will arise elsewhere.

STEP 2.1:
Install SPSS17 (if not already installed prior to Snow Leopard upgrade).

STEP 3:
edit /Applications/SPSSInc/Statistics17/SPSSStatistics17.0.app/Contents/bin/jvmcfg.ini (make sure to modify this path in case you decided not to install SPSS to the default directory):
nano /Applications/SPSSInc/Statistics17/SPSSStatistics17.0.app/Contents/bin/jvmcfg.ini and change line

jvm_lib_path1=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/CurrentJDK/Libraries/

to

jvm_lib_path1=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Libraries/

STEP 4:
edit /Applications/SPSSInc/Statistics17/SPSSStatistics17.0.app/Contents/Info.plist (make sure to modify this path in case you decided not to install SPSS to the default directory):
nano /Applications/SPSSInc/Statistics17/SPSSStatistics17.0.app/Contents/Info.plist
and change

<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
    <string>com.spss.SPSSStatistics.17.0</string>

to

<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
    <string>com.spss.SPSSStatistics.17.1</string>

SPSS will now start without errors.
Bildschirmfoto 2009-12-09 um 15.12.36

Credits: This is a summary of tips I found here, here and here, where you will find further assistence in case this fails, which I am sure it won’t.

By the way, IBM! Feel to take this as inspiration for a patch/bugfix other than “purchase SPSS 18”!

36 thoughts on “fixed: SPSS 17 / Mac OS X Snow Leopard issues”

  1. Dominik

    Danke für die Anleitung.

    Im letzten Schritt schein sich ein Syntax-Fehler eingeschlichen zu haben “<string<".

    Grüsse aus der Schweiz

    Reply ↓
  3. IQ

    I’ve been trying to install SPSS 17 on my Mac (Snow Leopard) for weeks and finally found your page, it solved my problems in under 10 minutes! Brilliant! Thank you for writing this up!

    Reply ↓
  4. Elizabeth

    Danke Schön Linus!

    I can’t believe SPSS 17 is working now for me – it finally installed and actually opened 😀 I took a look at the wiki link to fix up the minor problem of telling Java 5 that is was actually Java 5 though.

    Reply ↓
  5. Anita

    Linus, you are a hero and have saved two of us already – but I, third student with SPSS 17/Snow leopard am getting ‘error writing file’ at your step 4… Any thoughts? I’ve unchecked all the locks on the files, any thoughts why I can’t save the version change? Thank you!!!! Anita

    Reply ↓
  6. Linus

    @ Anita: Open Terminal, and edit the file by typing sudo nano /Applications/SPSSInc/Statistics17/SPSSStatistics17.0.app/Contents/Info.plist
    You will be asked for your User-Password and then edit the file with root-privileges. This way it should definitely work.

    Reply ↓
  8. José Navarro

    The fix worked fine with me, i could install and run the program in snow leopard. Now I have a little problem, SPSS w’ont display any graphics. When I asked to do so in the results page tells me that the Java virtual machine can’t be opened.

    Any idea?

    Thanks…

    Reply ↓
  9. Linus

    @José: This sounds like you have missed out on this part:
    Now, in Utilities -> java preferences edit the list entailing what your computer should use with programs: drag ‘java1.5 32bit’ onto the top of the list.
    Make sure you to apply this setting…

    Linus

    Reply ↓
  10. José Navarro

    I finally could. Actually I was missing step 3, didn’t know how to edit the file .ini (I’m a recent mac user). But only worked until I wrote 1.5.0 (instead of 1.5) which was the actual name of the folder I downloaded.

    Anyway, thanks a lot for the post and your quick response.

    Regards from Barcelona, josé

    Reply ↓
  11. Jeff

    I don’t have a content folder in my PASWStatistics17 folder so I can’t run step 3 and my graphics are not showing. SPSS works fine by I would like to know how to have the graphics. I did put J2SE 5.0 on top of my java preference. Thx!

    Reply ↓
  12. Daina

    Yes! Thank you thank you thank you! I didn’t think anything would work!

    I have OS X 10.6.5 and had to follow the suggestions of both Linus (Oct. 2010) and Jose (Nov. 2010) to get it to work. Good luck!

    Reply ↓
  13. ar.pablo

    How to run SPSS on Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6

    Seen on http://bit.ly/gXDUOK

    SPSS 17 works perfect on Leopard 10.5
    On Snow Leopard, there are two ways to run SPSS 17.

    Way 1
    This is how I have installed it on my mac. You can check the versions 10.6.5 and 17.0.3 are working onand onand on http://bayimg.com/KAbgIAADI. On my mac -at least- SPSS 17.0.3 works flawlessly.

    1) Make a partition of your hard disk and install Leopard 10.5.8 on it.
    2) On Leopard, disable Internet access of your computer.
    3) Install SPSS 17. You can activate the modules in any moment.
    4) Install SPSS patch 17.0.1
    5) Install SPSS patch 17.0.2
    6) Install SPSS patch 17.0.3
    7) Check SPSS is working properly.
    8) Enable the Internet access.
    9) Boot on Snow Leopard (I think it should also work on Lion).
    10) Right clic any .sav file. Select “open with” and “other”, select “All applications” (or whatever, my mac OS language is set in Spanish, sorry); select the SPSS app that is installed on Leopard “PASWStatistics17.0” and clic on the “Open” button.
    That’s all.

    Way 2:
    One of my classmates has tested this one. It also works fine on his computer.

    1) Install Leopard 10.5.8 on your hard disk drive.
    2) Disable Internet access of your computer.
    3) Install SPSS 17. You can activate the modules in any moment.
    4) Install SPSS patch 17.0.1
    5) Install SPSS patch 17.0.2
    6) Install SPSS patch 17.0.3
    7) Check SPSS is working properly.
    8) Enable the Internet access.
    9) Upgrade from Leopard 10.5 to Snow Leopard 10.6 on the hard disk that also has SPSS 17.0.3 Important: just upgrade the OS, do not format the hard disk drive. Now your mac computer will have the Java versions 5 and 6, and will be able to open SPSS 17.0.3
    10) Check SPSS is working properly.
    That’s all.

    Reply ↓
  14. Wei

    I’ve managed to get SPSS installed and running but I’m frustratingly still having problems with it – I can’t seem to import excel files and draw graphs, the error being “Error starting the Java Virtual Machine”.. Any ideas why and/or fixes?? I installed till the SPSS Patch 17.0.3 and followed the instructions above but still no luck!

    Reply ↓
  15. ena

    ich habe noch mac osx 10.4. ich kriege den installer absolut nicht geöffnet. was kann ich da machen? hat jemand das gleiche problem? does anyone have the same problem with tiger and spss and knows how to solve it?

    Reply ↓

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  20. Naomi

    Hi!

    I have a small problem: when I change the line and then press ^X to exit, it asks me if I want to save. I type in Y but then it says this: File Name to Write:$ntents/bin/jvmcfg.ini
    I guess I have to write something, but I don’t know what..
    Same if I try to change that other line..
    What should I do? (don’t know if you can see the email-adress, but can you mail me the answer?!)

    Thanks a lot!

    Reply ↓
  24. mass

    finally it work! thanks to Jose because after I changed the line, it still telling that the Java virtual machine is still the problem then I realize that i also download the file as 1.5.0
    thanks a lot!

    Reply ↓
  25. mass

    @Jeff: simply right click on the “SPSSStatistics17.0.app” then click “Show Package Contents” where the Contents folder will appear.

    Reply ↓
  26. charley varrick

    Thank you very much, man. All worked flawless, just as you wrote You’ve just become my personal hero.

    Reply ↓
  28. LM

    After running the initial script the java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz is downloaded in the user folder, whereas in Utilities -> java preferences there is no trace of java1.5 32bit

    MacOSX 10.6.8 on a 2.26 GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook

    Any help or suggestion?

    Thanks

    Luigi

    Reply ↓
  29. LM

    after pw a receive the following message:

    Password:
    rm: /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5: No such file or directory

    Reply ↓
  32. Alexandra

    Has anyone tried this with Lion Mac OS X 10.7? I am having trouble with SPSS 17 after upgrading.

    Reply ↓
  33. Mark

    Thanks so much, it worked perfectly. Funny thing though, after several months I finally added a java update from mac (was avoiding it for a while due to this issue). Both versions were working for a while and then 1.5.0 stopped and didn’t show up in the java preferences window. Retraced your instructions and all is fine again.

    Reply ↓
  34. Freddy

    Great thing.

    has anyone tried it out on 10.7 Lion?!?

    Linus im having problems figuring the correct combination for 10.7 Lion on step 1.

    Reply ↓
  36. David

    I tried running the command from step 1, and ended up with this (identifying info replaced with MYNAME):

    Last login: Wed Jan 14 18:43:52 on console
    You have mail.
    dhcp-10-5-139-6:~ MYNAME$ cd ~/
    dhcp-10-5-139-6:~ MYNAME$ curl -o java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/isdal/snow_leopard_workaround/java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz
    % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
    Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
    147 295 147 295 0 0 1224 0 –:–:– –:–:– –:–:– 3206
    dhcp-10-5-139-6:~ MYNAME$ tar -xvzf java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz
    tar: Unrecognized archive format: Inappropriate file type or format
    tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors.
    dhcp-10-5-139-6:~ MYNAME$ sudo rm /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5
    Password:

    Any ideas of what to do? I’m running 10.6.8. Thanks!

    Reply ↓

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