Running the JavaFX 1.0 SDK on Linux

The JavaFX 1.0 SDK was released today. I've played with the preview SDK, so I was pretty excited to try out the 1.0 SDK. Inexplicably, and this was the case with the preview SDK as well, Sun hasn't released a version of the SDK for Linux. However, this wasn't a problem because it was possible to run the Mac version of the Preview SDK on Linux. The preview SDK came in the form of a zip, but the 1.0 SDK comes in the form of a dmg, so I was initially stumped. But I've figured out how to get the Mac version of the SDK to work on Linux. It's a little more complicated than getting the preview SDK to work, but it works!

The thing about dmg files is that you can easily mount them on Linux since they are essentially stored in the HFS Plus filesystem format. So I immediately set about trying to mount it:

vivin@dauntless ~
$ mkdir javafx

vivin@dauntless ~
$ sudo mount -o loop -t hfsplus javafx_sdk-1_0-macosx-universal.dmg javafx
[sudo] password for vivin: 
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop0,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

Hmm... ok, that wasn't what I expected, so I tried to see what type of file it was:

vivin@dauntless ~
$; file javafx_sdk-1_0-macosx-universal.dmg
javafx_sdk-1_0-macosx-universal.dmg: bzip2 compressed data, block size = 100k

Ok, so it look's like it's a bzipped file. All we need to do then, is bunzip it and mount it:

vivin@dauntless ~
$ bunzip2 javafx_sdk-1_0-macosx-universal.dmg
bunzip2: Can't guess original name for javafx_sdk-1_0-macosx-universal.dmg -- using javafx_sdk-1_0-macosx-universal.dmg.out

bunzip2: javafx_sdk-1_0-macosx-universal.dmg: trailing garbage after EOF ignored

vivin@dauntless ~
$ sudo mount -o loop -t hfsplus javafx_sdk-1_0-macosx-universal.dmg.out javafx

vivin@dauntless ~
$ ls javafx
javafx_sdk-1_0.mpkg

Awesome! So we were able to get the dmg mounted. Now all we need to do is find were the SDK lives. After going through the dmg, I found out that the SDK is stored in a compressed (gzipped) file. You can find it at /javafx_sdk-1_0.mpkg/Contents/Packages/javafxsdk.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz. Copy this file into another working directory (or wherever you want your SDK to reside. I put mine in /usr/local):

vivin@dauntless ~/working
$ cp ~/javafx/javafx_sdk-1_0.mpkg/Contents/Packages/javafxsdk.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz .

vivin@dauntless ~/working
$ gunzip Archive.pax.gz

vivin@dauntless ~/working
$ file Archive.pax
Archive.pax: ASCII cpio archive (pre-SVR4 or odc)

When I gunzipped the file, I got Archive.pax, and I wasn't sure what to do with it. So I ran file on it and discovered that it was a cpio file. Some quick Googling and man-page perusal later:

vivin@dauntless ~/working
$ cpio -i 
Archive.pax  COPYRIGHT.html  lib          profiles     samples     src.zip                      timestamp
bin          docs            LICENSE.txt  README.html  servicetag  THIRDPARTYLICENSEREADME.txt

vivin@dauntless ~/working
$ bin/javafx

Usage: java [-options] class [args...]
           (to execute a class)
   or  java [-options] -jar jarfile [args...]
           (to execute a jar file)

where options include:
    -d32          use a 32-bit data model if available

    -d64          use a 64-bit data model if available
    -client	  to select the "client" VM
    -server	  to select the "server" VM
    -hotspot	  is a synonym for the "client" VM  [deprecated]
                  The default VM is server, 
                  because you are running on a server-class machine.

    -cp 
    -classpath 
                  A : separated list of directories, JAR archives,
                  and ZIP archives to search for class files.
    -D=
                  set a system property
    -verbose[:class|gc|jni]
                  enable verbose output
    -version      print product version and exit
    -version:
                  require the specified version to run
    -showversion  print product version and continue
    -jre-restrict-search | -jre-no-restrict-search
                  include/exclude user private JREs in the version search
    -? -help      print this help message
    -X            print help on non-standard options
    -ea[:...|:]
    -enableassertions[:...|:]
                  enable assertions
    -da[:...|:]
    -disableassertions[:...|:]
                  disable assertions
    -esa | -enablesystemassertions
                  enable system assertions
    -dsa | -disablesystemassertions
                  disable system assertions
    -agentlib:[=]
                  load native agent library , e.g. -agentlib:hprof
                    see also, -agentlib:jdwp=help and -agentlib:hprof=help
    -agentpath:[=]
                  load native agent library by full pathname
    -javaagent:[=]
                  load Java programming language agent, see java.lang.instrument

As you can see, you now have a working JavaFX 1.0 SDK on your Linux box!