Eclipse crashes on start-up. Wrong eclipse.ini?

Question

I'm really confused. I've worked with Eclipse IDE a lot and now I don't understand what's happening.

I've just downloaded latest Eclipse distributive and cannot start it. I'm getting the following message box before the IDE is even loaded:

---------------------------
Eclipse
---------------------------
JVM terminated. Exit code=-1
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xms40m
-Xmx512m
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Djava.class.path=D:\eclipse\plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.200.v20090520.jar
-os win32
-ws win32
-arch x86
-showsplash D:\eclipse\\plugins\org.eclipse.platform_3.3.200.v200906111540\splash.bmp
-launcher D:\eclipse\eclipse.exe
-name Eclipse
--launcher.library D:\eclipse\plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_1.0.200.v20090519\eclipse_1206.dll
-startup D:\eclipse\plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.200.v20090520.jar
-product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
-vm C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\client\jvm.dll
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xms40m
-Xmx512m
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Djava.class.path=D:\eclipse\plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.200.v20090520.jar 
---------------------------
ОК   
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I cannot find any additional logs. I haven't changed or modified anything. Just unzipped the archive.

Initially my eclipse.ini was:

-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.200.v20090520.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_1.0.200.v20090519
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256M
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256m
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xms40m
-Xmx512m

I thought that there is a problem with this newlines between name and value of the parameters. So I removed new lines (but according to this it's actually a wrong move). So my eclipse.ini is now looks like this and I'm able to run it:

-startup plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.200.v20090520.jar
--launcher.library plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_1.0.200.v20090519
-product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize 256M
-showsplash org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize 256m
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xms40m
-Xmx512m

I googled for several hours. It seems only I have this problem. I believe Eclipse should work without these modifications of eclipse.ini (especially taking into account the fact they are incorrect). Any hints are much appreciated!

PS: I'm running Vista, all firewalls and antiviral software is off.

Answer 1

Two suggestions:

1/ look at this eclipse.ini and try it out
2/ look for any extra space at the end of any line within the eclipse.ini: it can prevent eclipse starting normally.

I do confirm there must be newlines between name and value of the parameters.

Answer 2

Have you been using a previous version of Eclipse? If so it's worth installing it in a completely different area (different workspace, etc.) Eclispe does seem to misbehave from time to time and the only solution is to reinstall. (I used to get strange errors in .metadata until I cleaned everything (after saving my code!) and reinstall.

Answer 3

The launcher parses each line as a separate argument, the new lines are required. After parsing,

{ "--launcher.XXMaxPermSize", "256M" }

is not the same as

{ "--launcher.XXMaxPermSize 256M" }

The first is recognized as an argument, the second isn't.

After removing the new-lines from the .ini file, none of your arguments will be recognized and the launcher resorts to defaults. Since this works for you, this implies that one of your arguments in the original .ini is preventing it from starting.

The jvm exiting with -1 is a very early error, before running any eclipse java code so the problem shouldn't be the -startup, --launcher.library, -product or -showsplash. The -Xmx, -Xms and --launcher.XXMaxPermSize are the most likely candidates. Why is there two XXMaxPermSize? (though the launcher only passes one through, so I'm not sure that matters).

Answer 4

My guess is that you are running Vista 64-bit and trying to run a 32-bit Eclipse:

--launcher.library D:\eclipse\plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_1.0.200.v20090519\eclipse_1206.dll

with a 64-bit JVM:

-vm C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\client\jvm.dll

This will cause exactly your symptoms. The JVM will exit very early, since one of the very first things it tries to do is to load native code included in Eclipse.

The solution is to either install a 32-bit JVM (and make sure it is found before the 64-bit one in your PATH), or to use a 64-bit Eclipse.

Answer 5

I had exactly the same problem. The actual issue that i see here is with the double entry "launcher.XXMaxPermSize 256M ". Once you remove one of these, the settings seem to work fine with your original configuration