Eclipse IDE fail to launch with JVM Terminated. Exit code=-1

Question

Hello everyone. I was having an issue with Eclipse IDE failing to launch with following error message: "JVM Terminated. Exit code=-1"

After some googling, I've semi-unintentionally found the solution and was able to get the IDE to launch correctly. What I did was to set -Xmx JVM argument in eclipse.ini to a value that is lower than the default value specified (-Xmx512m). Although I was able to get the IDE to launch, I was curious as to why it was happening and why this solution worked.

Here are some environment info:
Eclipse IDE: eclipse-rcp-galileo-SR1-win32
JVM: Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_10-b33)
Physical Memory: 2GB

Available memory at launch time for >1GB.

Initially, I changed the value to 256m and Eclipse launch correctly and after some experiment I found out that it launches correctly until it is set to 348m. However, once the value is set to 349m, I get a dialog with the above error message. The full message is:

JVM terminated. Exit code=-1
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xmx349m
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Djava.class.path=C:\tools\eclipse-rcp-galileo-SR1-win32\eclipse\plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.201.R35x_v20090715.jar
-os win32
-ws win32
-arch x86
-showsplash C:\tools\eclipse-rcp-galileo-SR1-win32\eclipse\\plugins\org.eclipse.platform_3.3.201.v200909170800\splash.bmp
-launcher C:\tools\eclipse-rcp-galileo-SR1-win32\eclipse\eclipse.exe
-name Eclipse
--launcher.library C:\tools\eclipse-rcp-galileo-SR1-win32\eclipse\plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_1.0.200.v20090519\eclipse_1206.dll
-startup C:\tools\eclipse-rcp-galileo-SR1-win32\eclipse\plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.201.R35x_v20090715.jar
-product org.eclipse.epp.package.rcp.product
-vm c:\tools\java6\bin\..\jre\bin\client\jvm.dll
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xmx349m
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Djava.class.path=C:\tools\eclipse-rcp-galileo-SR1-win32\eclipse\plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.201.R35x_v20090715.jar

Does anyone have any idea or clue as to why this may be happening??

Thank you.

Answer 1

Try out this one

C:\dev\IDE\eclipse332\eclipse.exe -vm C:\dev\JDK\j2sdk1.4.2_06\bin\javaw.exe -vmargs -Xmx1024M -Xms512M

I also had problems with more memory. But this was working for me. I am sorry, but i do not know how to configure it correctly.

Answer 2

This blog mentions a similiar problem and provides a solution. And he's referring to this forum thread discussing the same exit code -1 issue with eclipse.

(Looks like I'm happy that my eclipse didn't crash like this .. yet)

Answer 3

thanks a lot for resolution, it absolutely works for me :)