Eclipse won't start

Question

when trying to start eclipse, i receive the message in the image.

when trying to start other instance of eclipse, i receive a message saying: "failed to create the java virtual machine".

How can i solve it?

Answer 1

try starting eclipse with -clean option

./eclipse -clean

If it still doesn't start check ".log" file for error. This file should be located in "workspace/.metadata" folder. Publish error from log to your question.

Also check Java version and JAVA_HOME and PATH on your system are set accordingly. Java version should be at least 1.5

Answer 2

Go to C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\client\ and make sure that jvm.dll exists there.

Either way, you might want to try re-installing or updating Java on your machine.

Answer 3

To modify file eclipse/eclipse.ini, try a smaller number in attribute -Xmx, and restart.

Answer 4

The message "failed to create the java virtual machine" usually implies the failure to allocate enough memory for starting the JVM. This is often due to unavailability of sufficient contiguous free memory in RAM, or incorrect min and max heap sizes.

From the screenshot, it appears that the problem might not be with the min and max heap sizes, so you might want to take a look at the amount of free memory available when starting Eclipse (although that is no indicator of whether all free memory is contiguous).

To begin fixing this issue, you could start Eclipse from the command-line and observe the error messages reported if any. Then you could proceed to calibrate the JVM settings that are better suited to your installation (heavy plugins will require more memory), or change to another JVM.

See also

1. Why does Eclipse crash with Xmx, XX:MaxPermSize above certain values?
2. What are the best JVM settings for Eclipse?

Answer 5

Check your version of Java. Oracle accidentally broke Eclipse when they updated the vendor field from 'Sun Microsystems' to 'Oracle'.

http://insideria.com/2010/08/oracle-breaks-eclipse-and-flex.html

Oracle was nice enough to change it back and release an update, which fixes Eclipse.

Answer 6

I had a similar problem when I installed JDK 64-bit version with an install of Eclipse 32-bit (didn't realize it until much searching and searching). Simple solution, but a shot none-the-less.