INTERNAL: Error: "Alert Failed to Create Java Virtual Machine" when attempting to start IDL Workbench on Mac OS X
Anonym
DESCRIPTION:
A customer using a 64-bit Mac OS X system encountered an error like the following whenever they attempted to start the 64-bit IDL Workbench, using any launch method (clicking on icon or launching idlde from terminal):
Alert Failed to Create Java Virtual Machine
The latest Apple Java update was installed on the machine.
Command line IDL started without any problem from a terminal window.
In this case, the customer was using IDL 8.2.3 on Mac OS X 10.6.8.
DISCUSSION:
For some unknown reason, Java was configured to launch in 32-bit mode.
Some X11 terminal commands that might be useful in determining underlying Java problem:
which java
java -version
uname -a
ls -l /usr/bin/java
ls -la /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current
ls -la /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/
ls -la /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/A
/usr/bin/java -version
SOLUTION:
After reconfiguring Java to launch in 64-bit mode, the 64-bit IDL Workbench could launch successfully on the machine.