[Nikolaos Giannopoulos]

I had always heard that (as someone quite clearly put it):

“Eclipse is built against Carbon (re: not Cocoa) and will only operate under a 32-bit JVM. On OS X, Java 6 is 64-bit only and therefore Eclipse cannot run under Java 6 until 64-bit SWT framework for Mac OS X is in place.”

However I just read (in a recent forum):

“Eclipse *does* now support Java 1.6, 64-bit, and cocoa on OS X. Cocoa builds have been available for over a year now, and since 3.5 they are production. So just grab the cocoa 32 or 64 (preferred) builds form download.eclipse.org and you’re golden.”

I tried getting MyEclipse 8.6 to run on Mac OS X 1.6 however it would instantly crash with EXIT 1 error code.

Unfortunately the latest TestNG plugin for Eclipse 5.13.0.3 appears to have been compiled with Java 6 and as such does not work anymore.

Hence my need to host MyEclipse on 1.6.X on Mac OS X. How is this done?????

–Nikolaos

[Scott Anderson]

Nikolaos,

First thanks for contacting us with your question. Let me start by saying I know I can help with this as I use a MacBook Pro every day and run MyEclipse 8.6 with Java 1.6 all the time.

Let me start by asking how did you install MyEclipse 8.6 on your Mac? If you tried downloading Eclipse then adding MyEclipse to it I’d highly recommend that you delete that installation and simply download our double-click installer for the Macintosh instead. You can get it on the MyEclipse download page as (I believe) the 4th download listed.

If you used another method to install or configure, can you please provide some details so we can determine what might be failing?

[Nikolaos Giannopoulos]

I had installed MyEclipse 8.5 with my primary JDK on my Mac pointing to 1.5.

All was well and recently I upgraded using the Control Center to MyEclipse 8.6. In the process of upgrading I also upgraded a plugin called TestNG to its latest version however it had been compiled with a minimum compliance level of 1.6.

Ergo I tried getting MyEclipse to run on 1.6 and failed with all of the following attempts:

1) I tried simply changing my current system wide JDK to 1.6 which was:
nikolaos (mac0) /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions > ls -lrt
…
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 3 May 22 11:21 CurrentJDK -> 1.5

To:
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 3 Aug 11 16:09 CurrentJDK -> 1.6

However this didn’t do the trick as it appeared that MyEclipse had retained the 1.5 value from the install or something

2) I tried changing in:
/Library/Genuitec/MyEclipse\ 8.5/myeclipse.app/Contents/Info.plist

From:
<!– to use a specific Java version (instead of the platform’s default) uncomment one of the following options:
<string>-vm</string><string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.4.2/Commands/java</string>
<string>-vm</string><string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0/Commands/java</string>
–>
<string>-keyring</string><string>~/.eclipse_keyring</string>

To:
<!– to use a specific Java version (instead of the platform’s default) uncomment one of the following options:
<string>-vm</string><string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.4.2/Commands/java</string>
<string>-vm</string><string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0/Commands/java</string>
–>
<string>-vm</string><string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Commands/java</string>
<string>-keyring</string><string>~/.eclipse_keyring</string>

Which resulted in an immediate splash screen with Exit 1 error code (and a whole slew of settings)

3) I undid the above and added at the top in:
/Library/Genuitec/MyEclipse\ 8.5/myeclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/eclipse.ini

-vm
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Commands/java

Which resulted in the same immediate splash screen with Exit 1 error code (and a whole slew of settings)

4) I undid the above and added at the top in:
/Library/Genuitec/MyEclipse\ 8.5/myeclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/myeclipse.ini

-vm
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Commands/java

Which resulted in the same immediate splash screen with Exit 1 error code (and a whole slew of settings)

I know that there are some duplicate settings in myeclipse.ini and eclipse.ini w.r.t. heap settings and the like which I also would like to clear up but in any event here are the 2 ini files.

At this point it does not appear like a fresh install would resolve anything and keep in my mind if I did do one I have a lot installed and configured and I would need to setup a parallel install and somehow export and re-import the settings (I believe I saw an FAQ entry on how to do the latter but would appreciate any tips / assistance if necessary).

Ideas???

–Nikolaos

nikolaos (mac0) /Library/Genuitec/MyEclipse 8.5/myeclipse.app/Contents/MacOS > more < eclipse.ini
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
-vmargs
-Xdock:icon=../Resources/Eclipse.icns
-XstartOnFirstThread
-Xms40m
-Xmx256m
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.carbon.smallFonts

nikolaos (mac0) /Library/Genuitec/MyEclipse 8.5/myeclipse.app/Contents/MacOS > more < myeclipse.ini
-install
/Library/Genuitec/MyEclipse 8.5
-data
/Users/nikolaos2/home/sw/company
-startup
../../../../Common/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.201.R35x_v20090715.jar
–launcher.library
../../../../Common/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.carbon.macosx_1.0.200.v20090520-1835
-configuration
../../../configuration
-vmargs
-Xmx512m
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=64m
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.carbon.smallFonts
-XstartOnFirstThread

[Scott Anderson]

Nikolaos,

This is good information. In fact, now that I understand what you’ve been doing I know exactly why MyEclipse won’t start (because I’ve done the same thing in the past :-). What is going on is that when you changed the links to make 1.6.0 the default JDK on your system you effectively removed the JDK that the Eclipse java tooling was using, which is configured at Preferences > Java > installed JREs > Default JRE. Without a valid default JRE, Eclipse simply cannot start and that exit error is the result.

So, there are a few ways to fix this, which I’ll try to explain below.

Manually: You might be able to start that installation with a NEW workspace (since that should reconfigure the default JRE in the new workspace), then import all the projects from your old one. Or, you might be able change the preference file in your existing workspace so that it points to your valid 1.6.0 install instead of your dead 1.5 version. That setting is in the file:

<workspace-directory>/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/org.eclipse.jdt.launching.prefs

EASIEST: The easiest would be:
1) Install MyEclipse 8.6 to a new location using our “Custom Installer” from the website. I recommend the custom installer because it will download the minimum amount to ensure a proper and configured MyEclipse 8.6 install. Given that you’ve already done an update, it may not need to download anything and will simply set up a correct configuration to launch 8.6 for you. Please note that if you use this option you need to turn on Java in the Safari browser since the custom installer uses applets.
2) Open your existing workspace. The workspace contains all your preferences and settings, not the install directory, so you should be up and going in no time.

If you’d rather try a manual correction first and the first suggestion didn’t work, I’m going to do is lay out what my settings are for all of the items (since my system is working with JDK 1.6.0) and hopefully you’ll be able to determine what piece of your configuration needs re-adjustment.

#1: On my machine, /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions looks like this:

drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel  102 Jul 20  2009 1.3.1
drwxr-xr-x   7 root  wheel  238 Aug 14  2009 1.6.0
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel    5 May 24 09:07 1.6 -> 1.6.0
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel   10 May 24 09:07 1.5.0 -> CurrentJDK
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel   10 May 24 09:07 1.5 -> CurrentJDK
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel   10 May 24 09:07 1.4.2 -> CurrentJDK
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel   10 May 24 09:07 1.4 -> CurrentJDK
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel    5 May 24 09:07 1.3 -> 1.3.1
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel    3 May 24 09:07 CurrentJDK -> 1.6

#2: In the info.plist file, I haven’t made any changes since I’m using my system’s default JDK, which is 1.6. So the JRE section still looks like the initial install which is:

            <!-- to use a specific Java version (instead of the platform's default) uncomment one of the following options:
                <string>-vm</string><string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.4.2/Commands/java</string>
                <string>-vm</string><string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0/Commands/java</string>
            -->

#3 The eclipse.ini file does not contain a -vm argument at all so it will use the platform default which is JDK 1.6.0

#4 The myeclipse.ini file does not contain a -vm argument at all so it will use the platform default which is JDK 1.6.0

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