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Home » Newcomers » Newcomers » Eclipse crashes on start but no log(Eclipse has suddenly started crashing on launch and I can't find a log)
Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767687] Sun, 09 July 2017 22:58 Go to next message
Reinhardt Christiansen is currently offline Reinhardt ChristiansenFriend
Messages: 73
Registered: March 2010
Member
I'm not an Eclipse newcomer but it's so rare that I use these forums that I've forgotten where I should ask this type of question and the FAQ I read said this sort of problem should be asked in the Newcomers area so here I am.

I have three versions of Eclipse installed on this laptop but, in truth, I've only ever used the Mars version; I *started* the Oxygen version and closed it after the briefest of looks. The Mars version is 3.5.2 if I recall correctly - it says Mars.2 on the splash screen when it launches properly - and I have Windows 10 on this machine.

Mars was working just fine as recently as this morning but I had to do a reboot of Windows due to an unrelated issue and now when I try to launch Mars, I get a fleeting glimpse of the splash screen, then it apparently crashes. I do NOT get any kind of exit code and I can't find any log from today where the FAQ says to look for it. There *are* logs in eclipse\configuration but the newest is dated 6 days ago. I know I should look in the workspace too but I can't *find* the workspace and don't remember where it should be. (A while back, I checked the option that said "Always use this workspace" and now I've forgotten where it was.) I've used the File Explorer search option to look for it but have come up empty. Yet it was there a few hours ago and I can't think of anything I've done that could delete it. Even if it is really deleted, shouldn't Eclipse tell me that, instead of just crashing silently? For what it's worth, I've looked in the Recycle Bin and can't find workspace there either. However, I don't really believe it is gone: I *thought* it was right in the C: directory but noticed it wasn't there at least a week ago, yet it still found my code just fine and let me edit it and run it.

I've tried using --consoleLog (Runtime) in the eclipse.ini file but that doesn't change anything either.

My eclipse.ini points to a valid, recent VM (jdk1.8.0_131) and the VM is still exactly where it is indicated by the ini file, I even made sure that javaw.exe is in the bin directory.

I've also done multiple Windows reboots on the off-chance it might be some sort of Windows-related foolishness but that didn't help either except to the VERY limited extent that the *first* time I tried to launch Mars, the splash screen stayed visible for maybe 10 or 15 seconds before crashing; on every subsequent attempt it would give the briefest flicker, then crash.

I need some help to figure this out. I *really* need to get this working again. Can anyone help me troubleshoot this?

[Updated on: Sun, 09 July 2017 23:08]

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Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767689 is a reply to message #1767687] Mon, 10 July 2017 01:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Nitin Dahyabhai is currently offline Nitin DahyabhaiFriend
Messages: 4430
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member

Try running it from the Command Prompt window, and showing what's in the eclipse.ini file.

_
Nitin Dahyabhai
Eclipse Web Tools Platform
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767691 is a reply to message #1767689] Mon, 10 July 2017 02:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Reinhardt Christiansen is currently offline Reinhardt ChristiansenFriend
Messages: 73
Registered: March 2010
Member
I'm not clear on what you're proposing. Do you mean to simply go to the eclipse directory and type eclipse.exe or are you suggesting I start it with various options?

For what it's worth, I tried doing just "eclipse.exe" from the eclipse directory and got the same behaviour: the splash screen was visible for a split second, then it disappeared without any other obvious message. I also tried "eclipse.exe -consoleLog (Runtime) and got the exact same behaviour. There are no new log files in the configuration folder either.

Here's a copy/paste of eclipse.ini from WordPad:
-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.100.v20150511-1540.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_64_1.1.300.v20150602-1417
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256M
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
-consoleLog (Runtime)
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256m
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.appendVmargs
--vm
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_131\bin\javaw.exe
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.8
-Xms256m
-Xmx1024m

[Updated on: Mon, 10 July 2017 02:42]

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Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767692 is a reply to message #1767691] Mon, 10 July 2017 02:59 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Nitin Dahyabhai is currently offline Nitin DahyabhaiFriend
Messages: 4430
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member

Try replacing the javaw.exe with java.exe until it's working correctly. Then you might see some console output.

_
Nitin Dahyabhai
Eclipse Web Tools Platform
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767693 is a reply to message #1767692] Mon, 10 July 2017 03:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Reinhardt Christiansen is currently offline Reinhardt ChristiansenFriend
Messages: 73
Registered: March 2010
Member
No dice. I've changed javaw.exe to java.exe in the .ini file and then launched it from the command line and then the shortcut on the desktop and I got the same fleeting glimpse of the splash screen and nothing more. There was no new log file in eclipse\configuration either. Appending -consoleLog (Runtime) to the "eclipse.exe" at the command prompt did not change the behaviour either.

This is utterly WEIRD. How could it work fine earlier today then start doing this without me having done something pretty strange, like deleting half my hard drive, reinstalling a bad version of a VM or Eclipse or *something* similarly dramatic?
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767724 is a reply to message #1767693] Mon, 10 July 2017 10:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Nitin Dahyabhai is currently offline Nitin DahyabhaiFriend
Messages: 4430
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member

What is "-consoleLog (Runtime)" for, specifically the "(Runtime)" part? I don't think I've seen that before, and if it's valid, shouldn't it be on two separate lines? Why is --launcher.XXMaxPermSize specified twice, even though it's no longer needed for 1.8 runtimes (http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/122)?

_
Nitin Dahyabhai
Eclipse Web Tools Platform
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767732 is a reply to message #1767724] Mon, 10 July 2017 12:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Reinhardt Christiansen is currently offline Reinhardt ChristiansenFriend
Messages: 73
Registered: March 2010
Member
An FAQ I read - https://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_Where_can_I_find_that_elusive_.log_file%3F - suggested the -consoleLog parameter be used. Perhaps the FAQ is out of date? Anyway, it suggested that I use it, then I did a bit of googling and discovered that -consoleLog was supposed to have an argument of (Runtime) so I added that.

I'm not sure why the one parameter is there twice. I didn't generate the file and the only editing I did was of the -vm line. I deleted the duplicate parameter and tried it again from both the command line and the desktop shortcut but it made no difference.
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767746 is a reply to message #1767732] Mon, 10 July 2017 14:43 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Reinhardt Christiansen is currently offline Reinhardt ChristiansenFriend
Messages: 73
Registered: March 2010
Member
I've tried copying my Mars.2 and Oxygen eclipse folders over to my F: drive to see if I could get them to launch on the other drive. I get the same nonsense there are on my C: drive. A fleeting glimpse of the splash screen, then nothing more.

I f inally found my workspace at it seems to be completely intact; it's at C:\Users\Reinh\workspace. Strangely enough, none of the .ini files - except the one for Oxygen - even attempt to point to a workspace and it points to the WRONG place:
-Dosgi.instance.area.default=@user.home/eclipse-workspace

That last folder name should be just "workspace", not "eclipse-workspace".

What assumption does Eclipse make about the workspace location if it isn't specified in the .ini file?

For what it's worth, I tried pointing Mars.2 to the *right* workspace location in its .ini file but that didn't work either.

How *should* Eclipse behave if the workspace isn't where it's expected at launch time?? I'm wondering if Eclipse simply can't find the workspace and is therefore closing without an error? Perhaps the designers assumed this situation was so obvious that everyone could figure it out without a single message or log entry so didn't bother generating either one?

My greatest concern - that I had somehow deleted my workspace and lost my code - has been put to rest. Now I need your help to get Eclipse to launch so that it can *find* my workspace and let me work on my code.
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767757 is a reply to message #1767746] Mon, 10 July 2017 17:24 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Nitin Dahyabhai is currently offline Nitin DahyabhaiFriend
Messages: 4430
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member

You're able to run "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_131\bin\java.exe" and "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_131\bin\javaw.exe" manually from a command line, right?

_
Nitin Dahyabhai
Eclipse Web Tools Platform

[Updated on: Mon, 10 July 2017 17:35]

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Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767761 is a reply to message #1767757] Mon, 10 July 2017 19:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Reinhardt Christiansen is currently offline Reinhardt ChristiansenFriend
Messages: 73
Registered: March 2010
Member
If I change to the C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_131\bin directory and execute java.exe -version, I get:
java version "1.8.0_131"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_131-b11)
Java Hotspot(TM) 64-bit Server VM (build 25.131-b11, mixed mode)

If I run javaw.exe -version (or just javaw.exe with no arguments), I get nothing except a blank line.

Is that what *should* happen? Should I be using a different argument?
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767776 is a reply to message #1767761] Tue, 11 July 2017 04:22 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Nitin Dahyabhai is currently offline Nitin DahyabhaiFriend
Messages: 4430
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member

No, a lack of visible output is normal for javaw.exe.

The easiest suggestion is to download a new 64-bit Oxygen package, unpack it somewhere other than under "Program Files" that your user owns and not modify the eclipse.ini at all, and let it prompt you for a workspace location on startup.


_
Nitin Dahyabhai
Eclipse Web Tools Platform

[Updated on: Tue, 11 July 2017 04:23]

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Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767851 is a reply to message #1767776] Tue, 11 July 2017 15:11 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Reinhardt Christiansen is currently offline Reinhardt ChristiansenFriend
Messages: 73
Registered: March 2010
Member
I've already tried installing the 64-bit Oxygen package on my F: drive and launching it from there (by clicking on eclipse.exe) and the same nonsense happens there too: a fleeting glimpse of the splash screen, then nothing more.

For what it's worth, I tried installing Netbeans 8.2 on the same computer and it seems to work okay. (I wrote a HelloWorld and executed it successfully.) It's using the same JDK as my Eclipse installations so that should eliminate any number of possible reasons for the weird behaviour I'm getting with Eclipse.
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767887 is a reply to message #1767851] Tue, 11 July 2017 23:47 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Reinhardt Christiansen is currently offline Reinhardt ChristiansenFriend
Messages: 73
Registered: March 2010
Member
Just for the heck of it, I just deleted the copies I'd made of Mars2 and Oxygen on my F: drive, downloaded a fresh copy of the 64-bit Oxygen package - just to make sure I hadn't touched any of the files - unzipped it and copied *that* to my F: drive. I clicked on eclipse.exe and got the splash screen for a solid 2 seconds. Then it crashed silently. There was no new log file in the eclipse\configuration folder. When I clicked on eclipse.exe again, I got a fleeting glimpse of the splash screen, then it crashed silently. In other words, it's behaving exactly the same as it did on the C: drive.

I am losing my mind trying to figure out what is wrong here. The JDK seems fine since I successfully installed Netbeans and can run a HelloWorld program from it. The eclipse workspace seems fine too: I can import Eclipse projects into Netbeans just as the help screen describes and the resulting project looks intact. So what else can be wrong?

I hope this isn't going to offend you but I've lost the better part of three days messing with this so I'm going to reach out to some other places to see if I can get some more minds working on this in the hopes of a quick resolution to the problem. I would much rather stay with Eclipse because I'm that much more familiar with it but I *can't* spend much more time messing with this. I *have* to get back to work on my coding so I may have to switch to Netbeans if I can't get Eclipse working again. I will deeply regret the time lost to the learning curve of getting on to Netbeans but I may have no choice.
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767907 is a reply to message #1767887] Wed, 12 July 2017 06:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Nitin Dahyabhai is currently offline Nitin DahyabhaiFriend
Messages: 4430
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member

What kind of filesystem is the F drive? What tool are you using to unzip the download?

_
Nitin Dahyabhai
Eclipse Web Tools Platform
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1767983 is a reply to message #1767907] Wed, 12 July 2017 14:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Reinhardt Christiansen is currently offline Reinhardt ChristiansenFriend
Messages: 73
Registered: March 2010
Member
Both my C: and F: drives - both of which are logical drives on the same internal hard drive - are NTFS. The tool I use for unzipping is the "Extract All" option on the Windows context menu in my Downloads folder, which has never given me any problems.
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1768220 is a reply to message #1767983] Fri, 14 July 2017 18:49 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Reinhardt Christiansen is currently offline Reinhardt ChristiansenFriend
Messages: 73
Registered: March 2010
Member
I have some additional information on my situation, as well as some questions.

First, I downloaded a bunch of JavaFX samples some time last week consisting partly of some standalone jars. Last week, they ran perfectly fine simply by double-clicking on them. Now, they don't run at all. When I clicked on "Open With...", the default option for jar files was Java Platform SE Binary; I'm not sure if that's what *should* be there.

Second, I've already mentioned that my problem only began several days after I had made some changes to my environment variables. I assumed that those changes couldn't have anything to do with the problem because I'd used Eclipse without difficulty for several days after those changes. It suddenly dawned on me that I'd omitted mentioning one key thing: I don't reboot Windows very often, rarely more than a couple of times a month. I'm pretty sure that I did not reboot Windows in between the time I made the environment variable changes and the emergence of my problem with Eclipse. Given that my problem began when I did finally do a reboot, it seems likely that I messed something up with either the changing of the environment variables or the installation of the newest JDK and JRE or the removal of the old JDKs and JREs.

Is there any kind of checklist I can follow that will tell me EVERYTHING that has to be in place and correct before Eclipse will run on a Windows 10 machine? I've almost certainly messed *something* up but I don't know what is wrong. I'm guessing that Eclipse only fails silently like this under a very limited set of circumstances and that someone can point me to documentation on what those circumstances are. If I can go through a checklist, I should be able to identify what is broken and fix it.

Or is there some other place I should be looking for messages/logs that I haven't tried yet? I've pretty much only looked in \eclipse\configuration for .log files and have yet to see one dated after July 3. When I've tried launching eclipse from the command line, I've also looked for messages but haven't seen any. Maybe there is some other place to look for messages that might help me figure this out?

One other thing. Someone helping me on another forum said he used to find it necessary to make sure that there is a copy of java.exe, javaw.exe, and javaws.exe to be in the \Windows\System32 folder for things to work properly. I did not have any of those files in my \System32 folder so I copied them in there but it didn't change any of the symptoms I'm getting. However, when I looked at my classpath, I noticed that the first path in it was the c:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath and *that* folder DID have copies of java.exe, javaw.exe, and javaws.exe. Is that how things *should* be in a Windows 10 64-bit machine? Is there any harm in deleting the copies that I put in the \System32 folder?
Re: Eclipse crashes on start but no log [message #1768403 is a reply to message #1768220] Tue, 18 July 2017 10:39 Go to previous message
Reinhardt Christiansen is currently offline Reinhardt ChristiansenFriend
Messages: 73
Registered: March 2010
Member
For the sake of posterity, I just want to report that I've finally gotten past my problem with Eclipse.

I uninstalled both the JDK and JRE and reinstalled them. Eclipse immediately started working again. I did *not* have to mess with the environment variables at all to get Eclipse working. I'm not quite sure what was messed up but the uninstall/reinstall of the JDK and JRE solved the problem.

It would be FANTASTIC if the developers made an effort to anticipate whatever happened to me so that some kind of diagnostic/error message can be generated when the next poor sod does whatever I did to myself. I've lost so much precious time - and momentum! - these last several days. I just hope I can recapture it and make up for lost time.....
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