I'm not sure if I set this up properly. I want to start Eclipse CDT on my Ubuntu 8.04 install using X11 through VNC.

When I try to run eclipse through vnc viewer command line using ./eclipse it hangs for a few seconds then fails. No error message is output on the command line.

Is there a startup error log or some place I can look to find out what's happening? Or am I doing this wrong?

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So, you are using a remote client running VNC to connect to your Ubuntu 8.04 system, and are trying to run Eclipse w/ CDT on Ubuntu? One assumes other desktop stuff works ok?

Yeah like I can run firefox from the command line through the vnc viewer and some stripped down version of it starts up, like without a minimize button, but it still works. I haven't tried any other apps except eclipse/firefox.

So, are you connecting to the desktop, or a frame buffer X-server? Also, what is your client? Windows? Linux? And what is the Linux distribution+version+kernel and X-Server you are running on the host? And what VNC version are you running on host and client?

Connecting to a frame buffer x server as described here, "For Unix, the traditional VNC implementation includes a "virtual" X11 server Xvnc"... http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/

Although I am actually connecting to Ubuntu desktop so I might be able to connect to the real thing. I would rather get this working though.

client: vnc viewer 4.1 for windows 7 64-bit ultimate
server: ubuntu desktop 8.04 lts
kernel: 2.6.24-22-generic
vnc: vnc4server, 4.1.1+xorg1.0.2-0ubuntu7

X-server: I did X -version result was,
X.Org X Server 1.4.0.90,
Release Date: 5 September 2007
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux Ubuntu (xorg-server 2:1.4.1~git20080131-1ubuntu9.2)

I found the vnc log file which shows what happens after I connect, start firefox successfully, start eclipse unsuccessfully and disconnect.

tail -f /home/shwick/.vnc/desktop\:1.log
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/TTF/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/OTF, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/CID/, removing from list!
X Error of failed request:  BadLength (poly request too large or internal Xlib length error)
  Major opcode of failed request:  134 (VNC-EXTENSION)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  1 ()
  Serial number of failed request:  65
  Current serial number in output stream:  65
/home/shwick/.vnc/xstartup: 12: twm: not found
Warning: locale not supported by C library, locale unchanged

Mon Apr 18 11:30:50 2011
 Connections: accepted: 10.11.12.254::56323
 SConnection: Client needs protocol version 3.8
 SConnection: Client requests security type VncAuth(2)

Mon Apr 18 11:30:54 2011
 VNCSConnST:  Server default pixel format depth 16 (16bpp) little-endian rgb565
 VNCSConnST:  Client pixel format depth 8 (8bpp) rgb max 3,3,3 shift 4,2,0

Mon Apr 18 11:31:39 2011
 VNCSConnST:  Client pixel format depth 16 (16bpp) little-endian rgb565

Mon Apr 18 11:32:23 2011
 Connections: closed: 10.11.12.254::56323 (Clean disconnection)
 SMsgWriter:  framebuffer updates 147
 SMsgWriter:    copyRect rects 14, bytes 224
 SMsgWriter:    hextile rects 187, bytes 187253
 SMsgWriter:    ZRLE rects 91, bytes 16411
 SMsgWriter:    raw bytes equivalent 5099770, compression ratio 25.040115

I tried to find the log file for X11, /var/log/Xorg but there was no file like it.
I searched through xorg.conf but couldn't find an option to enable logging.
I think if I could enable logging for X it would help.

These lines are probably what is relevant:

Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/TTF/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/OTF, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/CID/, removing from list!

Check if these directories exist, and have appropriate permissions set.

Ok I've verified that the problem is eclipse.

Is there some kind of version clash here?

desktop: ubuntu desktop 8.04 lts
kernel: 2.6.24-22-generic
CDT 7.0.2 for Eclipse Helios
jre1.6.0_24

When I do ./eclipse it just hangs for a few seconds and I get no error at all. I also don't know if there is a log file that would store startup errors. Is anyone familiar with this kind of problem?

My eclipse.ini is the default file with the -vm argument added,

-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.1.1.R36x_v20101122_1400.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.gtk.linux.x86_1.1.2.R36x_v20101019_1345
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.cpp.product
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256m
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-vm
/home/shwick/ghostDev/java/jre1.6.0_24/bin/java
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Xms40m
-Xmx384m

I booted into my ubuntu 10 partition on my windows machine, did the exact same thing installing eclipse 3.6 helios with jre 1.6 and eclipse ran fine.

Right now I need to know how to get a description of the error that is occurring even though it is not output to the command line or ubuntu's system log /var/log/messages.

./eclipse just hangs and then returns to the command line

Question. Have you installed any other Java versions (JRE, JDK, OpenJDK) on this system since you installed Eclipse? Have you tried reinstalling Eclipse?

Question. Have you installed any other Java versions (JRE, JDK, OpenJDK) on this system since you installed Eclipse? Have you tried reinstalling Eclipse?

no and yes

Well, at this point, other than the age (3 years) of the OS/kernel, I am clueless... :-(

Ok I'm formatting my server to ubuntu 10 desktop.

I tried upgrading some packages to be able to install eclipse, after doing a sudo apt-get install eclipse, and am just running into too many package upgrade problems.

Some of them don't smoothly upgrade

Thats fine, I would rather format to ubuntu 10 in this case than troubleshoot package upgrade errors.

shwick- you programmed it from the ubunto tunnel.
Do you know if and how can I do it without using the tunnel? (remoting vnc through eclipse on ubunto)

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