DS-5: "JVM Terminated" Error When Launching DS-5

Information in this knowledgebase article applies to:

• ARM Development Studio 5

SYMPTOM

DS-5 Debugger and Eclipse IDE fail to start, reporting the error "JVM terminated".

CAUSE

This problem is often caused by a lack of memory to run the application. Both DS-5 Debugger and Eclipse IDE are implemented using Java^TM technology and the virtual machine needs to allocate a large contiguous area of virtual address space for the heap. The error occurs when the virtual machine is unable to allocate enough memory for the initial heap.

RESOLUTION

Try reducing the maximum Java heap size by editing the following files:

• installdirectory\sw\eclipse\eclipse.ini (for Eclipse IDE on Windows and Linux)
• installdirectory\sw\debugger\debugger.bat (for DS-5 Debugger on Windows)
• installdirectory\sw\debugger\debugger.sh (for DS-5 Debugger on Linux)

Note that the files are installed as read-only files. You might have to change the access permissions before you can edit them.

Some releases of DS-5 Debugger attempt to allocate a fixed 768MB sized heap. This is indicated by a line containing -Xmx768m. The solution in this case is to change this to a smaller value, for example -Xmx500m for 500MB, and restart the application. Try to select the highest value that works on your computer. If you select a value that is too small then the application can suffer from poor performance.

Other releases specify the heap size as a fraction of the available physical memory size. This is indicated by a line containing -XX:DefaultMaxRAMFraction=1 -XX:+UseParallelGC. In this case it is recommended that you delete both of these options and replace them with the -Xmx syntax as described above, selecting a suitable value that works on your computer.

Last Reviewed: Wednesday, February 3, 2021