IBM Support

When opening Rational DOORS help, an error might occur: "Failed to create the Java Virtual Machine"

Troubleshooting


Problem

When you open the Rational DOORS help from within the client, an error might occur: "Failed to create the Java Virtual Machine." This error occurs if you are working in a Rational DOORS client that was launched by using an icon, menu command, or shortcut whose path contains special characters or non-English characters. Desktop icons and the Start menu commands might include the path with the user name. For example, Desktop icons are typically stored in the user name directory: C:\Users\user_name\Desktop. If the user name includes special or non-English characters, paths to executable files from those icons will include these characters.

Cause

The help system requires a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that is provided by the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). JRE does not support special or non-English characters in the path to the JVM executable file.

This problem was discovered on the Russian locale for Microsoft Windows. The user name contained Russian characters.

Resolving The Problem

You can launch DOORS help in the client by either:
  • Click Help > Contents and Index in DOORS
     
  • Press F1 to access the context-sensitive help.

WORKAROUND:

To avoid this problem do one of the following:
  • Open Rational DOORS directly from the doors.exe executable file, or create a shortcut to that executable that does not contain special or non-English characters in the path.
    The default location of the executable file is
    C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Rational\DOORS\9.5\bin.
     
  • Open the help directly from the help.exe executable file, or create a shortcut to that executable that does not contain special or non-English characters in the path.
    The default location of this file is  
    C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Rational\DOORS\9.5\help.
     
  • You might need to edit the help.ini file, which is located by default in the help directory.

    Add the following lines to help.ini to point at the Java executable file:


    -vm ..\ibm_jre60\bin\javaw.exe

[{"Product":{"code":"SSKR2T","label":"IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"Documentation","Platform":[{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"9.5;9.5.0.1;9.5.1;9.5.1.1;9.5.1.2","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB59","label":"Sustainability Software"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
01 May 2020

UID

swg21635716