Eclipse neon "Could not create the JVM"

Question

We are setting up eclipse neon on Java 1.7 and it fails to start showing a popup with message

Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine.
Error: A fatal exception has occurred. Program will exit.

Here is configuration in eclipse.ini

-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.201.v20161025-1711.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_64_1.1.401.v20161122-1740
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.appendVmargs
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.7
-XX:+UseStringDeduplication
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.7
-Xms256m
-Xmx512m

Answer 1

I found this answer helpful. I was getting this error even after using java 8, So just delete eclipse.ini file, but backup first.

Answer 2

As of Eclipse Platform 4.6, and the Neon release, a Java 8 (or later) JRE or JDK is required to run Eclipse.

Answer 3

There is chance that the current eclipse you have was not completely downloaded. Try downloading again and try the set up again.

Answer 4

I received this error after upgrading from neon.2 to neon.3. Since Eclipse is ever-changing, what worked last year may not work today. My experience has shown the VM args to usually be the culprit in this situation, so my solution was to remove the -vmargs section of my eclipse.ini file and then restart Eclipse.

In my case it started correctly, so I added the VM args back one at a time until it failed. The source of my startup problems this time was -XX:+UseParallelGC. After some research I swapped it out for -XX:+UseG1GC and now I'm back in business.

Answer 5

Download and install JRE version 8, as it's required by Eclipse.

Answer 6

i just deleted the eclipse.ini then it worked like a charm

Answer 7

just add your jdk path on the top of your init file as below.

-vm

C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_71/bin/javaw