Is it possible to install IBM java on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) - Ubuntu?

1
votes

As the title says, I would like to install IBM java (from IBM's Java SDK downloads) on WSL. However, the "InstallAnywhere root not required" file creates a folder and so on, but just executing a simple <path>/java -version command takes several minutes.

Is there an inherent incompatibility or another requirement that creates this problem?

Some background information:

  • Windows 10 Enterprise 1703 64 bit

  • There are no other Java versions installed (in WSL)

  • WSL reports (uname -a) Linux computername 4.4.0-43-Microsoft #1-Microsoft Wed Dec 31 14:42:53 PST 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

  • The Java version reported (after a long wait) is:

` java version "1.7.0"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build pxa6470sr10fp15-20171116_01(SR10 FP15))

IBM J9 VM (build 2.6, JRE 1.7.0 Linux amd64-64 Compressed References 
20171011_366933 (JIT enabled, AOT enabled)

J9VM - R26_Java726_SR10_20171011_1726_B366933

JIT  - r11_20171011_366933

GC   - R26_Java726_SR10_20171011_1726_B366933_CMPRSS

J9CL - 20171011_366933)

JCL - 20171109_01 based on Oracle jdk7u161-b13

Thanks!

1
javalinuxwindows-10windows-subsystem-for-linux

1 Answers

0
votes

UPDATE - January 2018
Microsoft has made significant improvements to the underlying technology and memory management in WSL, and the latest versions of Windows 10 Insiders work well with the JVM. It is not as fast as a native Linux machine, but it is now possible to work in the WSL environment without suffering form major delays for simple command execution. The answer is now yes, but you must have Windows 10 build 17074 or better in order to have decent performance.

--- ORIGINAL ANSWER - Dec, 2017 ---

After some research, I found out that the answer is both Yes and No:

Yes, because the JDK installs correctly and functions as expected (other than speed) in the platform without any special modifications or configuration.

No, because due to the architecture of the WSL, certain memory mapping functions work different in WSL than in a fully native Linux environment. Users have reported very slow performance using Haskell, and it looks like Java suffers from the same problem too. There have been significant improvements in Windows 10 releases since the summer of 2017, but it is still slow compared to a native system.

Microsoft is still actively working on this issue, though, and the "No" part of this answer may be fixed in the near future.