How do I resolve a spurious "No suitable Java version found" message?

Question

Usually, when I a terminal session on an IBM Midrange box, I use a Java-based TN5250 emulator I designed and helped write (but which, alas, is not available to the public except as part of another application).

But occasionally, I need to use the open source TN5250J instead.

I'm in the final stages of migrating from Catalina on a 2017 iMac to Ventura on an M2 Mini. And I noticed two problems with TN5250J:

First, it doesn't show up in Launchpad.

And second, if I find the app, and try to launch it, I get

ERROR launching 'Tn5250j'

No suitable Java version found on your system! This program requires Java 1.6+ Make sure you install the required Java version.

I tried the supposed solution (counterintuitive as it is) at https://stackoverflow.com/q/52782711 but "no joy."

Any other ideas of how to fix this? TN5250J shouldn't be fussy about any remotely current JVM.

This gets worse: Eclipse also fails to launch. It comes back with a different message (and I think it's from some part ofEclipse itself):

Alert
Failed to create the Java Virtual Machine

To answer the question from "greg-449," a /usr/libexec/java_home --verbose returns

    1.8.0_121 (x86_64) "Oracle Corporation" - "Java SE 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_121.jdk/Contents/Home
    1.7.0_09 (x86_64) "Oracle Corporation" - "Java SE 7" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_121.jdk/Contents/Home

And I will note that if anything runs under the Java 7 JVM, text rendering is seriously screwed up.

I'm wondering if I simply need to reinstall Java, given that these are x86 JVMs, running on M2 hardware.

Answer 1

You need to uninstall the versions of Java you have and install new ones.

The ones you have are Intel versions and so don't run natively on a Apple Silicon box.

I would note that Java 8 is rather old now and there are many more newer versions. I suspect for ARM you will need one of these. The current long term support from Oracle is Java 17 and the latest normal support is 20.

Install a Java for the arm processor e.g. from from Oracle or Eclipse. Other versions come from Azul. All these can be installed from MacPorts in arm and intel versions and they also include versions back to Java 7.

As for Eclipse I think it includes its own Java version by default - so here again try installing an up to date version.

Answer 2

Given that none of the suggestions I tried actually accomplished anything (and one broke other Java programs), and that either (1) digging into the existing app and double-clicking the JAR, or (2) launching it with an Applescript app, seems to work just fine, I see no reason to bother with attempting to "repackage" something I rarely use (remember, I said I use a completely different TN5250 client most of the time, one I designed and had a hand in writing), and had no hand in writing.

FWIW, I offer here the source for a simple AppleScript launcher, based on one that I wrote many years ago to launch a JAR under a specific JVM:

do shell script "export JAVA_HOME='/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_121.jdk/Contents/Home'; java -jar /Users/foo/Tn5250j.app/Contents/Resources/Java/tn5250j.jar"

(The name of my home directory has been changed "to protect the innocent.")