Installation Troubleshooting

I do not have the Java version required to run Iris.

When you run the Iris startup command, the application does not open; the SED Importer startup command fails with an error message.

% /path/iris-beta-2.5-<plat>-<arch>/Iris &

[nothing happens]


% /path/iris-beta-2.5-<plat>-<arch>/SedImporter &

 Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassFormatError: cfa.vo.sed.importer.SedImporterApp (unrecognized class file version)
   at java.lang.VMClassLoader.defineClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at gnu.java.lang.MainThread.run(libgcj.so.7rh)

This likely indicates that you do not have the minimum required Java version on your system to run the Iris application; or you do, but your global 'path' variable points to an older Java version which coexists on your system with the up-to-date one. In the case of the former, you should upgrade to at least Java SE 6 (version 1.6) by following the installation instructions for the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) specific to your computer platform, on the Oracle website.

In the case of the latter, first check to see if your path points to an older version of Java on your system; if so, contact your systems administrator to find out if a newer version of Java is available elsewhere on your system.

For example, the output below shows that the global path variable is pointed to a directory containing an outdated version of Java.

% which java
/usr/bin/java

% java -version
java version "1.4.2"
gij (GNU libgcj) version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-50)

Checking /usr/local/bin, however, reveals that an up-to-date Java version coexists on the system with the older version:

% /usr/local/bin/java -version
java version "1.6.0_24"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_24-b07)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 19.1-b02, mixed mode)

Editing the global path variable so that the directory containing Java SE 6 is searched before the directory containing the older version, will allow Iris to properly install.

% set path = (/usr/local/bin $path)

% Iris &

Adding the "set path ..." line shown above to your user preferences file for the shell, e.g. ~/.cshrc.user or ~/.cshrc for the tcsh shell or ~/.bashrc for bash shell, will make this change permanent; running it in the terminal window will alter the path only temporarily, i.e., for that particular terminal session.

The Iris Fit feature does not appear to be working.

If you find that the components of Iris, Specview and Sherpa, are not communicating (via SAMP) as they should - e.g., when you try to fit a model to a data set within Iris using the Fit feature, nothing happens - then it is likely that Specview was not able to initiate a SAMP hub with which to connect to Sherpa. To check if this is the case, check the SAMPSherpa.log in the Iris installation directory for error messages.

This is a known bug with the software which is often not reproducible. On some Linux Fedora systems, using JRE from Oracle in place of OpenJDK which comes on these systems may resolve the issue. Removing the SAMP lockfile in your home directory may also resolve the connection error.

% rm ~/.samp

If you encounter this error and need assistance, please contact the VAO Helpdesk.