NetBeans 7 and Java SDK (JDK)
Recently I update to the latest NetBeans 7 installation and set it to use the Java 7 SDK (JDK). When launching the program, I get frequently got this annoying error message that says “JVM creation failed”, followed by an exit of the program.
Numerous articles and postings advise to edit the netbeans.conf file and change some memory parameters, but those did not work for me. I found the solution to be to install and use the SDK that matches your OS architecture, especially if you’re using a 64-bit environment. While you can’t use the 64-bit JDK on a 32-bit system, the opposite is possible but leads to random memory quirks like this one.
CONCLUSION: use the 64-bit Java SDK on a 64-bit machine. You might want to install the 32-bit Java Runtime (JRE) for compatibility reasons, and it will run alongside the 64-bit JDK + JRE just fine.
ALSO: I updated my NetBeans and JDK to get around the issue where NetBeans would not retrieve directory listings over FTP. I went from NetBeans 7.1.1 and JDK 7u2 to NetBeans 7.1.2 and JDK 7u4.
That’s all. Happy developing!