Webstart 6.0 Forcing JRE Version and Arch

Question

I have an Eclipse RCP application that is being deployed via Webstart 6.0. Our users hit our tomcat webserver and download the root jnlp. When the root JNLP is double-clicked the very first time (from the browser status bar) the application launches successfully. If the user attempts to launch the application again by double clicking on the file in their downloads folder or via the java application cache viewer the application fails. After much research I discovered that several of the jars are not being loaded on the second attempt, ie. org.eclipse.swt.win32.win32.x86_3.7.2.v3740f.jar). Looking at the javaws logs I found this difference:
When it worked the log showed:
<record>
<date>2012-03-22T13:11:10</date>
<millis>1332443470149</millis>
<sequence>222</sequence>
<logger>com.sun.deploy</logger>
<level>FINE</level>
<class>com.sun.deploy.util.LoggerTraceListener</class>
<method>print</method>
<thread>10</thread>
<message>basic: DefaultMatchJRE:
JREDesc: JREDesc[version 1.5+, heap=-1--1, args=null, href=null, sel=true, null, null]
JREInfo: JREInfo for index 0:
platform is: 1.6
product is: 1.6.0_26
location is: http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se
path is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\javaw.exe
args is: null
native platform is: Windows, x86 [ x86, 32bit ]
enabled is: true
registered is: true
system is: true
Init Heap: -1
Max Heap: 67108864
Satisfying: false, true
SatisfyingVersion: true
SatisfyingJVMArgs: false, true
SatisfyingSecure: false
Selected JVMParam: [JVMParameters: isSecure: false, args: [email protected]/AppData [email protected]/AppData -Declipse.application=com.issinc.tnsClient.core.application]
Running JVMParam: [JVMParameters: isSecure: true, args: ]
</message>
</record>
When it failed:
record>
<date>2012-03-22T13:11:45</date>
<millis>1332443505434</millis>
<sequence>214</sequence>
<logger>com.sun.deploy</logger>
<level>FINE</level>
<class>com.sun.deploy.util.LoggerTraceListener</class>
<method>print</method>
<thread>10</thread>
<message>basic: DefaultMatchJRE:
JREDesc: JREDesc[version 1.5+, heap=-1--1, args=null, href=null, sel=true, null, null]
JREInfo: JREInfo for index 0:
platform is: 1.6
product is: 1.6.0_30
location is: http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se
path is: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_30\bin\javaw.exe
args is: null
native platform is: Windows, amd64 [ x86_64, 64bit ]
enabled is: true
registered is: true
system is: true
Init Heap: -1
Max Heap: 67108864
Satisfying: false, true
SatisfyingVersion: true
SatisfyingJVMArgs: false, true
SatisfyingSecure: false
Selected JVMParam: [JVMParameters: isSecure: false, args: [email protected]/AppData [email protected]/AppData -Declipse.application=com.issinc.tnsClient.core.application]
Running JVMParam: [JVMParameters: isSecure: true, args: ]
</message>
</record>
My JNLP has:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jnlp spec="1.0+" codebase="http://localhost:9080/RcpClient" href="rcpclient.jnlp">
     <information>
          <title>RCP Client</title>
          <vendor>My Company</vendor>
          <description>RCP Client Application</description>
          <shortcut>
               <desktop/>
          </shortcut>
     </information>
     <security>
          <all-permissions/>
     </security>
     <update check="always" policy="always"/>
     <resources>
          <jar href="plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.2.0.v20110502.jar"/>
          <extension name="Wrapper feature" href="features/rcpClient_1.0.0.jnlp" />
          <property name="osgi.instance.area" value="@user.home/AppData"/>
          <property name="osgi.configuration.area" value="@user.home/AppData"/>
          <property name="eclipse.application" value="rcpClient.core.application"/>
     </resources>
     <resources os="Windows" arch="x86">
          <j2se version="1.5+"/>
     </resources>
     <application-desc main-class="org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.WebStartMain">
          <argument>-nosplash</argument>
     </application-desc>
</jnlp>
I've tried several different options on the j2se and the resources os="Windows", but with no success. How do I control the version of the jre used so that the app runs consistently? On my development laptop I have both a 32 and 64 bit JRE, our end users will most likely only have the 32 bit.

Answer 1

It will be easier if you will paste trace files. See troubleshooting guide for more details on how to get detailed trace:
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/webnotes/tsg/TSG-Desktop/html/plugin.html#gcexdf
The only weird thing in your log snippet (that is too small to give full picture) is that second time JRE is used from inside the JDK.
This should not happen and likely caused by the fact JDK bin folder is in your system PATH (unless it is corrupt registry).
Try removing it or add true JRE folder in front of JDK bin in the path.
Generally speaking JDK is not supposed to be used to run webstart or applets. It is good for development (compilation) but to execute
webstart or applet it is expected that user has JRE installed.