[java] Cannot find java. Please use the --jdkhome switch

I have just installed Netbeans 8.0.2 on CentOS 6.5.

When I try to run it, I get the message

Cannot find java. Please use the --jdkhome switch

I have /usr/share/java-1.7.0 so I typed

/usr/local/netbeans-8.0.2/bin/netbeans --jdkhome /usr/share/java-1.7.0

and still got

Cannot find java. Please use the --jdkhome switch

I also have /root/Downloads/jdk1.8.0_40 which allowed me to install Netbeans. However, when I type

/usr/local/netbeans-8.0.2/bin/netbeans --jdkhome /root/Downloads/jdk1.8.0_40

I still get

Cannot find java. Please use the --jdkhome switch

I tried

whereis java

and got

java: /usr/bin/java /etc/java /usr/lib/java /usr/share/java /usr/share/man/man1/java.1.gz

However

/usr/local/netbeans-8.0.2/bin/netbeans --jdkhome /usr/bin/java

still produces

Cannot find java. Please use the --jdkhome switch.

In my case, I had installed *ahem* OpenJDK, but the bin folder was full of symlinks to the bundled JRE and the actual JDK was nowhere to be found.

When I see a directory structure with bin and jre subdirectories I expect this to be the JDK installation, because JRE installations on Windows looked different. But in this case it was the JRE installation as found out by apt search. After installing openjdk-8-jre the simlinks were replaced and the directory structure otherwise stayed the same.

What worked for me is:

• make sure java path is available:

$ which java
/usr/bin/java

• then in etc/netbeans.conf make sure netbeans_jdkhome is commented out
• in Finder go to /bin/ click on netbeans (terminal icon)

You would expect ./netbeans --jdkhome=/usr/bin/java to work, but it doesn't for some reason.

Try Java SE Runtime Environment 8. It fixed it for me.

NetBeans 8.2 - Cannot locate java installation in specified jdkhome?

Answer: Edit the netbeans.conf file.

Close NetBeans, start Notepad or another text editor as Administrator. Right click on the Notepad application and choose "Run as administrator" and then open netbeans.conf with it. Change netbeans_jdkhome=”C:\Program Files...whatever”.

With the Netbeans 10, commenting out the netbeans_jdkhome setting in .../etc/netbeans.conf doesn't do the job anymore. It is necessary to specify the right directory depending of 32/64 bitness.

E.g. for 64 bit application: netbeans_jdkhome="C:\Program Files\AdoptOpenJDK\jdk8u202-b08"

1. Go to the netbeans installation directory
2. Find configuration file [installation-directory]/etc/netbeans.conf
3. towards the end find the line netbeans_jdkhome=...
4. comment this line line using '#'
5. now run netbeans. launcher will find jdk itself (from $JDK_HOME/$JAVA_HOME) environment variable

example:

sudo vim /usr/local/netbeans-8.2/etc/netbeans.conf

ATTENTION MAC OS USERS

First, please remember that in a Mac computer the netbeans.conf file is stored at

/Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans 8.2.app/Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc/netbeans.conf

(if you had used the default installation package.)

Then, also remember that the directory you MUST use on either "netbeans_jdkhome" or "--jdkhome" it's NOT the /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_172.jdk/ but the following one:

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_172.jdk/Contents/Home //<-- Please, notice the /Contents/Home at the end. That's the "trick"!

Note: of course, you must change the versions for both NetBeans and JDK you're using.

If like me, you got that message after installing jenv, simply add netbeans_jdkhome="$JAVA_HOME" to your [netbeans-installation-directory]/etc/netbeans.conf file

Check the setting in your user config /home/username/.netbeans/version/etc/netbeans.conf

I had the problem where I was specifying the location globally, but my user setting was overriding the global setting.

CentOS 7/Netbeans 8.1