Libraries required when setting the java.awt.headless system property for use with Apache Tomcat

Products

• VMware
• Support Only for Apache Tomcat

Issue/Introduction

When running Apache Tomcat or tc Server on a system without a graphical user interface, you must set the java.awt.headless system property to true. This allows an application to access the graphics processing capabilities of the JVM for making graphs, charts, or other images to be displayed on a remote system.

This article provides information on the libraries that are required when you set the java.awt.headless system property to true.

Environment

Apache Tomcat 5.5
VMware vFabric tc Server 2.5
VMware vFabric tc Server 2.6
VMware vFabric tc Server 2.1
Apache Tomcat 6
VMware vFabric tc Server 2.0
Apache Tomcat 7

Resolution

When you set the java.awt.headless system property to true and access the graphical processing capabilities of the JVM, it creates a dependency on some native libraries that may or may not be installed on the system.

For a Linux/Unix based system, it creates a dependency on Xorg X11 libraries.

The following list provides the libraries that should be installed for several common distributions of Linux.

• RedHat Enterprise Linux -In RedHat Enterprise Linux 4 and CentOS 4, libXp.so.6 is in the xorg-x11-deprecated-libs RPM.
• Debian / Ubuntu - Install the libxp6, libxt6, libxtst6, and libx11-6 packages.
• Fedora Core 5 - The libXp.so library is split in its own package. You must install the libXp RPM.
• Other distributions - The required libraries can often be found in either the XFree86-libs or the xorg-x11-libs package.

Additional Information

For additional information, see Using Headless Mode in the Java SE Platform.

Note: The preceding link was correct as of February 17, 2012. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.