Name: dk106046 Date: 02/19/2004

Java Web Start in Sun JDK 1.4.2 does not recognize OS architecture "x86" and is therefore not compatible with other JDK's.
                           
JWS will hit our web site and download an IBM JDK which is part of a
client runtime and gets installed on the client machine. An application is then downloaded which depends on the IBM JDK (and therefore will run with the IBM JDK).

When JWS tries to run the application, it looks to see if the required
JDK is installed BUT it does not find that the IBM JDK is correct and usable.

The JWS code is checking that the os.arch value of the IBM JDK (which is x86) is the same as the os.arch value when the JDK was downloaded. When the IBM JDK was downloaded, the Sun JDK was being run and the os.arch value registered with the IBM JDK was i386. Because the 2 values of os.arch are not the same, JWS does not recognize the IBM JDK and the app fails.
 
The JWS in JDK 1.4.1 worked fine on Linux with the IBM JDK. It did not check the os.arch values. This check was added in the JWS in 1.4.2 and also in 1.5.

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