This test failed in the b60-nightly-2012-10-04 nightly test run. Test environment is:

    test result: Error. Program `/Users/aurora/sandbox/jdk/bin/java' interrupted! (timed out?)
    javatestOS=SunOS 5.10 (x86)
    hostname=sc14160049

The relevant portion of the log file is as follows:

========================================

RMID: starting rmid on port #42830...
JAVAVM: command = [/Users/aurora/sandbox/jdk/jre/bin/java, -showversion, -Djava.security.policy=/Users/aurora/sandbox/testbase/test/java/rmi/activation/Activatable/forceLogSnapshot/rmid.security.policy, -Dsun.rmi.activation.snapshotInterval=10, -Djava.compiler=, -Dsun.rmi.server.activation.debugExec=true, -Dtest.src=/Users/aurora/sandbox/testbase/test/java/rmi/activation/Activatable/forceLogSnapshot, -Dtest.classes=/Users/aurora/sandbox/gresults/testoutput/jdk_rmi/JTwork/classes/java/rmi/activation/Activatable/forceLogSnapshot, -Djava.rmi.server.logLevel=v, sun.rmi.server.Activation, -log, /Users/aurora/sandbox/gresults/testoutput/jdk_rmi/JTwork/java/rmi/activation/Activatable/forceLogSnapshot/ForceLogSnapshot/./log, -port, 42830, -C-Dtest.src=/Users/aurora/sandbox/testbase/test/java/rmi/activation/Activatable/forceLogSnapshot, -C-Dtest.classes=/Users/aurora/sandbox/gresults/testoutput/jdk_rmi/JTwork/classes/java/rmi/activation/Activatable/forceLogSnapshot]

# java version "1.8.0-ea"
# Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0-ea-langtools-nightly-h340-20121004-b60-b00)
# Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 25.0-b02, interpreted mode)
#
JAVAVM: distant vm process running, after 100 milliseconds
ACTIVATION_LIBRARY: caught an exception trying to start rmid, last exception was: non-JRMP server at remote endpoint
java.rmi.ConnectIOException: non-JRMP server at remote endpoint
at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPChannel.createConnection(TCPChannel.java:248)
at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPChannel.newConnection(TCPChannel.java:202)
at sun.rmi.server.UnicastRef.newCall(UnicastRef.java:341)
at sun.rmi.registry.RegistryImpl_Stub.lookup(Unknown Source)
at ActivationLibrary.rmidRunning(ActivationLibrary.java:124)
at RMID.start(RMID.java:236)
at RMID.start(RMID.java:196)
at ForceLogSnapshot.main(ForceLogSnapshot.java:131)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:474)
at com.sun.javatest.regtest.MainWrapper$MainThread.run(MainWrapper.java:94)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)

========================================

This stack trace is repeated 85 times, after which the error message "RMID: rmid still not started" is emitted, and the test times out and fails.

It's hard to say, but it seems like another server was present on that port, which caused the creation of RMID to fail. Instead of retrying on a different port, though, it retried repeatedly on the same port and failed each time until it timed out. This is part of the RMI testlibrary code so it should be easy to adjust the retry policy. ("Easy" in that no API or compatibility issues should arise.)