IBM Java 1.7 - "The installer cannot run on your configuration. It will now quit. "

Notes on a scandal ....

Specifically, notes seen when trying to install IBM Java 1.7 onto RHEL 6.4

cat /etc/redhat-release

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.4 (Santiago)

uname -a

Linux ucd61.uk.ibm.com 2.6.32-358.51.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Sun Oct 26 14:30:34 EDT 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

A quick debug ( thanks to this )

export _JAVA_OPTIONS="-Dlax.debug.level=3 -Dlax.debug.all=true"
export LAX_DEBUG=1

~/ibm-java-x86_64-jre-7.1-2.0.bin 

Preparing to install...
Checking for POSIX df.
Found POSIX df.
Checking tail options...
Using tail -n 1.
True location of the self extractor: /home/wasadmin/ibm-java-x86_64-jre-7.1-2.0.bin
Creating installer data directory: /tmp/install.dir.68246
Creating installer data directory: /tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData
Gathering free-space information...
Space needed to complete the self-extraction: 589664 blocks
Available space: 64802224 blocks
Available blocks: 64802224    Needed blocks: 589664 (block = 512 bytes)
Computed number of blocks to extract: 2934
Extracting the JRE from the installer archive...
Extracting JRE from /home/wasadmin/ibm-java-x86_64-jre-7.1-2.0.bin to /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre_padded ...
Extracting done, exit code = 0
Extracting JRE from /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre_padded to /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/vm.tar.Z ...
 Extracting done, exit code = 0
Unpacking the JRE...
Unpacking the JRE...
gzip is /bin/gzip
 GZIP done.
 TAR done.
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Extracting install.zip from /home/wasadmin/ibm-java-x86_64-jre-7.1-2.0.bin to /tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData/installer.padded ...
Extracting to padded done, exit code = 0
Extracting from padded to zip done, exit code = 0
Creating disk1 data directory: /tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData/Disk1
Creating instdata data directory: /tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData/Disk1/InstData
Extracting resources from /home/wasadmin/ibm-java-x86_64-jre-7.1-2.0.bin to /tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData/Disk1/InstData/Resource1.zip ...
Extracting done, exit code = 0
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...

========= Analyzing UNIX Environment =================================
Setting UNIX (linux) flavor specifics.
Importing UNIX environment into LAX properties.
Checking for POSIX awk.

========= Analyzing LAX ==============================================
LAX found............................ OK.
LAX properties read.................. OK.

========= Finding VM =================================================
Valid VM types.......................... 1.4+
Absolute LAX_VM path.................... /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/bin/java
Expanded Valid VM types.................  1.4+ 
* Using VM.....(lax.nl.current.vm)...... /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/bin/java
checking for NPTL + JVM vulernability...
NPTL detected! checking for vulnerable JVM....

========= Virtual Machine Options ====================================
LAX properties incorporated............. OK.
classpath............................... "/tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData:/tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData/installer.zip"
main class.............................. "com.zerog.ia.installer.Main"
.lax file path.......................... "/tmp/install.dir.68246/temp.lax"
user directory.......................... "/tmp/install.dir.68246"
stdout to............................... "console"
sterr to................................ "console"
install directory....................... ""
JIT..................................... none
option (verify)......................... off
option (verbosity)...................... none
option (garbage collection extent)...... none
option (garbage collection thread)...... none
option (native stack max size).......... none
option (java stack max size)............ none
option (java heap max size)............. 50331648
option (java heap initial size)......... 16777216
option (lax.nl.java.option.additional).. none

========= Display settings ===========================================
X display............................... remote
WARNING:  The name  of  this  host (ucd61.uk.ibm.com) and  the setting
of this  shell's DISPLAY (localhost:10.0) variable do not match.
If this launcher is being displayed to a Microsoft Windows desktop
through X Windows the Java Virtual Machine might abort. Try running
this installer locally on the target system or through X Windows to
another UNIX host if the installer unexpectedly fails.
UI mode................................. gui

Launching installer...

========= VM Command Line ============================================
options: -Djava.compiler=NONE  -Xmx50331648 -Xms16777216 
CLASSPATH:/tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData:/tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData/installer.zip:

========= Forking JAVA =============================================
LAX Version = 11.5

Graphical installers are not supported by the VM. The console mode will be used instead...

__________________________________________________________________________

InstallAnywhere 2010
Version: 11.5
__________________________________________________________________________

Wed Dec 24 19:36:18 GMT 2014

Free Memory: 12125 kB
Total Memory: 16384 kB

No Arguments

java.class.path:
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData/installer.zip

ZGUtil.CLASS_PATH:
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/InstallerData/installer.zip

sun.boot.class.path:
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/amd64/compressedrefs/jclSC170/vm.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/se-service.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/math.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/jlm.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmorb.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmorbapi.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmcfw.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmpkcs.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmcertpathfw.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmjgssfw.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmjssefw.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmsaslfw.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmjcefw.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmjgssprovider.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmjsseprovider2.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmcertpathprovider.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/xmldsigfw.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/xml.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/charsets.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/resources.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/rt.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/dataaccess.jar
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ibmgpu.jar

java.ext.dirs:
    /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre/lib/ext

java.version                  == 1.7.0 (Java 1)
java.vm.name                  == IBM J9 VM
java.vm.vendor                == IBM Corporation
java.vm.version               == 2.7
java.vm.specification.name    == Java Virtual Machine Specification
java.vm.specification.vendor  == Sun Microsystems Inc.
java.vm.specification.version == 1.0
java.specification.name       == Java Platform API Specification
java.specification.vendor     == Sun Microsystems Inc.
java.specification.version    == 1.7
java.vendor                   == IBM Corporation
java.vendor.url               == http://www.ibm.com/
java.class.version            == 51.0
java.compiler                 == NONE
java.home                     == /tmp/install.dir.68246/Linux/resource/jre
java.io.tmpdir                == /tmp
os.name                       == Linux
os.arch                       == amd64
os.version                    == 2.6.32-358.51.1.el6.x86_64
path.separator                == :
file.separator                == /
file.encoding                 == UTF-8
user.name                     == wasadmin
user.home                     == /home/wasadmin
user.dir                      == /tmp/install.dir.68246
user.language                 == en
user.region                   == null
__________________________________________________________________________

===============================================================================
Choose Locale...
----------------

    1- Bahasa Indonesia
    2- Català
    3- Deutsch
  ->4- English
    5- Español
    6- Français
    7- Italiano
    8- Português  (Brasil)

CHOOSE LOCALE BY NUMBER: 4
Selected Locale = English

ChooseBundledVMs: Unable to locate the VMPack Directory
RepositoryManager: Trying fallback repository location...
Loading externalized properties

===============================================================================
IBM 64-bit Runtime Environment for Linux, Java Technology Edition, Version 7.1(created with InstallAnywhere)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Preparing CONSOLE Mode Installation...


The installer cannot run on your configuration. It will now quit.
System's temporary directory = /tmp
SHUTDOWN REQUESTED
(X) commiting registry
(X) shutting down service manager
(X) cleaning up temporary directories
Exiting with exit code: 0
cleanUp()
calling cleanUpUNIX()

So what was I doing wrong ?

I was trying to install as a non-root user - wasadmin.

Once I switched to root: -

su -

and tried again, all was well.