IBM i Access Client Solutions

Hi Jon,

Java and macOS weren't always best friends in the past, but it should work.

First try java --jar <path>/acsbundle.jar - does it produce any output?

Next I would recommend to uninstall your current Java, and install an other JRE/JDK - we have good results with Amazons Corretto JDK

• https://aws.amazon.com/de/corretto/

I don't always trust the latest version - so I would recommend Java 21 or even older (maybe 17) - in any case try a LTS release. And make sure to download the macOS aarch64 version, as I assume, that you have a newer Mac mit M1, M2 or M3 processor - which are of course aarch64.

HTH and kind regards,

Daniel

1) The .jar is in the applications folder.  Just to be sure I reinstalled ACS again after moving it there.

2) I had already deleted and reinstalled 2 different versions of Java but I did the Corretto release "just in case" - it installs just fine but it all made no difference.

If in Terminal I type jave -version the only thing that shows up is:

java version "24.0.1" 2025-04-15

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 24.0.1+9-30)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.0.1+9-30, mixed mode, sharing)

So no jdk there even after installing Corretto.  I don't have to reboot to get java to take effect surely?

"Progress" - kind of.

Since the problem applied (albeit differently) to RDi as well as ACS I decided to reinstall RDi and see if that helped.

RDi now works just fine again - and ACS loaded from within RDi also works.

But my stand-alone ACS still doesn't work.

I'd like to get it going again because I don't want to have to start RDi to get there as these days I use mostly VS Code.  I also suspect that the ACS shipped with RDi may not always be fully up to date. Not sure about that though.

Hi Jon, 


Seems its an old occurring bug for MACOS and ACS: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-i-access-client-solutions-will-not-launch-macos-applications 

I know on Windows due to the way paths are set either on SYSTEM / USER level, one has to restart to get that to work, so the restart question's answer would be best to restart. 

Might be helpful to go through these steps listed in this link : https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/java-options-ibm-i-access-client-solutions for macOs. 

And I agree with Daniel with one addition, even on Windows if its not "standard Oracle Java" things go strange with each update. 

Marius

Hi Marius,

I have been all through those pages - and have rebooted a number of times. It made no difference.

I'm not clear what web page you are referring to in your second link - I can't find anything " for macOs. " on the referenced page and I get "Not found" if I include the " for macOs" in the URL 

Hi Jon,

I may be running into the same problem as of this morning...

Were you able to try running this from the command line as Daniel suggested? I just tried that using the following command:

java -jar /usr/local/ibmiaccess/acsbundle.jar 

and see what appears to be a recursive error, I'm very curious if this is the same error you're seeing.

https://gist.github.com/cgroner/e9fd7bb5f4cbb534d7dd1d11059a4e66

Thanks,

Edit to add: I just noticed that I can successfully launch the 5250 emulator directly with the following command, but the larger problem remains:

java -jar /usr/local/ibmiaccess/acsbundle.jar /PLUGIN=5250 /SYSTEM=<YOUR SYSTEM>

My bad Jon, brain typed quicker than what the fingers allowed and is prompting me now to eventually get a mac for myself as well. 

Ok , so the Quickstart.html guide says the following (not sure if you have had a look at that yet): 

3.1 Starting the product on Mac

Use Finder to go to Applications.

Locate "IBM i Access Client Solutions" and double click it to start the product.

Technote:
Depending on your security settings and the version of OS X you are using, you may get a message window indicating the application is not authorized to run. If that happens, you will need to authorize the application to run by using one of the following methods:

• If you are presented with an option to "Open" it, select it.
• Right-click on the "IBM i Access Client Solutions" icon and select "Open".
  When presented with a message window, select "Open".
• If neither of the above options work, then go to:
  System Preferences...
  Security & Privacy
  If there is an option to Open "IBM i Access Client Solutions", select it. Otherwise, you will need to adjust the settings on the General tab to allow other applications to run. After "IBM i Access Client Solutions" starts the first time, you may change your security settings back.

Technote:

• When installing Java on Mac, select a JDK instead of a JRE. The JRE for Mac installs Java for only the browser. It does not install Java for other applications. Installing the JDK will make Java available to other applications such as IBM i Access Client Solutions.
• ACS may not be able to locate Java 8 on macOS 11.0 Big Sur. We recommend installing Java 11 from https://aws.amazon.com/corretto/ since that version contains the most recent updates for keystroke issues.
  
  
  

which tells me to believe on needs to install the JDK (not JRE) , one can choose any one of those that was listed in the last link as long as its a JDK install(ignore my part on the "for macos" as that was me just being to quick to think before I typed). (follow this guide perhaps to see what the path says on your mac  :  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18144660/what-is-path-of-jdk-on-mac that might help indicate what to change on your system to point then to a JDK version instead). 

then lastly there seems also to some security settings that might have botched up on your system recently that one can look at. 


hope this helps somewhat.  

I've been through all of that Marius.  I guess maybe you missed the bit about ACS having been working fine.

I have installed multiple versions on my Macs and the only issue I have had is due to the permissions stuff mentioned towards the end of the page.  But I'm used to that.

This was a copy of ACS that had been in daily use for months.  Then one day I had to reboot and it hasn't worked since. I've reinstalled and done everything in the on-line docs I can find but it makes no difference. Guess I'll open a support ticket with IBM.

Luckily, now that RDi is working again I can launch ACS from within that and it works fine using (I assume) the jdk that is packaged with RDi.

Hey Jon,

Have you tried launching the program from the command line like suggested above? I'm very curious if your problem is related to the problem I posted previously. This is the command I used:

java -jar /usr/local/ibmiaccess/acsbundle.jar 

Thanks,

Hi,

Recently I switched my OpenJDK from version 23.0.1 to version 24.0.1 on my Windows PC.

After changing the JAVA_HOME environment variable I then started my 5250 session again now running with version 24.0.1 of Java. I then realized that I could not launch SQL Script editor from the quick button panel. Then I tried to launch ACS from the desktop and it got stuck just like Jon posted.

I've just tried to launch ACS from a Windows CMD prompt on a new installed test PC and the following error showed up:

Enclosed is an anonymized version of the dump.

@Karsten Holm I'm having the same issue. Tried contacting IBM about this today and they said Java 24 wasn't supported and I should use one of the LTS versions (Java 8, 11, 17, or 21). 🤷🏻‍♂️

CarlG I tried "java -jar /usr/local/ibmiaccess/acsbundle.jar" and it did indeed produce a log but nothing obvious jumped out in it.

Based on your later post and the one from Karsten I loaded Open jdk version 21 and now if I invoke ACS from the terminal with that command it works. So I guess thew problem was an update to version 24.

However, launching from the Applications widget results in the same-old-same-old problem. Guess I have a path issue somewhere that I need to resolve.

I hate Java!

Basically you need to set JAVA_HOME to the correct JRE/JDK that you want to use. It's most probably still set to the Java 24 version.

But setting the JAVA_HOME on macOS can be tricky - simply because you have terminal and GUI processes, and a simple 

$ export JAVA_HOME=....

only works on your terminal - not for GUI apps. Even setting this in .profile or .bashrc wouldn't help, as those aren't executed for GUI processes.

So I use an extension, to manage environment variables system wide - including GUI apps.

https://github.com/hschmidt/EnvPane

With this you can set environment variables system wide from the System Settings. For all processes - including GUI apps.

There are other solutions like symlinking the correct Java version as "Current" - but it's tricky. 

macOS is using a utility /usr/libexec/java_home to find the correct Java. And if JAVA_HOME isn't set, it uses the Java that is symlinked as "Current" - which is often/most probably the latest version installed. 

That said - the relation of macOS and Java isn't exactly what I would call a good one. 

HTH

Daniel

If you just want to run ACS with a different jvm that you already have installed, it's fairly easy to do with Automator on macOS.

Just create open automator, create a new "Application" type, then add the run "Run shell script" action. The shell script can either use the JAVA_HOME variable as mentioned above, or just put the path of the JVM you want to use. For example, I'm using: 

/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@21/bin/java -jar /usr/local/ibmiaccess/acsbundle.jar

I called mine "startacs", and I can just run that app instead of the default app launcher as a workaround until this bug is fixed.

Thanks, CarlG - I will use that idea if this crops up again.  For now, things are working - but I still hate Java <grin>