I found the problem. So if anyone else has it here is the fix. In the documentation distributed with JPype 0.5.1 in the examples/linux directory, there is a file that describes a problem with loading the jvm on linux. So one needs to modify the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to fix it.
I did that after changing one line in /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/jpype/_linux.py line 37 to return "/etc/alternatives/java_sdk/jre/lib/i386/client/libjvm.so" so that jpype.getDefaultJVMPath() would return the correct libjvm.so path for my install. Then I did export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/etc/alternatives/java_sdk/jre/lib/i386:/etc/alternatives/java_sdk/jre/lib/i386/client after doing that the sun 1.4.2 jre loaded just fine with: [EMAIL PROTECTED] root]# python2.4 Python 2.4.2 (#1, Dec 1 2005, 05:44:04) [GCC 3.2.3 20030502 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-53)] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import jpype >>> jpype.startJVM(jpype.getDefaultJVMPath()) >>> -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
