Gephi fail to import large dynamic GEXF under Linux

[Julian Bilcke]

EDIT: FIXED (SEE COMMENT #2)

Linux config: Gephi 0.7 "alpha release" on ubuntu, dual 2.6Ghz, 4Gb, 64 bit, Quadro FX NVIDIA
Windows config: Gephi 0.7 "alpha release" on Vista, dual 2.5Ghz, 3Gb, 32 bit, Intel GMA

Gephi fail to import a big dynamic GEXF file (~10Mb) under Linux.

The import progress bar show the advancement of the task, but it seems very slow (like 2 ou 4 seconds for 10% of advancement, with increasing time), despite the high CPU consumption.

Eventually, the progress bar freeze at 73%, and the CPU consumption fall down, but the Import Report Panel never appears. Gephi doesn't crash, and there is no error message at all.

Important notice: The Windows version of gephi 0.7 alpha release can import the same GEXF with no issue! (and it is very fast, less than 12 seconds)

[Julian Bilcke (flngr)]

It appears that this issue is a side effect of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) memory limit.

On 64 bit platforms, much data types take twice as memory, so you may need to increase the maximum memory allowed to the JVM, if you load big graphs.

In the Linux release of Gephi 0.7, you can do it by editing this file "gephi 0.7 alpha/etc/gephidesktop.conf"
and using these parameters:

# options used by the launcher by default, can be overridden by explicit
# command line switches
default_options="--branding gephidesktop -J-Xms256m -J-Xmx1024m -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true -J-Dsun.awt.noerasebackground=true"

Here I set it to 1024Mb (1Gb), but you can increase it, if your computer has enough memory and you need to load bigger graphs.