So I contacted Inductive Automation support and spoke to one of their engineers, Paul Scott, about my issue. Paul troubleshot my problem like a champ and solved it!
Read on if you would like to know how we came to the solution:
Hello Erik,
The issue with the mobile clients be due to an issue with OpenJDK. We ran
into a similar issue when working on a demo server here. It was using an
OpenJDK as well. We started with the commands below,but can skip it if
you want to keep the OpenJDK on the machine.I’m only listing it because
these are the steps I took:
sudo apt-get purge openJDK*
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
Below is the part you should try first. These will install an instance of
the Java 7 JRE and reboot the server:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer
sudo reboot
Next you’ll need to update the “Java Path” setting for the mobile module.
It will most likely be /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/jre/bin/java, but you
can find the exact path by running the following:
ls -l /etc/alternative/java
Enter that path into the "Java Path setting, and try launching a mobile
client. Let me know if you see any new errors or have any troubles.
Paul Scott
Thank you so much for all your help Paul,
I am still unable to launch clients on mobile devices and I am still
getting the exact same error:
Timeout waiting for new VM
I initially left the openJDK on the server and simply installed the jre
per instructions from you and updated the path in the module settings to
no avail. I checked the path and found it to be accurate. I restarted the
module and the iPad along with refreshing the iPad¹s cache, still didn¹t
work. So I restarted the OPC-UA module as well and it still didn¹t work.
I finally went ahead and removed the openJDK just to make sure their were
no conflicts. I checked to make sure the openJDK was gone and then
restarted and refreshed the cache of all involved and tried again. Same
ERROR!
It is linked to the gateway because I get the ignition icon on the iPad
and it launches the list of projects, but that is it I don¹t know if it
will help any but I have attached the console logs.
Please send me any questions that might help me help you help me 
Erik R Fritts
Hello Erik,
Thank you for the logs. I would like to try launching a mobile client on
you computer (not an iPad)
-Click the home tab of the gateway
-Under Mobile Launch you’ll see a link to launch a mobile project. Click
the link
-Pick a project and log in.
Did you see the same error? Also, I’m curious if any client logs are
being generated when attempting to launch a mobile project.
-Under the mobile settings type the following for the JVM Options field:
-Dmobile.debug=true
-Save the mobile settings
-Try to launch a project
-Do you see any new files generated in
/var/lib/ignition/data/mobile_wdir? Aside from
mobile-client-bootstrap.jar and mobile-common.jar, you should see two new
files: ClientVM-########-####-####-####-############-err.log and
ClientVM-########-####-####-####-############-out.log. Are those files
there?
If the ClientVM logs were not created, then it is still an issue with the
version of Java the mobile module is trying to use. Try
uninstalling/re-installing the version of Java I had you install in the
last email, and try launching a project again.
If the ClientVM logs were created, then send them in so I can look at
them.
Paul Scott
Hello again Paul, I decided to give it another go this morning and spent
my morning trying to get my Gateway unfaulted. Here is the rundown:
I get the same error when trying to launch the clients from my desktop
browser and there are still no files showing up in the mobile_wdir¹
directory in spite of the mobile module having the debug mode set to true.
The first time I followed your instructions I was logged in as root so I
thought it unnecessary to use the SUDO portion of the commands, so this
time I included that portion. I first uninstalled the oracle-java-7-jre
gave it a reboot then followed your instructions to the letter. After
following the original instructions I was left with a faulted gateway that
I could not access. Since you noted that the openJDK was believed to be an
issue I went ahead and replaced it with the oracle java8 JDK and after a
reboot was able to use my gateway again.
-Now I have no openJDK on my Ubuntu 12.04LTS 64bit
-The oracle java7 JRE is installed at /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/jre/bin/
and is set as the modules path
-I have the oracle java8 JDK installed
I set all the mobile module logs to debug in the gateway console and tried
running the clients in my browser again. I exported the logs and included
them with this email. Whatever is wrong it has to be happening before the
JVM options can create the debug files. I was so desperate I even tried
setting the module¹s path to java. I even tried searching the entire
server for the clientvm log files and found no files that even had
clientvm in them. Thanks for your help and hopefully I gave you a few new
clues.
Erik R Fritts
Hello Erik,
Let’s try an experiment. With the Mobile.VMManager set to debug, you’ll
notice that when you try to launch a mobile project it will output a line
like this:
Starting vm: /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/jre/bin/java -cp
/usr/local/bin/ignition/lib/core/launch/launchclient.jar:/var/lib/ignition
/data/mobile_wdir/mobile-common.jar:/var/lib/ignition/data/mobile_wdir/mob
ile-client-bootstrap.jar -Dmobile.callback.interface=localhost
-Dmobile.callback.port=45900 -DWebEncodingSocket.throttleThreshold=150
-Dmobile.debug=true -Xmx512M com.inductiveautomation.mobile.MobileMain
Try running the above in a terminal (sans the "Starting vm: " part, of
course). What happens?
Also, while the above process is running, what happens if you try to
launch another mobile client from the gateway’s home page?
Paul Scott
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you Paul. I am a multitasking
worker ant. So I was finally able to do the little experiment you
requested today and I believe I have some favorable results to return to
you. As soon as I ran the terminal command I was able to launch the mobile
client and interestingly enough as soon as I closed my terminal session it
terminated the mobile client. The terminal also gave me directions to the
debug files that were created. So I have sent you some screenshots and the
debug files with this e mail. I look forward to hearing what this little
test means.
Erik R Fritts
Erik,
It might be a permissions issue. On the server, navigate to /usr/local/bin/ and display the ignition.sh file. Under the docommand()definition you should see a line that looks like the following:
start “$@”
This will be around line 1512 (give or take a line). Right above the ‘start “$@”’ line you should see the following:
/usr/local/bin/ignition/xvfbstart &
Is that line of code there? Also, make sure that the file in the path (xvfbstart) is at that location.
Paul Scott
Indeed the line Paul asked about was missing from the ignition.sh file so I added it and tested with positive results.