run jruby script/server webrick - everything starts and works fine and dandy
run jruby script/server mongrel - exception is thrown when Mongrel tries to set up a signal handler for USR1
relevant bits of the stack trace:
Signal.java:149:in `sun.misc.Signal.handle': java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Signal already used by VM: SIGUSR1 (NativeException)
...
from Main.java:96:in `org.jruby.Main.main'
from /home/alexeyv/src/jruby/jruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1-jruby/lib/mongrel/configurator.rb:362:in `setup_signals'
...
JVM handles USR1 itself. I tried passing java a -XX:+UseAltSigs option, but it didn't help.