As LXFree is written in Java and Sun has a Java distro for Ubuntu, can the software be run on Ubuntu? The installer is a windows installation wrapper, so that is not easily adapted, but I would be willing to be a guinea pig for the port attempt.
Tim.
Ubuntu Support
It is very possible to deliver LXFreeJava as a jar file which should be executable on Linux.
A consideration for this to work properly is the location for the library folders. There is a main library and a user library directory. The user library is optional. But, for LXFreeJava to work it needs access to support files which should be from a standard location.
On Windows, the installer takes care of this, creating a folder inside "Program Files". How does this work for Linux? It may be that the folders need to be manually moved into the correct location if the distribution is just a zipped folder. However, the standard path to the libraries still needs to be set inside the jar.
It appears to me that the locations for the library folders should be /lib/lxseries4linux and /home/lxseries4linux does this make sense?
A consideration for this to work properly is the location for the library folders. There is a main library and a user library directory. The user library is optional. But, for LXFreeJava to work it needs access to support files which should be from a standard location.
On Windows, the installer takes care of this, creating a folder inside "Program Files". How does this work for Linux? It may be that the folders need to be manually moved into the correct location if the distribution is just a zipped folder. However, the standard path to the libraries still needs to be set inside the jar.
It appears to me that the locations for the library folders should be /lib/lxseries4linux and /home/lxseries4linux does this make sense?
Update on December 3rd
It appears that the lxseries4linux library folder is more appropriate in the /usr/lib directory than /lib.
The user library folder is currently in the username folder. There's probably a better place.
The jar has been modified so that the keyboard shortcuts for menu commands use the control key not meta.
It appears that the lxseries4linux library folder is more appropriate in the /usr/lib directory than /lib.
The user library folder is currently in the username folder. There's probably a better place.
The jar has been modified so that the keyboard shortcuts for menu commands use the control key not meta.
I apologize for the delay. I finally got around to installing on Ubuntu 8.04. I had some minor permissions issues with Ubuntu, but once I had everything copied to the right place (and the latest version of Java installed), the software runs well. I have not tested it extensively (yet), but it appears to run the same as on a windows machine.
Thank you for the help and the great software.
Tim.
Thank you for the help and the great software.
Tim.
There is now an updated zip file with better instructions about using LXFreeJava on Linux (particularly Ubuntu). There are instructions and an executable install script that takes care of moving the library "lxseries4linux" folder to /usr/lib and the LXFreeJava.jar file to /usr/local. It also creates a symbolic link in /usr/bin that makes it possible to launch the application by using "lxfreejava" as a command. On Ubuntu and presumably other OpenDesktop systems, this makes it easily possible to add an item to the Applications Main Menu etc.
This has all been tested and is pretty easy on Ubuntu. There may be variations in the manner the application is launched on other versions of Linux. At some point after getting feedback on how LXFreeJava works on Linux, it may be possible to add it to Ubuntu Software Center to make it even easier to install.
This has all been tested and is pretty easy on Ubuntu. There may be variations in the manner the application is launched on other versions of Linux. At some point after getting feedback on how LXFreeJava works on Linux, it may be possible to add it to Ubuntu Software Center to make it even easier to install.
Much nicer install. I wasn't able to find the icon for the menu (not that it matters). I have opened files from windows, modified and saved them and moved them back to windows without incident. I am currently working on a Christmas Eve service for church and LXFree has worked great. It is a small plot approximately 30 instruments, so its not exactly putting a lot of pressure on the program, but I haven't found any bugs to date.
Posting this on an Ubuntu download location will, likely, get you a lot more testers.
Thank you for a great piece of software and exerting the effort to move it to Linux.
Tim.
P.S. I am using JAVA 4.0 (the latest update through the Ubuntu software services facility)
Posting this on an Ubuntu download location will, likely, get you a lot more testers.
Thank you for a great piece of software and exerting the effort to move it to Linux.
Tim.
P.S. I am using JAVA 4.0 (the latest update through the Ubuntu software services facility)
I just tried to download the program for [X]ubuntu. I followed steps 1 thru 6 in the installation instructions, but when I tried running I got the error:
I also tried running and got the error:
Any suggestions? I am currently running Xubuntu 11.04 and have Java 1.6.0_22. If you need any more information, let me know. I've been using Xubuntu for several years, though my Java experience is a bit lacking. Thanks
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lxfree4javaCode: Select all
bash: /usr/local/bin/lxfree4java: cannot execute binary fileCode: Select all
sudo lxfree4javaCode: Select all
/usr/local/bin/lxfree4java: 1: Syntax error: ")" unexpectedI'm unsure of what those error messages mean. I followed the instructions on plain Ubuntu 11.04 and it works fine for me. (I'm not sure of the difference between that and Xubuntu) Did you get any error messages when you entered the install commands into the terminal?
In order to read the installation instructions, I assume that you extracted the contents of the zip file without a problem. The one thing I can see is that the path to the LXFreeForJava_Linux directory (where you found the install instructions file) is not explicitly stated in the instructions. The instructions say "cd Desktop" and that's not completely accurate. Depending on where the LXFreeForJava_Linux folder is located, you might need to type something like "cd ~/Downloads/LXFreeForJava_Linux". But, if you didn't figure that out, the next step of "sudo chmod 755 LXFreeForJava.jar" would tell you that the file wasn't found.
You can manually execute the jar file without the symbolic link. Its just nicer to type "lxfree4java" instead of "java -jar /usr/local/LXFreeForJava.jar" You can try that to see if it launches.
This assumes that you got the permissions changed to allow the file to execute and moved it into the /usr/local directory. You can check that by typing "ls -l /usr/local" You should see the .jar listed something like the following:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 username username 1096862 2011-07-27 20:38 LXFreeForJava.jar
You do not actually have to move the .jar file for this to work. If you downloaded to ~/Downloads and expanded the zip file in the Downloads folder, you will see a folder called "LXFreeForJava_Linux". If you already moved items out of this folder, you can move it to the trash and extract the zip file again to get a fresh copy. You should then be able to type "java -jar ~/Downloads/LXFreeForJava_Linux/LXFreeForJava.jar" to launch the application.
The file InstallScript.sh does the same steps as the manual install but also removes a previously installed version prior to moving the files into their correct locations. You can try running that script by double-clicking and selecting "Run in Terminal". (This will only work if the contents of the extracted zip haven't already been moved).
In order to read the installation instructions, I assume that you extracted the contents of the zip file without a problem. The one thing I can see is that the path to the LXFreeForJava_Linux directory (where you found the install instructions file) is not explicitly stated in the instructions. The instructions say "cd Desktop" and that's not completely accurate. Depending on where the LXFreeForJava_Linux folder is located, you might need to type something like "cd ~/Downloads/LXFreeForJava_Linux". But, if you didn't figure that out, the next step of "sudo chmod 755 LXFreeForJava.jar" would tell you that the file wasn't found.
You can manually execute the jar file without the symbolic link. Its just nicer to type "lxfree4java" instead of "java -jar /usr/local/LXFreeForJava.jar" You can try that to see if it launches.
This assumes that you got the permissions changed to allow the file to execute and moved it into the /usr/local directory. You can check that by typing "ls -l /usr/local" You should see the .jar listed something like the following:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 username username 1096862 2011-07-27 20:38 LXFreeForJava.jar
You do not actually have to move the .jar file for this to work. If you downloaded to ~/Downloads and expanded the zip file in the Downloads folder, you will see a folder called "LXFreeForJava_Linux". If you already moved items out of this folder, you can move it to the trash and extract the zip file again to get a fresh copy. You should then be able to type "java -jar ~/Downloads/LXFreeForJava_Linux/LXFreeForJava.jar" to launch the application.
The file InstallScript.sh does the same steps as the manual install but also removes a previously installed version prior to moving the files into their correct locations. You can try running that script by double-clicking and selecting "Run in Terminal". (This will only work if the contents of the extracted zip haven't already been moved).
When I re-extrated the files from the zip drive, and ran from the LXFreeForJave_Linux folder, everything worked fine. I'm going to have to go back and verify that I followed all of the instillation instructions.
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java -jar ./LXFreeForJava.jar