So close to running Vassal on Ubuntu, but a late-stage crash

Technical Support & Bugs
1

Hi all,

I’m running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS off a Chromebook shell. I presently have Java installed thru apt-get. Running java -version tells me it’s:

java version "9.0.4" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 9.0.4+11) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 9.0.4+11, mixed mode)

As I try and fire the engine up, Java throws an error at me detailed “Unable to Launch Application. Reason: Could not parse launch file. Error at line 1.”

The Launch File details are as follows:

#!/bin/sh

Execute this file to launch VASSAL on MacOS or Linux

Find absolute path where VASSAL is installed

INSTALL_DIR=$(cd “$(dirname “$0”)”; pwd)

Launch VASSSAL

java -Duser.dir="$INSTALL_DIR" -classpath “$INSTALL_DIR”/lib/Vengine.jar VASSAL.launch.ModuleManager “$@”

How do I go about fixing this?

It’s worth pointing out that I’m absolutely a novice at this whole computer shell OS installing stuff.

Thanks for any and all help that can be given.

2

The file being shown (vassal.sh) is a shell script to invoke Java for you. I’m not sure what ‘launch file’ refers to, but it seems like your desktop environment might be trying to treat it as some kind of definition file instead (like a shortcut on Windows, a file that describes how to run a program). Did you create some kind of shortcut to run Vassal? If so, create a new one that points at vassal.sh as the command to be run. You may also need to make that file executable (e.g with chmod u+x).

As a test, try opening a terminal and just running:
bash /path/to/vassal.sh
that should avoid any issues with executable permissions or desktop environments.