Java for Linux and Unix

A Java runtime environment must be installed before installing jLog. The newest Java 1.6 is strongly recommended for any version of jLog and Java 1.6 is mandatory for jLog V 5. Note that the Java runtime provided with many old Linux distributions cannot be used!

Frequent upgrades to the newest revision is recommended as this usually provides both visual and performance improvements as well as bug-fixes.

Please note that you must install Java as a user with 'root' privileges (e.g. using sudo to run the installation script).
 

Download

Sun's newest Java 1.6.0_29 ("Java 6") can be downloaded here (13-19 Mb). Users of Ubuntu should use the 'sudo apt-get install sun-java6' command in the Terminal.

Select the JRE variant (unless you are a professional needing the extra functionality of the JDK for other purposes).
 

Installation

• Please look for platform specific information on how to replace the built-in Java with the full-blown Java from sun (needed by jLog). E.g. for Fedora see http://www.fedorafaq.org/#java and the Ubuntu forum.
   
• Generally, after downloading java, log in as "root", open a Terminal ("shell") and type:

cd <the directory where you downloaded the installer>
sh ./install.bin    or   sudo sh ./install.bin   (if you are not logged in as 'root')

• Download 'RXTXcomm.jar' and install it in the 'lib/ext' folder of the Java VM (e.g. for RH9 with Sun's Java 1.6.0_04: '/usr/java/j2re1.6.0_04/lib/ext'). You may need to download them to a temporary location (e.g. Desktop) and use a privileged command (or sudo from the command/terminal) to move the file to the destination.
   
• If you are upgrading from V 3.x or V4 Beta 2 (i.e. from an older version of RXTX), please remove the file 'librxtxSerial-2.1-x.so' in the '/lib/386' folder (or equivalent).
   
• Download 'librxtxSerial.so' and install it in the 'lib/i386' folder of the Java VM (e.g. for RH9 with Sun's Java 1.6.0_04: '/usr/java/j2re1.6.0_04/lib/i386'). Try the 'bin' folder for this file if the 'lib/i386' is not found (e.g. for IBM's Java 1.4.x). Make sure that 'librxtxSerial' has execute permissions for all. You may need to download them to a temporary location (e.g. Desktop) and use a privileged command (or sudo from the command/terminal) to move the file to the destination.
   
• You may need to Log in as 'root' and add your jLog user to the group owning the '/var/lock' directory and the group owning the serial port (e.g. /dev/ttyS0) to be used.
  
  This would typically (e.g. for Red Hat 9 and Fedora Core) be users 'lock' and 'uucp' respectively.
   
• Try running jLog as root if you experience problems, i.e. to find out if the problem is caused by improper access or improper installation of the files.
   

Change Java version for jLog V 4.x

You need to modify the jLog startup file after having installed a new Java version unless you are making a full install of the jLog application afterwards.

To change manually, locate the file 'conf/jLog.lax' where you installed the jLog application, i.e. typically C:\Program Files\jLog\conf\jLog.lax. Open it with a text editor and scroll down to find the entry:

You may place a comment sign (#) in front of the old entry and append a new entry for the newest JRE on following line:

Save the file and restart jLog.