Sometimes you may encounter a situation where SSW will not load. Often it is due to incompatibility with the current Java Runtime Environment installed on your computer. Here are some fixes that we and our users have found:
OS X:
Apple doesn't like to play nice with Java developers and feels that the JDK from Sun isn't as good as the one they have. Thus, it's out of date. This is my take, anyway, and if you're going to do things Steve Job's way you're going to need help.
Taharga over on the Classic Battletech Forums (http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums) has found a fix for SSW when running on OS X. Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Java -> Java Preferences and drag Java 6.0 to the top of the application runtime settings.
If that does not work, although I have not personally tested it, I recommend that OS X users give SoyLatte a try. You can get it here:
We also have a user-supplied fix via email (thanks, Danny!):
I'm actually very new to mac, I've always been a PC guy until just recently so when i went to the soylatte site i was at a complete loss since i'm no programmer and didn't understand half of the terminology. I did eventually find a fix though that i thought you might want to add to your web-site as being new to mac and not too comfortable with the installation of soylatte i found this fix much more simple and quick. Plus it's an actual release from apple. So it might be easier for novices like myself. Open up a terminal, and go to: /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/A Now move the Resources folder away for a minute: Start the installer BUT DON'T INSTALL YET. All we are trying to do is get past the stupid roadblock. Once you see that installation is going to be permitted. Move the Resources folder back to its original position: And now, you can complete your install. Voila!" Once i downloaded this release and followed those instructions it worked like a charm.
Linux/GNU
Most of the problems cropping up with Linux have to do with Ubuntu or KUbuntu, both of which are Debian relatives, so it might also happen there.
The first problem has to do with Drag and Drop functionality in SSW. This is a known problem with the Linux-based JRE. We suggest you get the latest OpenJDK using the prefered method for your distro to fix this issue.
However! Getting OpenJDK may expose you to an entirely different issue! The basic gist is that there is additional vertical spacing in the SSW controls, which makes the program barely usable. This is a known bug with OpenJDK. Here are some suggested fixes to try:
Apparently downgrading OpenJDK to 6b09 will help with the issue, or upgrading to the latest development version will help (11 seems to be an unlucky version number with OpenJDK).
Installing sun-java6-fonts seemed to help some users of the other program (what I found when searching for this issue).
You could also write a script with the following lines:
#!/bin/bash
export LC_ALL=en_US.ISO-8859-15 java -jar SSW.jar Place this script in the same location as the SSW.jar file and ""chmod +x" it. The character set defined as LC_ALL will depend on your locale. If you are in the U.S. and use the U.S. English character set, the above script should work.
Someone also said something about "Jaunty" fixing the issue, although I have no idea what that means. What's up with these Ubuntu people and their aversion to version numbers?
If all else fails on Ubuntu, Get Slack! It really is the best Linux/GNU distro out there!
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