IcedTea - how to show the applet console..?

Question

since recently I think we are forced to use IcedTea to run applets in Ubuntu 11.10. At least I don't see how to install Sun Java from the Software Center.

I would like to debug an applet which gives problems in IcedTea. However, I don't know how to show the applet console. So no chance to see any Exceptions.

Cheers, Ruth

Execrable

Answer 1

You can easily see near realtime the output of the IcedTea Java plugin by first running in two separate terminal windows the following commands then invoking the applet in your web browser.

$ watch -n 1 'cat $HOME/.icedteaplugin/java.stdout'

or

$ watch -n 1 'cat $HOME/.icedteaplugin/java.stderr'

java.stdout contains standard output of the running applet whereas java.stderr will capture standard error output (capture exceptions trace here).

Note : the "-n" option flag lets you specify the refresh rate in seconds.

Spy

Answer 2

On Ubuntu 12.04, the location of the log files seems to have changed to ~/.icedtea/log (~ meaning your home directory.)

Alternatively to Tellurant's solution, you can open the log files ~/.icedtea/log/java.stderr and ~/.icedtea/log/java.stdout in gedit and click on reload every time something changes. The dot in front of icedtea makes the .icedtea directory a hidden directory. Hit CTRL-H in nautilus to see hidden directories.

Flex

Answer 3

In place of watch, tail -f or less , then press +f (follow) can be used.

Headwards

Just how does this answer the question (in other words, what does this have to do with getting the console on IcedTea)?? It should have been a comment to @Tellurant's answer rather than a stand-alone answer – Dorsum

@Dorsum You need 50 rep before you can leave a comment. Probably one of the dumbest restrictions on StackOverflow. – Obvious

Answer 4

In case you do want to install Oracle Java (Sun was bought by Oracle), here is a good guide:

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/install-oracle-java-jdk-7-in-ubuntu-via.html

Here are the command line commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer

Flex