Download – Linux

Praisenter mostly works on Ubuntu. Mileage on other flavors of Linux may be different, but our focus is on the Ubuntu distribution.

** As of the latest release, the last remaining issue is animation flickering with transitions and video.

Verify that you are running Ubuntu 11.10 or higher (32 or 64 bit)

First, you must have Ubuntu 11.10 or higher 32 or 64 bit.  You can check this by going to the “Gear” in the top right corner of the screen and choosing “System Settings…” then click “Details.”  Here you will see the version of Ubuntu you have.

You also need to make sure you are running the latest version of Ubuntu by going to the “Gear” in the top right corner of the screen and choosing “Software Up to Date.”  You should install any updates that are found.

Verify that you have Java 1.7 installed

After you have verified you are running a supported version of Ubuntu, the next step is to verify the version of Java you have installed.  To do this, open the Terminal application and type:

java -version

This should print something along the lines of “java version 1.7.0_21.”  If the version starts with 1.7 then you have Java 1.7 installed.  Close the terminal.  If not, then you need to install the latest Java.

1. Open the Ubuntu Software Center.
2. Type “Java” in the search bar.
3. If there is a check on “IcedTea Java Plugin” then skip to step 5.
4. Click the “IcedTea Java Plugin” and click the “Install” button.
5. If there is a check on “OpenJDK 7 Runtime” then skip to step 7.
6. Click on “OpenJDK 7 Runtime” and click the “Install” button.
7. Close the Ubuntu Software Center.

At this point you may have multiple versions of Java installed.  We need to tell Ubuntu which version to use by default.  To do so, open a new Terminal window and type:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

This may print something like this (after entering in your password):

There are 2 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

Selection Path Priority Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java 1061 auto mode
  1 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java 1061 manual mode
  2 /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java 1051 manual mode

Please enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

If the “*” is next to the Java-7 item then just hit enter.  Otherwise, type in the number corresponding to the Java-7 item and hit enter.  In this case it would be 2.  Then we need to do the same  for javaws:

sudo update-alternatives --config javaws

Again, type in the number corresponding to the Java-7 item.

After this, you can type:

java -version

This should now print “java version 1.7.0_21” or something close.

After Java 1.7 is installed you should be able to download and run Praisenter.

For some reason if you install “IcedTea Java Plugin” after installing “OpenJDK 7 Runtime”, Java 6 gets installed.  This is why its good to do “update-alternatives” to verify what version of Java is the default.

Download Praisenter

Praisenter offers two different downloads: Webstart (recommended) or Archive.

Please review the license before downloading or using Praisenter.

Download – Webstart

This is the recommended download, but requires internet access when run the first time.

The Webstart download has the benefit of automatic updates (when an internet connection is available) and creation of a desktop shortcut/icon.

Praisenter is offered completely free and is therefore self-signed.  This means you will see something like this after successfully downloading the .jnlp and double clicking it:

Click the “Run” button to continue. You can check the box “Always trust this publisher” so that you won’t be prompted for this again.

You may also be prompted to create a desktop shortcut.  Click allow to create it.

It’s possible that Praisenter may not start successfully resulting in an error like this:

Usually this is caused by having Praisenter open already, but if you look at the Stack Trace and see “JNLPClassLoader.getPermissions” it means something different.  This is a bug in the IcedTea Webstart Plugin and there is no work around other than to upgrade to a later version.  If you see this error, make sure your version of IcedTea, using the Ubuntu Software Center, is up to date**.  If you are still having this problem you can do one of three things:

1. Use the Archive download instead (recommended).
2. Attempt to revert your version of IcedTea to an earlier version using something like Synaptic Package Manager.
3. Download and install Oracle Java from http://www.java.com (which comes with its own Webstart implementation) and use it instead of OpenJDK.
4. Attempt to build a newer version of IcedTea.

** As of this writing Ubuntu 13.04 only has one version, 1.3.2, which has this problem.

Whenever downloading a new version of Praisenter using Webstart you should clear the Webstart cache.  The desktop shortcut may not be created if this is not done.  To clear the Webstart cache open the “Terminal” app and type: javaws -Xclearcache.

Download – Archive

The Archive download does not require internet access to run.  However, the archive does not perform automatic updates.  This download is easier to get running on Linux since it only requires Java to be installed (IcedTea plugins not required).

You can set this as the default by right clicking Launcher.jar and choosing “Properties.”  Go to the “Open With” tab and choose “OpenJDK Java 7 Runtime”  from the list and then click the “Set as default” button.  Afterwards you can simply double click the Launcher.jar to start Praisenter.

You will see an error like the following the first time you run the Launcher.jar:

To fix this, right click on the Launcher.jar file and choose “Properties.”  Then go to the “Permissions” tab and check the “Allow executing file as program” option.  Then click the “Close” button.  Running the Launcher.jar should work now.