Regarding this post:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4192
Rather than post another topic with the same problem, I followed along with the original poster, since my problem and system were nearly identical. All of the things he was told to try and do, I did and got the same results. That topic ended with a workaround solution, and there I got lost.
To quote the previous post:
Can someone explain to me what to enter and where to enter it to start VASSAL until a new update fixes the problem? I know just enough about command lines and windows to be dangerous… 
Thanks in advance.
Further clarification of the problems I’m having…
Running the command line:
Results in:
So I’m guessing I need to add “-Duser.home=/path/to/home/dir” to the following command line:
Problem is, when I tried “C:\Program Files\VASSAL\lib>java.exe -client -cp Vengine.jar VASSAL.launch.ModuleManager -Duser.home=/c:/Documents and Settings/Owner/VASSAL” I got:
Hopefully this explains the trouble that I’m having. The fix of adding “-Duser.home=/path/to/home/dir” to the command line doesn’t tell me enough. What parts of that need to be changed, and to what exactly to they need to be changed? What does “-Duser.home” stand for? Or is it to be typed in exactly like that? And what does the “/path/to/home/dir” need to be changed to, exactly?
Thus spake redjack11:
C:\Program Files\VASSAL\lib>java.exe -client -cp Vengine.jar
VASSAL.launch.ModuleManager
Problem is, when I tried “C:\Program Files\VASSAL\lib>java.exe -client
-cp Vengine.jar VASSAL.launch.ModuleManager -Duser.home=/c:/Documents
and Settings/Owner/VASSAL” I got:
VASSAL: Unrecognized option ‘-D’
You have two problems here. One is that all options must come before
the name of the class to run, which in this case is
VASSAL.launch.ModuleManager. You need to put the -D option ahead
of that. The second problem is that you have a path there which I
suspect isn’t valid, due to the backslash in front of the “c:”,
the unquoted spaces, and the fact that home directories aren’t two
levels deep under C:\Documents and Settings.
If your username is Owner, then this has a better chance of working:
C:\Program Files\VASSAL\lib>java.exe -client -cp Vengine.jar -Duser.home=“c:/Documents and Settings/Owner” VASSAL.launch.ModuleManager
–
J.
Thank you for the reply - that is exactly what I needed, not having command line syntax knowledge.
However, after entering:
I get:
Which I believe is back to the original problem. Any further suggestions?
Thus spake redjack11:
I get:
VASSAL: IO error
java.io.FileNotFoundException: c:\Documents and
Settings\Owner\VASSAL\lock (Acce
ss is denied)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.(Unknown Source)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.(Unknown Source)
at VASSAL.launch.ModuleManager.main(ModuleManager.java:145)
Which I believe is back to the original problem. Any further
suggestions?
Is your username actually “Owner”?
–
J.
I believe so. When I bring up the command line I get:
Sorry for my lack of knowledge about this sort of thing. I’m used to just double-clicking the icon and making it go!
(BTW - I don’t know if this is relevant - but VASSAL was working for me, for years. Then I got a fake-windows-detect virus. After I got that taken care of, VASSAL was acting thusly.)
Okay, I was just messing around with this on my own, and got it to work!
I was looking at the original error message, and it was telling me:
could not be accessed.
So I went into the folder in question, moved the lock file to a new folder, and tried the same command line above. I got a VASSAL error message saying that it could not write to errorlog, but it started nontheless.
Perhaps the virus that hit my computer changed the lock and errorlog files in such a way that they could not be written to. By moving / deleting them (at least the lock file) it allowed VASSAL to write a new lock file, and start up just fine.
But wait - there’s more. VASSAL now starts from the windows icon, without the command line fix.
Perhaps someone with more knowledge about this can confirm that this is a fix for the original problem?
Thus spake redjack11:
Okay, I was just messing around with this on my own, and got it to work!
I was looking at the original error message, and it was telling me:
c:/documents and settings/owner/lock
could not be found.
So I went into the folder in question, moved the lock file to a new
folder, and tried the same command line above. I got a VASSAL error
message saying that it could not write to errorlog, but it started
nontheless.
Perhaps the virus that hit my computer changed the lock and errorlog
files in such a way that they could not be written to. By moving /
deleting them (at least the lock file) it allowed VASSAL to write a new
lock file, and start up just fine.
But wait - there’s more. VASSAL now starts from the windows icon,
without the command line fix.
Perhaps someone with more knowledge about this can confirm that this is
a fix for the original problem?
This might well have been the original problem.
–
J.