Arch Linux User Repository

Everyone who struggles to update right now: Please install the jdk21-openjdk package. It provides java-environment=21.

@shmilee: I like that idea. Implemented in 5.5-2 using JABREF_OPTIONS as variable name.

Note that you can then also put that environment variable into your .bashrc, .pam_environment or something similar to be automatically applied.

How about add an extra JavaOptions variable in launch script /usr/bin/jabref like this?

............
--module-path ${ROOT}/lib \
${JABREF_EXT_Options} \
--patch-module .............

So we can add the -Djdk.gtk.version=2 flag or -Dglass.gtk.uiScale=144dpi flag by cmdline, no need to edit /usr/bin/jabref after upgrade.

JABREF_EXT_Options='-Dglass.gtk.uiScale=144dpi -Djdk.gtk.version=2' jabref

Using JabRef with i3wm, I’m running into the issue described at https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/5867 in which clicking the menu bar sometimes opens then immediately closes the associated menu, rendering it unusable.

I was able to fix this issue by adding the -Djdk.gtk.version=2 flag after line 9 in https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/jabref.sh?h=jabref (as suggested in the related bug report https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8251240). This change also removes the “XSetErrorHandler() called with a GDK error trap pushed. Don't do that.” warning mentioned by ruiin in a previous comment.

So far, I have not encountered any adverse side-effect from this workaround.

@Bevan it did work though on another machine with the - I thought - exactly same setup. There, updating java-openjdk-bin was no issue and jabref continued to work.

@shmilee: You probably have the extra-testing repository enabled. In there, there is an updated version of jdk-openjdk which is Java 22. Right now, jabref depends explicitly on Java 21 because that is the version we know it's working with.

I'll test if jabref also works with Java 22 and, if so, will update the package accordingly. If not, I'm sure that a separate Java 21 package will stay available (either officially or here in AUR) because it's an LTS version.

It's me again - interestingly on the same machine as last time. The update went fine on another machine but on this one I'm getting

error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: installing java-openjdk-bin (22.u36-1) breaks dependency 'java-environment=21' required by jabref

$ /usr/bin/archlinux-java-run -a 21 -b 21 -- -version
openjdk version "21.0.2" 2024-01-16
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21.0.2+13)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 21.0.2+13, mixed mode, sharing)
$ /usr/bin/archlinux-java-run -a 21 -b 21 -f jdk -- -version
openjdk version "21.0.2" 2024-01-16
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21.0.2+13-58)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 21.0.2+13-58, mixed mode, sharing)

$ yay -Qs .*java.*
local/archlinux-java-run 10-1
    Java Application Launcher for Arch Linux
local/ca-certificates-utils 20220905-1
    Common CA certificates (utilities)
local/cjs 6.0.0-1
    Javascript Bindings for Cinnamon
local/duktape 2.7.0-6
    Embeddable Javascript engine
local/jabref 5.12-1
    Graphical Java application for managing BibTeX and biblatex (.bib) databases
local/java-environment-common 3-5
    Common files for Java Development Kits
local/java-openjdk-bin 21.0.2.u13-1
    Java OpenJDK 21.0.2 Oracle Build.
local/java-runtime-common 3-5
    Common files for Java Runtime Environments
local/jdk8-openjdk 8.402.u06-1
    OpenJDK Java 8 development kit
local/jdownloader2 latest-19
    Download manager, written in Java, for one-click hosting sites like Rapidshare and MEGA. Uses its own updater.
local/jre-openjdk 21.0.2.u13-3
    OpenJDK Java 21 full runtime environment
local/jre8-openjdk 8.402.u06-1
    OpenJDK Java 8 full runtime environment
local/jre8-openjdk-headless 8.402.u06-1
    OpenJDK Java 8 headless runtime environment
local/js102 102.15.0-1
    JavaScript interpreter and libraries - Version 102
local/qt5-declarative 5.15.12+kde+r32-1 (qt5)
    Classes for QML and JavaScript languages
local/qt5-webchannel 5.15.12+kde+r3-1 (qt5)
    Provides access to QObject or QML objects from HTML clients for seamless integration of Qt applications with HTML/JavaScript clients
local/qt6-declarative 6.6.2-1 (qt6)
    Classes for QML and JavaScript languages
local/qt6-webchannel 6.6.2-1 (qt6)
    Provides access to QObject or QML objects from HTML clients for seamless integration of Qt applications with HTML/JavaScript clients
local/webkit2gtk 2.42.5-2
    Web content engine for GTK
local/webkit2gtk-4.1 2.42.5-2
    Web content engine for GTK

Had some problems getting the Jabref firefox extension working (error message in firefox: "No such native application org.jabref.jabref"). This was solved by creating the directory "~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/" and putting the "org.jabref.jabref.json" file there. Cheers.

Sure. In the update to 5.11-2 I added java-environment=21 as a dependency to make sure that people have a full JDK in version 21 installed. However, I forgot to also adjust the start script to enforce that this full JDK is used to launch JabRef.

I assumed that people would have installed either a full JDK or a JRE. However, in your case you have installed both (java-openjdk-bin as a JDK and jre-openjdk as JRE). Hence, the dependency was fulfilled but JabRef was still started with the JRE instead of the JDK. I now updated the start script so that the JDK is used.

@Bevan thanks a lot! It's finally fixed. I know way too little about java - would you mind explaining what the issue was?

Thanks @gothicVI. I just pushed a new version (5.11-3) that should fix the issue. If it does not, please report back.

@Bevan here you go. I can ammend the post this evening with the same output from the machines where it's working.

$ /usr/bin/archlinux-java-run -a 21 -b 21 -- -version
openjdk version "21" 2023-09-19
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21+35)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 21+35, mixed mode, sharing)
$ /usr/bin/archlinux-java-run -a 21 -b 21 -f jdk -- -version
openjdk version "21.0.1" 2023-10-17
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21.0.1+12-29)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 21.0.1+12-29, mixed mode, sharing)

@gothicVI: I have a strong suspicion what the problem is but I would like to make sure before pushing a new package version to everyone. Could you please run the following two commands and post the output here?

/usr/bin/archlinux-java-run -a 21 -b 21 -- -version

/usr/bin/archlinux-java-run -a 21 -b 21 -f jdk -- -version

If those create different outputs, you may try and edit /usr/bin/jabref and modify line 17 accordingly (i.e., adding '-f jdk' before the '--'). If that fixes your issues that would be great to know.

@Bevan I just reinstalled - still the same outcome. All java related packages installed are:

$ yay -Qs .*java.*
local/archlinux-java-run 10-1
    Java Application Launcher for Arch Linux
local/ca-certificates-utils 20220905-1
    Common CA certificates (utilities)
local/cjs 6.0.0-1
    Javascript Bindings for Cinnamon
local/duktape 2.7.0-6
    Embeddable Javascript engine
local/jabref 5.11-2
    Graphical Java application for managing BibTeX and biblatex (.bib) databases
local/java-environment-common 3-5
    Common files for Java Development Kits
local/java-openjdk-bin 21.0.1.u12-1
    Java OpenJDK 21.0.1 Oracle Build.
local/java-runtime-common 3-5
    Common files for Java Runtime Environments
local/jdk8-openjdk 8.392.u08-1
    OpenJDK Java 8 development kit
local/jdownloader2 latest-17
    Download manager, written in Java, for one-click hosting sites like Rapidshare and Megaupload. Uses its own updater.
local/jre-openjdk 21.u35-8
    OpenJDK Java 21 full runtime environment
local/jre8-openjdk 8.392.u08-1
    OpenJDK Java 8 full runtime environment
local/jre8-openjdk-headless 8.392.u08-1
    OpenJDK Java 8 headless runtime environment
local/js102 102.15.0-1
    JavaScript interpreter and libraries - Version 102
local/qt5-declarative 5.15.11+kde+r32-1 (qt5)
    Classes for QML and JavaScript languages
local/qt5-webchannel 5.15.11+kde+r3-1 (qt5)
    Provides access to QObject or QML objects from HTML clients for seamless integration of Qt applications with HTML/JavaScript clients
local/qt6-declarative 6.6.0-1 (qt6)
    Classes for QML and JavaScript languages
local/webkit2gtk 2.42.2-1
    Web content engine for GTK
local/webkit2gtk-4.1 2.42.2-1
    Web content engine for GTK

No issues on two other machines where I have jdk-openjdk instead of jre-openjdk installed. Does this change something?