# JabRef-4.1.jar not working on Debian unstable

**URL:** <https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-4-1-jar-not-working-on-debian-unstable/1063>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [February 23, 2018, 12:22pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-4-1-jar-not-working-on-debian-unstable/1063 "2018-02-23T12:22:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![buhtz](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/buhtz/32/372_2.png) [@buhtz](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/buhtz)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 12:22pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-4-1-jar-not-working-on-debian-unstable/1063/1 "2018-02-23T12:22:48Z")

</div>

I am using Debian unstable with packages openjfx\* libopenjfx\* installed.

But I can not stat the current JabRef.

```
$ java -jar ./JabRef-4.1.jar
Fehler: Hauptklasse org.jabref.JabRefMain konnte nicht gefunden oder geladen werden
Ursache: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javafx/application/Application

```

I don’t know how to fix it.

```
$ java -version
openjdk version "9.0.1"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 9.0.1+11-Debian-1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 9.0.1+11-Debian-1, mixed mode)

```

No matter if this problem depends on the used Java version! The execution of the jar file should give a human understandable message. Just say “your java vesion is not supported” or something like that. Would be mouch nicer to point to the related bug tickets.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tobiasdiez](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/tobiasdiez/32/340_2.png) [@tobiasdiez](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/tobiasdiez)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-4-1-jar-not-working-on-debian-unstable/1063/2 "2018-02-23T13:56:12Z")

</div>

JabRef does not yet support Java 9, please downgrade to Java 8 and everything should work. These error messages are not printed by JabRef but by Java itself (i.e. they occur before any JabRef-code is executed) and we thus have no control over them. Yes, it is unfortunate that the messages are a bit cryptic and don’t give a hint towards the actual case.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![koppor](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/koppor/32/5_2.png) [@koppor](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/koppor)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 10:19am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-4-1-jar-not-working-on-debian-unstable/1063/3 "2018-02-28T10:19:28Z")

</div>

- Debian bug: [https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=890905](https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=890905), Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2018 13:15:02 UTC
- JabRef issue: [https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/2594](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/2594), Date: 28 Feb 2017

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![koppor](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/koppor/32/5_2.png) [@koppor](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/koppor)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 10:23am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-4-1-jar-not-working-on-debian-unstable/1063/4 "2018-02-28T10:23:24Z")

</div>

We really need help with debian packaging. Even if one cannot code Java, creating new packages really helps. See [https://github.com/koppor/jabref/issues/135](https://github.com/koppor/jabref/issues/135) for tracking the progress of making JabRef 4.x available on Debian.