Getting “Unable to launch browser” when trying to use Sloppy on Debian?  I was looking for help on getting Sloppy working on Debian Squeeze and all I could find was an old thread where nobody had posted a fix.

So I spent a few minutes looking at the source code and figured the fix for those interested…

Make sure you’re doing the following as the user you will be running Sloppy as.  Eg, if you’re su, you’ll be setting up the root user and this won’t fix it for your user.  So a standard user terminal will do nicely.

Note: I’m assuming you have already installed Sun Java Web Start (sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin).

1. Bring up your Java Control Panel.  For me, based on the version of Java WS I’m running on Squeeze, it’s: /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.26/bin/javaws (found by right clicking on the sloppy.jnlp file, choosing “Open With” -> “Other Application”, highlight Sun Java Web Start & expand the “custom command” panel so you can see the path)
2. Close the Cache Viewer if open.
3. Go to the “Advanced” tab.
4. Open “Command to launch default browser”
5. Change to the appropriate command … for me it is /usr/bin/firefox
   NOTE: Saving the path is finicky.  I find it works best if you use the “browse” instead of typing in the command.  Also, hit apply before you press ok.  Java fail.  Re-open it to verify the setting.