Local JATOS giving "bad root server path", not starting

ekm · July 2023

Hello!

I'll preface this by saying I think it's very possible that the problem I'm having has to do with my university's security policies, but I want to be thorough and check to see if you're aware of any JATOS-side explanation for my problems.

I installed the current (v3.8.4) version of JATOS bundled with Java earlier this week on a machine running Windows 10. I initially couldn't get the loader.bat file to run due to permissions errors, but it's now at least trying to work if I elevate to administrator.

Now what I get when I run `loader.bat start` in an admin command prompt is:

No Instance(s) Available.
Starting JATOS ... please wait
JATOS uses local JRE
bad root server path C:\[path]\jatos_win_java\start

and the JATOS instance doesn't successfully start. There are no files created in the logs/ directory, either, so I can't get a good idea of where it's going wrong.

Have you seen this before? Do you have suggestions for troubleshooting? Thanks!

kri · July 2023

Hi!

I just tried it and it worked. I used 3.8.4 bundled with Java.

What are your permission errors when you run the loader.bat? There shouldn't be any errors and JATOS does not need administrator rights to run.

Best,

Kristian

ekm · July 2023

Hi Kristian!

Here's a less abbreviated account of The Struggles--if you want any screenshots of specific error messages, let me know and I can go re-create them on Monday:

At first loader.bat couldn't be run and I got a blue message saying the app had been blocked by my system administrator. Trying to unblock it while still logged in as a user, just elevating to admin temporarily gave me the message "too many posts were made to a semaphore" and it failed to run.
I was eventually able to unblock it (re-logged in with my admin account rather than my user acct, right-clicking and going to Properties allowed me to apply the "Unblock" checkbox).
At this point I sent my message above, about the bad root server path.
Then someone here suggested manually creating a start folder in jatos_win_java, so (logged in as admin) I did that.
Double-clicking loader.bat just resulted in a command prompt window opening for a flash, then closing, and no RUNNING_PID file being created.
Running loader.bat in a normal command prompt window generated a lot of messages, which I have attached here. Again no RUNNING_PID.
Running loader.bat in an administrator command prompt window (finally!) worked. I've also attached the application log file, but I think it didn't save anything from failed runs. (The normal users for this machine are unlikely to have admin privileges, so sadly I can't just tell them to do this going forward.)

Thanks for your time, and no worries if the answer is just "your uni's security policies are to blame." :) Best,

-Elise

JATOS_infofromcommandprompt.txt

JATOS_applicationlog.txt

kri · July 2023

I have to admit that my knowledge about Windows is only rudimentary. I usually only use it to test JATOS :).

At first loader.bat couldn't be run and I got a blue message saying the app had been blocked by my system administrator.

You might be right about "your uni's security policies are to blame."

Trying to unblock it while still logged in as a user, just elevating to admin temporarily gave me the message "too many posts were made to a semaphore" and it failed to run.

I honestly have no clue what that means.

Then someone here suggested manually creating a start folder in jatos_win_java, so (logged in as admin) I did that.

Why would you create a start in the JATOS folder?

Double-clicking loader.bat just resulted in a command prompt window opening for a flash, then closing, and no RUNNING_PID file being created.

The command window closes right away if it can't start JATOS, if some error occurs.

Running loader.bat in a normal command prompt window generated a lot of messages, which I have attached here. Again no RUNNING_PID.

The messages are all from JATOS logger and that it is not able to write to file .\logs\application.log. It says "Access is denied" (FileNotFoundException has a confusing name - it's just that it can't access the file and not that it doesn't exists). Is it possible, that running JATOS before with admin rights, changed some file access rights and now, when you run it with a normal user, it can't access them any more (e.g. the application.log file)?

Running loader.bat in an administrator command prompt window (finally!) worked. I've also attached the application log file, but I think it didn't save anything from failed runs. (The normal users for this machine are unlikely to have admin privileges, so sadly I can't just tell them to do this going forward.)

This looks like a normal application.log from a normal JATOS start, no warnings, no errors.

Just to repeat myself, JATOS usually does not need admin rights to run. But I can imagine that some Windows settings generally disallow installations of applications from "untrustworthy" sources. But again, my knowledge about Windows is small

Best,

Kristian

ekm · July 2023

Hi Kristian,

Thanks again for your time! We'd created a start folder because of the message that said there was a bad path pointing to a start folder that didn't exist yet.

We looped in one the admins higher than us, and he was able to grant the permissions that needed granting--it was definitely just an issue on our end, nothing to do with JATOS. Everything seems to be working perfectly now, phew.

Take care,

-E

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