Paratext 8 on Wasta 18.04 will not start

Question

I have a Paratext user who is using Paratext 8 on Wasta 18.04. When you select the Paratext8 menu item, nothing happens. You don’t even get the Paratext splash screen. I’ve tried to hold down the Shift key when starting Paratext, but again nothing happens. I’ve tried uninstalling Paratext (Removal but not Complete Removal) and re-installing, and still no difference. I’ve opened a terminal and tried to start Paratext that way by typing paratext8 on the command line, again nothing. I do see some text in the terminal but it all looks normal, the same as what appears on another Wasta computer where Paratext 8 works. The Wasta OS and Paratext are both up to date. Can you please help me debug what is going on so I can get Paratext working again. Thanks if you can help.

Answer 1

Okay, so the “Exec” line is correct. And, I’m sorry, but I initially failed to fully read your original post where you already said you’ve tried starting it from the command line. When you say you see text in the terminal, is it similar to this? (sorry I have pt9, but I think the output should be similar):

$ paratext9
Mozilla Roots Importer - version 3.2.8.0
Download and import trusted root certificates from Mozilla's MXR.
Copyright 2002, 2003 Motus Technologies. Copyright 2004-2008 Novell. BSD licensed.

No certificates were found.
(1,2): warning CS0105: The using directive for `System' appeared previously in this namespace
Checking for ParatextProjects.
Apport Ignore file doesn't need updating.
Updating EncConverts Registry Keys
SLT Resources already Installed.

It may also help to run the command as $ paratext8 --debug (which I assume is an option in 8, as well as 9). This will give more output that could shed light on what’s [not] happening. You could redirect it to a file with the following command, and then upload it here:

$ paratext8 --debug > ~/paratext8-debug.txt

You will find that TXT file in the user’s home folder.
Also, please upload the Paratext log file found at ~/.local/share/Paratext8*/ParatextLog.log. Hopefully those two files together will give some insight.

Answer 2

anon469049, it might be that your application launcher file is messed up for some reason. Can you copy/paste the content of the file at /usr/share/applications/paratext*.desktop? The asterisk is intentional, in case you have multiple versions installed.
You can either do:
$ cat /usr/share/applications/paratext*.desktop
and select and right-click the output to copy it, or you can open the file directly in the File manager. From the left pane:
File System > usr > share > applications > Paratext8, right-click, choose “Open with”, choose “Text editor”, then copy the content from there.

Comments

n8_in_car,
It looks normal to me. Nothing is being added to the ParatextLog.log file when Paratext attempts to start.

Here is the paratext8.desktop file contents from /usr/share/applications/paratext8.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Paratext8
GenericName=Paratext8
Comment=input, edit, check, and publish Scriptures
Icon=paratext8
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon[en_US]=paratext8
Categories=Application;Education;
Exec=paratext8
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=paratext
X-Ubuntu-Software-Center-Name=Paratext

Answer 3

N8,
I am in PNG and the Paratext user is in Australia. It has been a little difficult to schedule time to work on her system. I will try your suggestions when I can.
Thanks!

• anon469049

Comments

Here is a screenshot and the debug.txt file…

• anon469049

Screenshot from 2021-05-25 18-19-081920×1080 387 KB

paratext8-debug.zip (442 Bytes)

---

As a guess, I’d say that a different mono version has been installed on the system.

The following command:

mono -V

should output a string containing version : ‘4.6.2.7+dfsg-1ubuntu1’

if it doesn’t then the system mono version has changed.

Additionally you could always try:
sudo mv /usr/lib/Paratext8/Paratext.exe.config /usr/lib/Paratext8/Paratext.exe.config_backup

(but I would recommend using the system mono, even if this works)

Answer 4

The user reports:

I ran the mono -V command and the output string does contain ‘4.6.2.7+dfsg-1ubuntu1’

Then I ran the second command you suggested. It did not appear to do anything, but then I tried starting Paratext.

It went a little further than before, showed the start up window, then told me there was a settings file corrupted, and tried to automatically fix it. From there it wanted me to input the interface language (English) and then presented the window in the screenshot. I clicked OK on this window and that window closed. Nothing else happened - there is still a problem.

Paratext error screenshot1201×366 164 KB