Problem: you are geting the following error when starting GooTool: "Uncaught exception (java.lang.RuntimeException) Can't start primary instance server"

Cause: It appears that a recent update to Vista added a "::1 localhost" line to the hosts file, causing Java to attempt to use IPv6 instead of IPv4 when resolving "localhost".

Solution: Upgrade GooTool to 0.10.3

GooTool uses the Java Preferences system to store your settings and preferences. Thus it depends what platform you're using:

Under Windows, the settings are in the registry under: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\goofans\gootool

Under Mac OS X, the settings are in the user's library, e.g.: /Users/david/Library/Preferences/com.goofans.gootool.plist

Under Linux, the settings are in the user's home directory, e.g.: /home/david/.java/.userPrefs/com/goofans/gootool/

When selecting your custom directory, you may be notified "Can't use that directory" or "Access is denied".

Under Windows Vista, users are not allowed to write to certain directories such as "Program Files".

One solution is to run GooTool as Administrator, or with elevated privileges. This is not recommended.

The recommended solution is to put your custom directory inside your home directory. For example C:\Users\myusername\MyWoG.

First, run java -version from the command line to show which version you are running.

If you already have Java 1.6 installed

The java executable isn't on your path. Either add Java's bin directory to your PATH, or set the environment variable JAVA_HOME (this should point to the directory above bin), e.g.:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/j2sdk1.6-sun

If you have Java installed, but it's an old version

Debian Lenny comes with Java 1.5 by default. You need to add non-free to your apt sources, then apt-get install sun-java6-bin and then either update-alternatives --set java /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java or set JAVA_HOME as per above.

For other distributions, either upgrade your existing version using the instructions below, or install a new private version somewhere else and then set JAVA_HOME as per the instructions above.

If you do not have Java installed

Due to licensing restrictions, some distributions will not have Java directly available in their packaging system. Those that do may have it under "non-free" and it may not be up to date. You need version 1.6.

The simplest way to install Java is to visit http://java.com/getjava and download the latest 1.6 Linux version (32-bit or 64-bit as appropriate) and install it using their installer.

However if you prefer to install it as a package, Debian contains a "java-package" package that will take the file from Sun and turn it into a proper .deb file. NB for Debian 4.0 (etch) or earlier, you will need to make some small manual changes to allow "java-package" to handle Java 1.6 per these instructions.

If GooTool gives an error, crashes, locks up, exits, or otherwise behaves unexpectedly, you will need to locate the logfile.

1. Find the log file. GooTool creates a logfile called gootool0.log in your temporary directory. For Windows Vista or 7 users, this is generally C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp. For Windows XP users, it is in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp. Sometimes it might instead be in C:\Temp or C:\Windows\Temp. For Mac OS X, you'll probably find it under /var/folders/. For Linux, and earlier versions of Mac OS X, it's in /tmp/

2. If you see an error relating to your problem in the logfile, skip to step 5.

3. If not, you will need to increase debugging level. GooTool includes lots of debugging but it is disabled by default to avoid creating huge logfiles.

To increase the debugging level, under Windows navigate to your GooTool directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\GooTool) and then into the etc directory.

Under Mac OS X, right click on GooTool and "Show Package Contents". Then go to Contents then Resources.

Under Linux go to either GooTool's "etc" directory (if you installed the generic version), or /etc/gootool/ (if you installed the Debian package).

Edit the file logger_properties.txt. Find the line that reads:

java.util.logging.FileHandler.level = INFO

Change the word INFO to ALL.

4. Restart GooTool. When it next crashes, the gootool0.log file will contain a lot more information to help us to track down the problem.

5. Post the relevant section of the logfile to the forum, along with a description of the problem you experienced, what you were doing, and anything that may help us reproduce it.

6. Also post the exact GooTool version number. This is available on the Help->About menu. If you can't start GooTool at all, right click GooTool.exe and select Properties. The Details tab will show the version number.

7. If the problem seems related to a specific addin, post the name and version of the addin you are using (and a link to the download location if it's not on this site).

Please make a forum post including full details of all addins you have enabled, and the addin that is causing trouble. Include a link to the addin download location.

This functionality is disabled until I am happy that the code is safe. Bear in mind that this is a demo release. A full release is forthcoming.

GooTool looks in various default locations to try and find your profile. There's currently no way to locate it manually, but this may be added in a future release. If you can find your pers2.dat, please post in this forum thread, making sure to include the full path, and I'll add that location to a future release.

GooTool looks in various default locations to try and find WorldOfGoo.exe. If it can't find it, and you haven't just installed it somewhere weird, please post the details in this thread and I'll see about adding it to the next version. Be sure to post the full path to your exe file.