chbGUI Wiki

Issue:
Right after installation and after accepting the license terms, the program exits suddenly and, when trying to launch it afterwards, the following error is thrown:

Cannot launch Java application
Uncaught exception in main method: java.lang.NullPointerException

I suspect this is a JRE-related issue introduced by a Java update, as this was not happening before.

Applies to:
chbGUI version 1.0.3
Mac OS X

Solution:
The code has been modified in chbGUI version 1.0.5 to avoid the root cause of the error, however if you installed before this version you have to fix it manually as follows:

Open a Terminal and execute the following commands:

echo "AcceptTermsOfUse=yes" >~/.chb/GUI/chbgui.conf
echo "JobCounter=0">>~/.chb/GUI/chbgui.conf

Of course, this means you are accepting the license terms.

This should resolve the problem.

Note that in this case, the default template is also not generated for you, so you need to create your first template yourself.

Issue:
Log files are not listed for selection.

The problem occurs if you're using the chbGUI-generated template "<user>'s Folder Backup" because the single quote character is not supported. </user>

Applies to:
chbGUI 1.0.3
Linux

Solution:

UPDATE: This is still an issue in chbGUI 1.0.6 if you have templates with spaces in the name. The issue is corrected in chbGUI 1.0.7. In older versions, you can rename your template by replacing spaces with underscores ('_') or use the asterisk workaround described below.

As of 1.0.4 chbGUI will generate a template name without the single quote.

To resolve the issue yourself you have to rename the template and also rename the backup log files if necessary so they match the template name. The backup logs are stored in <user home="">/.chb/BackupLogs.</user>

You can also force the display of the log files by entering an asterisk (*) or the name of the template followed by asterisk, for example "Template*" in the selection field of the Open dialog and then hit Enter. After that, you can select the file you want and display it.

Issue:
Error thrown by chb
grep - Invalid character range error

This happens when chb encounters log files whose age exceeds the log retention period and tries to delete them.

Applies to:
Mac OS X

Solution:
The error is corrected in chb v 186.

In the meantime, you can increase the log retention period in the template so the error does not occur.

Issue:
chbGUI won't start at all on Linux - no message is displayed or error
Exception in thread "main" java.awt.AWTError: Cannot load AWT toolkit: gnu.java.awt.peer.gtk.GtkToolkit
or a similar error is displayed.

This may be caused by Java not being runnable by default (in the PATH), or the wrong version of Java being used.

Applies to:
All versions.
Linux

Solution:
Make sure you have Java and that it is runnable by default.

Check with the following command in a Terminal:

java -version

If necessary, edit the run_chbGUI.sh script to add your JAVA_HOME location (as described in the documentation PDF). Don't forget to uncomment the appropriate lines as shown in my example below (my java home is /opt/jdk1.0.6_04):

#/bin/sh

# if necessary, set the JAVA_HOME and PATH here:
export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk1.6.0_04
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

java -jar Contents/Resources/Java/chbGUI.jar

List of OS version where chbGUI has been tested to run OK:

Linux:
Fedora Core 6 Desktop (Gnome) - Java 1.6
RedHat Enterprise Linux Server 6.3 (Gnome) - Java 1.6
Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop (Gnome) - Java 1.6
Ubuntu 14.04 Desktop (Unity) - Java 1.6 (Open JDK)*
Ubuntu 14.04 Desktop (Unity) - Java 1.8
Open SUSE 13.1 Desktop (KDE) - Java 1.7

Mac OS X:
10.3 (Panther) - Java 1.5
10.4 (Tiger) - Java 1.5
10.9 (Mavericks) - Java 1.8*

* You may experienced some display issues refreshing the template list on these platforms.

Problem:
Error "BackupName XYZ contains invalid characters."

Applies to:
chb v 188 and higher.

Solution:
Rename your template so it only contains alphanumeric characters. Dash, underscore and spaces are also acceptable, however spaces will be translated to underscores by chb at runtime for the purposes of logging.

This chb limitation has always existed but the rule was never enforced before. Version 188 and higher will enforce this rule to avoid issues.

Issue:
The template list on the main window shows duplicate entries after closing the chb Output window or other window (on some platforms).

Solution:
There is no permanent fix for this issue yet - it may be related to the Java version as it does not occur on all platforms. In the meantime, as a workaround, closing chbGUI and reopening it resolves the issue. This is just a display problem and does not mean that your templates are actually duplicated. You may use either entry and it should work correctly.

Issue:
Error in chb Output: /tmp/<timestamp>.copy.sh: line <n> : syntax error near unexpected token ...</n></timestamp>

The issue is due to a special character found in a file name.

Applies to:
chb 188 or lower on Linux

Solution:
Handling of special characters is improved in chb version 189 and this error should not occur anymore. Please install chbGUI package version 1.0.7-189 or higher.

How to run a full system backup without errors with chbGUI:

In order to avoid permission errors, run the backup from a Terminal with sudo or after becoming user root (see the guide).

Also, there are many special files in a Linux environment that will produce errors when trying to back them up, even if you are root. You should avoid backing up these files by adding exclusion patterns to your template (in the Advanced parameters dialog).
Here is a list that you can use as a reference, but remember YOU alone are responsible for your own configuration:
\ /dev/pts/
/gvfs-metadata/
\ /proc/
\ /sys/

/dev/pts/, /proc/ and /sys/ on the list above have a space preceded by a backslash at the beginning - this is intentional.

/gvfs-metadata/ is only required if you use Gnome, but other graphical environments may require other exclusions.