CrashPlan – Ubuntu 14.04 GUI Crash after Installation

Background

CrashPlan has been an affordable and secure solution for backing up local content into their centralized cloud server. The GUI is based on Java, allowing it to run on multiple platforms, including Linux and specifically Ubuntu.

Issue

On Ubuntu 14.04, the Java-based GUI would crash when being opened for the first time after installation. It was unclear whether the issue was with the installation or with some other dependency.

Solution

In the end, adding the line, “-Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.DefaultType=mozilla” to the end of the default executed command line resolved the issue. The default command line is located in /usr/local/crashplan/bin/run.conf and the additional tag can be added at the end of the GUI_JAVA_OPTS section.

Sources

http://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/Latest/Troubleshooting/CrashPlan_App_Closes_In_Some_Linux_Installations