---
title: Qumana
layout: default
created: 2009-02-02 23:53:17 +0100
updated: 2009-02-08 13:34:37 +0100
toc: false
tags:
  - know-how
  - software
---
**Homepage:** [qumana.com](http://www.qumana.com/)

Qumana is a nice blog editor for Windows and Mac. But it is written in Java and thus should run on any platform.


Running under Linux
===================

Download the Mac-Version (`.zip`) and unpack it. You'll find a directory `Qumana.app` which contains a directory
`Contents` which contains a directory `Resources` which contains a directory `Java`. There you'll find a `Qumana.jar`
and some more libraries and configuration files.

Copy everything to `/opt/qumana`.

Starting it with

    java -jar Qumana.jar

shows the splash screen and the blog-manager, where you can add your blog without problems. It even shows the last
posts of your blog. But you'll crash it when trying to edit a posting or start a new one: The console shows several
stack traces.

The thing is: The problem doesn't really lie in Qumana but more in the *GtkLookAndFeel*. This seems to request various
properties from the system which then flood the *HashTable* which is causing a *StackOverflow*. So you need to switch
it to e.g. the `MetalLookAndFeel`.

Usually you can force a Java application to a specific LAF by specifing `-Dswing.laf=com.sun.java.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel`
as a parameter (might also be `swing.defaultlaf` or `swing.systemlaf`). This didn't work as Qumana queries all
available LAFs itself and tries to make an intelligent decision. So the new task: How to get rid of the GtkLookAndFeel?

After some Google'ing, I found [this thread](http://forums.java.net/jive/message.jspa?messageID=188506) in the
java.net-forums where Scott Violet writes:

> As you have found, we only return GTK as the system look and feel if you're running under GNOME. There's an
> environment variable we look for that controls this.

So which variable might the JRE look for? After looking at the output of `env`, it was obvious. The only variable
pointing to Gnome was `GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID`. So try the following:

    env -u GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID java -jar Qumana.jar

Now Qumana starts in the MetalLookAndFeel and you can post new entries as well as edit old ones.

To specify another LAF, use the following:

    env -u GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID java -Dswing.systemlaf=com.sun.java.swing.plaf.nimbus.NimbusLookAndFeel -jar /opt/qumana/Qumana.jar

But be warned that the NimbusLAF has display errors with Qumana.