New install:IDE gets null pointer exception - core library compiles with warning

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

Just installed the arduino package from the (K)Ubuntu 12.04 distro. Install apparently went fine.

First attempts to compile a trivial test case resulted in 2 warnings when building the core library (Tone.cpp and the IPAddress class were the culprits).

Then, when I compiled a little test program using the IDE of the package, I sometimes (not always) get a Java NullPointerException:

        java.lang.NullPointerException
	at processing.app.debug.Compiler.execAsynchronously(Compiler.java:326)
	at processing.app.debug.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:182)
	at processing.app.Sketch.build(Sketch.java:1569)
	at processing.app.Sketch.build(Sketch.java:1546)
	at processing.app.Editor$DefaultRunHandler.run(Editor.java:1845)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:679)

The above error message is displayed in the terminal window section of the IDE. At one occasion, the IDE even crashed entirely. The null pointer exception happens occasionally on two different machines, one 32-bit, the other 64-bit, both running Kubuntu 12.04.

Did something go wrong with both installs? Something wrong in Ubuntu's distro, for instance an old version (it says 1.0 in the "about" of the IDE, and it wouldn't be the first time that Ubuntu is way behind)?

The problems in the core library are easily fixed as the sources come with the package.

Finally, I couldn't figure out how to switch on the line number display in the editor of the IDE. Neither single nor double nor triple clicking on the compiler error message got me to the line in error. Am I missing something? Is that maybe also the result of an old version in the Ubuntu distro?

Any words of wisdom? In case there is not just an old version in the Ubuntu distro, is there anything I could do to help (like running the IDE through valgrind etc... - even though the java error message seems pretty detailed already)

2

I know the core is still stuck around version .18 and it gave me the same crap cause its files are messed, I dont remember how I fixed it, I think I just gettoed it by putting the 1.0x core files in /usr/shar/arduino etc and restarting the IDE

3

Great Osgeld, that would then eliminate the problems with the compiler warnings. Running ahead, I fixed those as an exercise in getting into things arduino though :slight_smile: But as you suggest, I will get the latest core version, just to be sure I have no hidden problems lingering somewhere in the core code. Thanks!!

Did anybody get the java null pointer exception error besides me? That clearly isn't a core-related problem at all (or at least it shouldn't be). Also, does anybody else have line numbers in the editor? It would be kind of a drag to click on the scroll bar 614 times if the compiler reports an error in line 614, so I can't imagine that there are none by design.

Oh - and BTW - everything else - uploading, running the code on the arduino, and using the built-in serial monitor - all just worked as expected!!