What's disturbing is that a direct JAR attempt to run gave the "java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/jdesktop/layout/GroupLayout$Group" error. That's a missing class, not a bad connection.
According to
the Java documentation, it's caused by a library missing from your jar file. Apparently it's not always included in the JRE.
What finally worked was this:
"c:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_14\bin\javaws.exe" "-Xnosplash" minion.jnlp
For some reason, my webstart is having troubles downloading the splash screen from any web start application. So I'm still investigating that.
I had to include the full path so that it started the JDK version of Java and not the JRE version, because apparently the JRE wasn't including the Swing Layout Extensions library (and I was hoping that if it crashed again, the JDK would include more symbol info).
EDIT: And the minion works now! Sorry I had to find such a crazy workaround, but once installed, it works
.
Maybe have the option of installing without webstart?
In any case, even though it works now, I still have to look a what is going wrong with my web start
. Because the installer isn't the only web start app that isn't working. I tried others, and it appears it happens for all web start applications. Something is wrong with my web start.
Hopefully final EDIT: It appears both Firefox and the command line may have been trying to use an old web start launcher. Forcing my browser to use the JRE launcher works, and doing something similar worked for the command line.