AWOS Display


AWOS Display is a Java display application which will run on a variety of platforms such as Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

Required:
  • Java 7
  • 1 GHz processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • High-speed internet connection (DSL or Cable)



If you have trouble running the application, see our Installation and Troubleshooting sections
 

For details on how to use the AWOS, see the AWOS Users Manual


 
Java Installation and Configuration

  1. Install Java 7.0 or later (Also called J2SE 7.0 or Java 1.7)
  2. Configure your browser to recognize .jnlp files. Most of the time the Java Windows installer will have already done this for you. For Linux, this process will need to be followed if your version of Java is upgraded
    • AWOS Display starts up using a ".jnlp" file, and your browser needs to know what application to use
      for this file type. You will need to set your browser to use Java WebStart to read this type of file.
    • On Windows, this often happens as part of the java installation. If not, use:
      "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.7.0_13\bin\javaws.exe" (or similar, based on your version of Java)
    • On Linux, use:
      "/opt/jre1.7.0_13/bin/javaws" (or similar, based on your version of Java, and installation directory)

  3. Configure Java WebStart to use your proxy server
    • If your browser uses a proxy server to connect to the internet, you will need to add the same configuration to Java WebStart so it can run AWOS Display
    • Run Java WebStart
          Windows: C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.7.0_13\bin\javaws.exe
          Linux: /opt/jre1.7.0_13/bin/javaws
    • Select "Edit-->Preferences"
    • Click on the "General" tab
    • Click on the "Network Settings" button
    • Enter your proxy server information


 
Troubleshooting

Every time I run AWOS Display, I get a dialog asking me if I want to run the application
This dialog checks that you trust the company that created AWOS Display. If you check the box
"Always trust content from this publisher," the dialog will only appear when a new version of AWOS Display is released.

Sometimes it takes a long time to start AWOS Display, and I get a dialog that says "Downloading awos.jar..."
When new versions of AWOS Display are released by NCAR, users are forced to download files containing the updated code. This may take several minutes due to the size of the AWOS Display code.

I installed Java on Windows but when I run AWOS Display it gives me a strange error
When Java is installed by a user without administrator (install) privileges, the Java install program will finish but the installation will not be complete. In these cases, it may not be obvious that the installation failed, but an error will occur when Java is used. Remove the failed Java installation (if possible) and re-install Java as an administrator.

The browser prompted me for an application to use, then it failed with a network error
Network problems are often related to properly configuring your proxy server in Java/Java Web Start. When a proxy server required to connect to the Internet, system administrators often configure the browser . The browser is able to download the .jnlp file, but when Java Web Start is launched it is not able to download the rest of the resources used by the application. Refer to the proxy server settings currently configured in your browser, and see the section above on configuring Java WebStart to use a proxy server.