Installing and running Modsak

To install Modsak download the file modsak2.05.jar and put it in any convenient directory/folder.

To run Modsak under Windows, use the Windows Run dialog or double-click on the filename.

To run Modsak under other operating systems, use the command:

java -jar modsak2.05.jar

You will, of course, need to use the full pathname for modsak2.05.jar if it's not in your current directory/folder. You will probably want to create a shortcut, launcher, shell script, or whatever to save you having to keep typing the above command.

Since Modsak is written in Java, you will need a copy of the Java JRE (version 1.5 or later) in order to run it.

If double-clicking fails to run the program or you get an error from the "java -jar modsak2.05.jar" command, try the command:

java -version

If you get an error from this command, then you do not have the JRE installed, and you will have to download it from Sun.

Before you can use Modsak you will need to get a registration key.

Serial Communications

If you want to use Modsak with serial interfaces, you will need a copy of the Java Communications API package, and this is unfortunately not part of the standard JRE. However, the Modsak download includes a copy of the Sun version of the Java Communications API package for Windows. When you run Modsak under Windows it will use its own copy of the package, if it is not already installed.

If you want to use serial comms with other operating systems, you will have to download and install the Java Communications API. You can download implementations of it from Sun, IBM, or RXTX. For Linux, we recommend that you use the IBM version - we have found it to be more reliable than the Sun or RXTX implementations. Follow IBM's installation and configuration instructions to install it.
NOTE: August 2009: The Java 6 version of IBM's Comms API (javacomm-3.0-0.0) has serious bugs. We recommend that you use the Java 5 version - this works OK with a Java 6 JRE.

All these Java downloads are free.

Problems?

If you have any problems setting up the Java environment, installing Modsak, getting a registration key, or using Modsak, please email us at and we will do our best to help.

If you are reporting a bug, please give a full description of what you were doing and what went wrong. Include all the information displayed in the Help->About dialog, and also any output that was sent to the command window.