building automation software java issue

hello i'm sure i'm posting in the wrong area because this says advanced java and i am am just a beginner. i do not write java but i write building automation programs for a school division and have been tasked with making the software run on linux . needless to say the system uses java all the way around and i have successfully got this installed on ubuntu 8.1 all but the error that i recieve when launching the webserver for the system i recieve an error that i have attached. again i am sorry if this does not pertain to the advanced pros but all my support personel are scratching there heads on this one. PLEASE HELP !!


Exception in thread "Connect Thread" java.lang.NullPointerException
at sun.jbdc.obdc.jbdcObdcdriver.initialize(JbdcOdbcDr iver.java:436)
at sun.jbdc.obdc.jbdcObdcdriver.connect(JbdcOdbcDrive r.java:153)
at com.controlj.green.core.database.JbdcBridge$Connec tThread.run
(JbdcBridge.java:1419)


again i appriciate anyones responce on this

You have got a null pointer exception. Did you have setup JDBC drivers on Ubuntu? I'm not sure by default it's available.

i did not write the program it installs from cd ,all i had to do is put together the data base using mysql i did have to or i should say i read the dumbrections that i had to put a folder mysql-connector-java in the lib folder of install i was assuming this would help it find the database but as far as creating jbdc i did no such and i do apologize i am very new with trouble shotting java i have been using this program for years on windows with no issues but with linux seems to be buggy

Unsure, but it looks like the database is not set up.

there is a software sitebuilder that it uses to build the database but when using the software it launches and i click file, new ,to start creating a new or link it to existing the window that pops up that would be used to start building your tables and tell it what type (mysql) and what not displays as a blank page with a header and all the trim but no where to complete the necessary info it needs to get started we were trying to launch the webserver thinking that we would just get a no database error just for testing purposes i hope that this error is normal for a incorrect database but any help with the blank page would be helpful . again this software has only redhat instructions and we just assumed we could make it work with ubuntu 8.1 the install went just as the direction discribe i hope i have not wasted your time but when we saw the error researched it and saw this error mentioned with the mysql-connection-java.jar aka.mysqldriver.jar the instructions asked to put this in the install dir. lib folder and the sitebuilder page displaying incorrectly we assumed the java was incorrect also directions from the net say to drop this mysql-connector- java in a folder that we could not locate , and when i run command to edit java config and this file is blank no entrys also run command to set default java version and get no such file. thanks again for helping

Do you have a mysql database installed, and do you have any requisite environment variables for it defined? I would check that out first.

Thanks for the reply i tried the install on linux red hat ent.5 and works great so must be a issue with ubuntu server 8.1 and yes the mysql database is installed and the schemas all setup with the softwares user name and pass. the problem seems to lie at the sitebuilder database software if the pop up window for configuring the database type and strings wasn't just a blank window i could configure this info and would most likly work ,all of the software in the bundle has this problem but on red hat installs and pages display correctly so this is the end of the road i believe for ubuntu and i will check back with the post for info and thanks for the replys