Hi Jim,
I think I am able to reproduce the issue without using port command on one computer. I start igv 2.3.53, them load a bam file, then paste the position, for example, chr13:28608226-28608326, then click "go". Then I right click the reads, click "sort alignments by " -> base, then I see the following error:
ERROR [2015-09-17 16:45:24,242] [DefaultExceptionHandler.java:42] [AWT-EventQueue-0] Unhandled exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.broad.igv.feature.genome.SequenceWrapper.getBase(SequenceWrapper.java:50)
at org.broad.igv.feature.genome.Genome.getReference(Genome.java:430)
at org.broad.igv.sam.AlignmentInterval.getReference(AlignmentInterval.java:90)
at org.broad.igv.sam.Row.calculateScore(Row.java:65)
at org.broad.igv.sam.Row.updateScore(Row.java:40)
at org.broad.igv.sam.AlignmentDataManager.sortRows(AlignmentDataManager.java:173)
at org.broad.igv.sam.AlignmentTrack.sortRows(AlignmentTrack.java:445)
at org.broad.igv.ui.IGV.sortAlignmentTracks(IGV.java:1889)
at org.broad.igv.ui.IGV.sortAlignmentTracks(IGV.java:1879)
at org.broad.igv.sam.AlignmentTrack.sortAlignmentTracks(AlignmentTrack.java:1221)
at org.broad.igv.sam.AlignmentTrack$PopupMenu$8.actionPerformed(AlignmentTrack.java:1489)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2022)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2348)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:402)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:259)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.doClick(AbstractButton.java:376)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI.doClick(BasicMenuItemUI.java:833)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI$Handler.mouseReleased(BasicMenuItemUI.java:877)
at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Component.java:6535)
at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(JComponent.java:3324)
at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:6300)
at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:2236)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4891)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2294)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4713)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Container.java:4888)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Container.java:4525)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Container.java:4466)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2280)
at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2750)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4713)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:758)
at java.awt.EventQueue.access$500(EventQueue.java:97)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:709)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:703)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:86)
at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:731)
at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:729)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:728)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:201)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:116)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:105)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:101)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:93)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:82)
the igv is running on CentOS6.7. I got the same result using different jre, Sun 1.6, 1.7 and 1.8, I have tried the same IGV on another Linux box, CentOS 6.6, it is just fine. Please let me know if you need other information.
Xin