How to install LSJ

[Earl Morton]

I just downloaded the STEP Bible on my new laptop today. (I have explore it a little in the past, but not used it very much.) During the installation process I was at a web page that allowed me to choose from all the available resources and choose the ones I wanted. It also allowed me to remove some of the default resources that I don't need. Now I'd like to get back to that page. I have found some foreign language versions installed that I don't need, and I discovered that LSJ is available, which I would love to have easily available to me. But I can't figure out how to get back to that page. In case it matters, I using Linux Mint.

Thanks!

[Mark Cannon]

Hi Earl,

Did you install from the links provided here under More > Download STEP? Could it be that you installed from somewhere else than what is provided on that page?

I do not use Linux and am not familiar with it at all. With that caveat, what you are describing does not indicate anything I am familiar with when installing the standalone version of STEPBible in Windows (or a year or so ago on my old Mac). I have not heard of an ability to remove default resources using the installer available at the location above. 

To my knowledge, LSJM is "baked" into the installation, and I have not heard of a way to remove it in my years of supporting STEPBible. I am only familiar with adding additional resources to the minimal number of Bibles installed found under More : Install more Bibles in the menu in the upper right of the standalone installaton.

Mark Cannon

feed...@stepbible.org
STEPBible -- Scripture Tools for Every Person

[dmckinnon78]

Hi Earl,

The Liddell, Scott, Jones Ancient Greek Lexicon (LSJ) is built into the STEPBible application, and there is no feature to update or replace this.  

From your description, I also wonder if you are referring to adding Bibles/Commentaries to and removing them from STEPBible running on your own computer.  Under the More menu on the right (which has the three vertical dots) you can select "Install more Bibles...", as mentioned by Mark.  However, this doesn't apply to lexicons.

If I have misunderstood your post, please correct me.

Thanks,

Darcy McKinnon  

[Earl Morton]

Thanks, everyone for your replies! I've received some private messages also, but I'll respond to everyone here, so the discussion is available in the future for anyone else who might have the same questions.

First, I apparently made an incorrect assumption that LSJ would open in the parallel window, like Bible versions and some commentaries. Instead it just displays the entry for the biblical word selected in the text. That is unfortunate. For that purpose, I have a better lexicon (BDAG) in another Bible app (BibleWorks). BibleWorks offers only an abridged version of LSJ; I was hoping to get access to the unabridged version in the STEP Bible. I use LSJ for non-biblical Greek, so if I can only see words used in the Bible, it is not much use to me.

When I installed the STEP Bible, I was taken to a web page that listed all the resources (Bibles, commentaries, etc.) in many languages that were available from several repositories. The ones currently installed were shaded in green and had an X icon to remove them. The ones that were available were shaded in red and had a plus-sign icon to add them. That is the screen I'm trying to get back to. When I go to the More menu and select Install more Bibles..., I get an HTTP status 500 error message, which can have a number of causes, but according to this website (which was sent to me in one of the private messages), it is always a server-side error. 

I guess the most sensible thing to try is another browser, but that's easier said than done. On my Linux computer, Brave is my default browser. I don't even know how to tell Linux to use Firefox for this one app and Brave for all other purposes. Firefox is the only other browser on this device, but I avoid using it.

Someone said in one of the private messages that the STEP Bible is written in JavaScript. Maybe JavaScript doesn't work as well under Linux as it does under Windows. I can see if I can find that out. I suppose I can also try to reinstall the STEP Bible, but I'm not sure how to do that either just yet. (I've only been using Linux since January.)

Earl

[Earl Morton]

I've been exploring this with some help from Claude AI, which is very good at interpreting Linux messages. We have discovered that STEP Bible is looking for a book that it's not finding, even though all the books that I downloaded and more are showing on my disk. But that makes me wonder: When I was selecting Bible versions and commentaries I wanted, I removed the ESV, since I have it in BibleWorks. That seems to be STEP Bible's default version. Is that perhaps what is confusing it? Is there some way I can tell it to use the BSB as its default?

[Coburn Ingram]

I just go to LSJ directly.

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[Earl Morton]

Although this is following up on my post about installing LSJ, that is no longer the focus. The current issues are:

1. The main window opens with no default Bible displayed
2. When I navigate to the load/remove Bible versions page, I get an HTTP 500 Internal Server Error

(I installed STEPBible on Linux Mint 22.3 (Cinnamon) using the .deb package.)

The full error is:

com.google.inject.ProvisionException: Guice provision errors:
Error injecting constructor, com.tyndalehouse.step.core.exceptions.TranslatedException: book_not_found
  at com.tyndalehouse.step.core.service.jsword.impl.JSwordAnalysisServiceImpl
Root Cause: com.tyndalehouse.step.core.exceptions.TranslatedException: book_not_found
  at com.tyndalehouse.step.core.service.jsword.impl.JSwordVersificationServiceImpl.getBookFromVersion

I'm guessing that the initial cause was that during the initial installation and setup, I removed the ESV (because I have it available in another Bible app). But perhaps STEPBible expects to find it as its default version.

I have done quite a bit of diagnostics (with the help of Claude AI), including removing and reinstalling the app a couple of times. I can confirm the following:
- The ESV_th module is fully installed at /opt/step/homes/sword/modules/texts/ztext/ESV_th, with all six expected data files present (ot.bzs, ot.bzv, ot.bzz, nt.bzs, nt.bzv, nt.bzz)
- The corresponding ESV_th.conf file is present in /opt/step/homes/sword/mods.d/
- File permissions are correct (owned by the user, drwxrwxrwx)
- I have done a couple of clean reinstallations (removing both /opt/step and ~/.step) with the same result, except now it doesn't find any Bible versions or commentaries.
- I have run the app both from the menu and via 'bash /opt/step/runStep.sh' and accessing it through Brave browser
- Other modules present in mods.d include: abpen_sb, abpgk_sb, chiun, chiuns, cpdv, FreSeg21, kjv, lxx_th, NIV, oshb, SBLG_th, sparv1909, THOT

After the initial installation, I could successfully navigate to Bible text once a version was manually opened, but the setup/install page always crashes with the above error, preventing me from managing installed modules. Even after completely removing the app, doing a clean installation never took me back to the page to manage installed modules, but somehow it still thinks I have only the versions and commentaries I initially chose (along with a few Spanish, Chinese, and other language versions).

The app is running on Apache Tomcat 8.5.99 with the bundled JRE.

I need some expert help here!

Thanks!

[dmckinnon78]

The ESV is required for STEPBible to work.  My suggestion is to uninstall the app (i.e., at the command line, type: sudo dpkg -r stepbible), remove the /opt/step directory (sudo rm -rf /opt/step), and then re-install.  That will put you back to the default installation, after which you may want to add back in other Bibles.

[Coburn Ingram]

Once you have it up and running (I use Ubuntu), you no longer have to worry about the default Bible. As long as you have your browser settings right, it should just open to the last page you were on before. For example, I read the OHB with cantillation marks enabled. Let's say I do a system update and it wants to restart. Goes right back to Exodus 28.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/StepBibleForum/46e541a7-b8a4-48b2-a588-4d293a7c6a6en%40googlegroups.com.

[Megumi]

Earl,

I know you have already done removing and re-installing STEPBible a few times, but may I suggest that you try one more time, by following what was suggested above by dmckinnon78? In addition to manually removing the /opt/setp directory, I also suggest you should remove relevant hidden folders at your home directory. 

So, to really clean up everything first before reinstallation, do these from the terminal:

sudo dpkg -r stepbible

sudo rm -rf /opt/step

rm -rf ~/.jsword

rm -rf ~/.stepbible

rm -rf ~/.sword

rm -rf ~/.sword-step

After that, you can reinstall STEPBible. Hopefully, this will remove whatever may have gone wrong with your installation.

[Earl Morton]

Just to close this out, I want to let you all know that these issues are all resolved, and STEPBible is up and running on my computer. The initial problem was caused by my removal of the ESV during the initial installation. I did not know that STEPBible requires the presence of the ESV to function. The secondary issue was that when I tried to remove and reinstall STEPBible, I did not stop the Java process before reinstalling. So it was holding onto some of the bad configuration data. Once I stopped that process, I was able to reinstall the app from scratch, leaving the ESV in place, and everything worked properly. Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions and help!

Earl

[Megumi]

For my learning, could someone please tell me what exactly is meant by 'Java process'? I thought that STEPBible is a JavaScript app, but does it use Java as well? I can't see any process with 'Java' in its name running with STEPBible open on my laptop. 

[dmckinnon78]

STEPBible is a client-server application.  The server component uses tomcat to run the java classes that are installed on your computer to read, search, etc., the Bible modules.  The client component uses a browser, such as Chrome or Firefox, to run the JavaScript code to display the passages, search results, etc., that the client obtains from the server.

In Earl's case, the java server process was still running on his Linux computer.  You can see it from the command line by typing:

    ps axww | grep java

This will show the process running /opt/step/jre/bin/java. 

This process needed to be shutdown and restarted to read the freshly re-installed files, such as the ESV module.  Note that you can shutdown the java process when you are finished using STEPBible in your browser by clicking on the More menu (the three vertical dots on the top right side), and selecting Exit.  

[Earl Morton]

I asked Claude AI about Java and JavaScript. You can see its reply here: https://claude.ai/share/6975c269-837a-49d9-9662-4d0a57778aa5.
Earl

[Megumi]

Thank you, dmckinnon78 and Earl, for very helpful information. I have learned something useful.

On my Linux machine (running Linux Mint Debian Edition version 7), I can certainly see the Java process running /opt/step/jre/bin/java. However, I am curious that on my Mac (running macOS 26.3), no Java process appears to be running. Obviously something else must be going on there. I vaguely recall that Apple stopped bundling Java with macOS some time ago.