ThinkorSwim Trading Platform on SUSE

English Applications
1

Hi…new, but old guy here. Having just rid myself of 30 years of DOS/Windows, I feel like a kid in a candy store. I keep hearing the words, “what took you so long,” to find the Linux store. Yes, its exciting, but overwhelming. My current dilemma is, installing my first program via command line.

The program is Think Or Swim’s trading platform, and the instructions or based on installing to an Ubuntu machine. They are very clear, however I’ve not been successful after numerous attempts to get the program up and running.

If anyone has the time, I would greatly appreciate your assistance. Here are the instructions for a Ubuntu install – my system is a SUSE 12.2 with KDE.

http://mediaserver.thinkorswim.com/support/ubuntuhow-to.pdf

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jre

First problem, sudo get-apt, is not a valid command on my SUSE/KDE system.
Next, the path is not correct for my SUSE file structure.
Additionally, Java 6 is not installed on my system (Java 6 is a requirement for the TOS program).

So following his link, Oracle Technology Network for Java Developers to download Java 6, I’m confronted to make decision on which Java 6 to download. Even then, I do not know what the correct path for Java 6 would be for my system.

The only thing that I’ve accomplished in the last week from their instructions, is to download their installer file, thinkorswim_installer.sh.

Hopefully, they have supplied enough info, so that someone can direct me how to get the program up and running.

2

You can easily install Java 6 JRE from the standard openSUSE repos.
You may need to configure your HOME envirnment variable, do do in your /etc/profile.local

But, the big question is how they wrote the main app installer, if it tries to pull down packages (likely) it will fail on any but a Debian system. You’ll need to contact the company if they do that. If they can provide source (unlikely) then you can try to do so after installing the openSUSE package versions of prerequisites.

I doubt that simply running the alien compatibility installer will work without more info.

a good option would be to install your choice of virtualization, then install Ubuntu and the app in a VM.

TSU

3

tsu2 gave you good advice! While I use SuSE 12.2 rather than Ubuntu the problem is the same. T.D. Ameritrade has not upgraded to newer versions of JAVA and according to their Tech reps they possibly never will when it comes to running their software on Linux. Thinkorswim runs fine on SuSE 11.4 but newer versions —no! The best solution is as tsu2 described! I run Thinkorswim using XP running in VBox and it works great – granted is an insult to have to lower ones self to using windows while running Linux but this is not a problem with Linux rather a vender that is not in the mood to upgrade its excellent software.
Hope this helped!

4

Thanks to both. I did not think about the VM option, so I’ll get it a try. I appreciate your quick responses.

5

Since it is java based stuff we probably don’t require VM
you should already have openJDK installed. if software installaer doesn’t start/work with eith openJDK. then get did of it zypper rm openjdk in terminal
the install jdk 1.6 using this link.(community user created this)
then launch installer
http://i.imgur.com/jijcnyWl.png](http://imgur.com/jijcnyW)

6

Launching the installer should work, the question is whether the install is only a pre-configured WAR or requires additional packages. If only a WAR, then will run fine but if it pulls additional packages then it won’t work easily.

TSU

7

Nonesense - it works just fine on 12.2.

I’ve already discussed this, so no sense repeating: https://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/applications/479460-cant-installl-tdameritrade-thinkorswim-opensuse-12-2-gnome-based.html#post2495273

  • I’ll note that the network manager related issue does not seem to apply anymore (as far as I’ve seen in the last while)
  • openjdk 1.7 works fine, no oracle/sun java required (from my limited testing)
8

Hi…I did come across your post, and it sounds encouraging, but I’m in need of a clear step-by-step methodical process.

I’ve been able to get through the set-up phase, up to log-in, but after entering user-name and password the progress bar indicator never begins.

I re-installed openSUSE, recently, so I do not have the logs, now, but looking at them last week, they seem to indicate that Java related errors begin around the period following log-in. But, again, remember I am a novice, and really don’t have clue to what I was reading.

Thanks

9

Okay, that describes perfectly the prior behaviour that I saw. And yes, the logs seemed to indicate a java problem (I may have written that in the other thread, I don’t remember).

Anyway, try this:

Go into Yast > Network Devices > Network Settings > Global Options > Network Setup Method > change from Network Manager to Traditional (or vice versa), click okay. Then after that’s finished configuring , launch TOS again. If it works (and you will know right away as the progress bar will start to go as expected) then you can go back into Yast and configure the Network setup method to whatever type you prefer. Wash rinse repeat each time you run into the issue. As I indicated, I no longer run into this problem after every time the network manager package gets updated (which it does on a fairly often basis, though, this is entirely dependent upon which repos you use).

10

Thank you for the info. These are the actions I took.

  • from terminal I entered: chmod 770 ./thinkorswim_installer.sh, then
  • I entered: ./thinkorswim_installer.sh, then
    -during the installation process the only thing I changed was: where the program should be installed, the default was: usr/local/thinkorswim (staying with this default location results in me not having permission), so I selected home/tr, and that resulted in the program being downloaded in the thinkorswim directory (home/tr/thinkorswim)
  • after the installation, the program failed to load after logging in. I followed your suggestion which disconnected me from the internet, and I was unable to configure any settings that allowed me to connect with the Traditional Method selected.

Where there is a will there is a way - I know I’ll get there, but at this stage I’m not sure of the next move. Thanks

11

As

Assuming that TylerK’s post is accurate that newer Java will work fine (so you don’t have to verify and configure in update-alternatives or configure $JAVA_HOME) and the app won’t try to d/l debs,

Recommend installing the app in its default location, then sudo the app.
Sounds to me the app wants elevated permissions anyway, but without looking at the app closely I wouldn’t know why.

TSU

12

Ok thanks. I opened file manager and was going to trash the TOS directory and do a new installation, but I started looking at the individual files. I came across a script file and I clicked it, guess what. The logon menu popped up and I logged on and everything loaded up. So, we can confirm TylerK is correct, because I don’t have Java 6 on my machine. Another thing I noticed, INSTALL4J was automatically configured during the setup process, point is TOS’s instructions indicated that was necessary (manual) step.

I suppose that everything was configured correctly from the beginning. But, I know I could not get the program to load going from setup to logon, additionally, I could not logon via the desktop icon after completing setup, but now, I can.

13

hi,

what is the file/script name?

I’m having the same problem with 12.3/tumbleweed

the thing is I had no problem launching it on fedora 19…

14

Realizing this is a long time since the beginning of this thread, I though I would just put my experience here to supplement with what I did. This thread helped get me looking in the right direction.

My experience was like some others above, and I downloaded and installed the program, but I couldn’t get past the login screen. It would sit there not doing anything. I tried changing the networking method in yast as suggested, but then it still didn’t do anything.

So I went to the launch directory and decided to look at one of the log files. There it had a java.net.UnknownHostException error and it didn’t recognize my hostname. Something about that gave me an idea, so in yast -> network settings -> hostname tab, I checked the box that said “assign hostname to loopback ip”. That did the trick - after that the program started up and logged in just fine.

So this makes me wonder, what exactly does that do, assigning my hostname to loopback ip, and why did that work? I am glad my program works now, but I hate to have randomly guessed at a solution and to have fixed it without really understanding why.

G.O.
Box #1: 13.1 | KDE 4.11 | AMD Phenom IIX4 | 64 | 16GB
Box #2: 13.1 | KDE 4.11 | AMD Athlon X3 | 64 | 4GB
Laptop: 13.1 | KDE 4.11 | Core i7-2620M | 64 | 8GB

15

On 2014-02-16 04:46, golson765 wrote:

> So I went to the launch directory and decided to look at one of the log
> files. There it had a java.net.UnknownHostException error and it didn’t
> recognize my hostname. Something about that gave me an idea, so in yast
> -> network settings -> hostname tab, I checked the box that said “assign
> hostname to loopback ip”. That did the trick - after that the program
> started up and logged in just fine.
>
> So this makes me wonder, what exactly does that do, assigning my
> hostname to loopback ip, and why did that work? I am glad my program
> works now, but I hate to have randomly guessed at a solution and to have
> fixed it without really understanding why.

Look at /etc/hosts. You will, I think, see an entry like this:

127.0.0.1 YOURHOSTNAME.YOURDOMAINNAME YOURHOSTNAME

It can also be 127.0.0.2, I suppose not to conflict with:

127.0.0.1 localhost

Apparently, some software needs this entry, but also, some software
breaks with this software (postfix, for instance).

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

16

I just installed OpenSuse 13.1 on a new hard drive. Several updates to the default install and Printer was working. Next was to get thinkorswim (TOS) to run on OpenSuse 13.1. The default java appears to be openjdk which does not work for TOS. I originally got an error dialogue mentioning JavaFX and a CLASSPATH statement. I called the TD Ameritrade technical support for TOS. I got the obligatory “we don’t officially support linux…” and I asked what would he try. The TOS help desk asked, “are you running openjdk or oracle java?” He then re-iterated, “make sure you run the oracle java.” After looking through many discussion threads, here is a link to the documentation that works: SDB:Installing Java - openSUSE Wiki Get the oracle java installed, then try running TOS. Hope this helps.