Unable to launch minecraft on Ubuntu 20.04

TrueBenja · March 24, 2021, 9:46pm

Hi!

I hope this is the right place to post this question.
I am having problems launching minecraft after I have installed it. I downloaded the .deb package from mojang and used the commands: sudo gdebi Minecraft.deb. It seemed to install just fine, but when I try to run it in the terminal it spits out the messages underneath. If someone could look through it and help me out I’d be grateful. I have read that minecraft should run just fine on ubuntu, so I might end up reinstalling ubuntu. I am pretty new to linux, and have reinstalled it a couple of times, so it’s no problem doing it again. Thanks

I removed all the links in the log because my account is too new to post links.

[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.340085297: NetQueue.cpp(157)] NetQueue: Setting up.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.340321518: NetQueue.cpp(575)] NetQueue: worker thread started.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.340769425: mainLinux.cpp(250)] Running launcher bootstrap (version 921)
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.341035101: PlatformLinux.cpp(44)] HOME dir (getpwuid): /home/benjamin
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.341053656: PlatformLinux.cpp(49)] HOME dir (env): /home/benjamin
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342624160: localization.cpp(45)] No locale matching [.json] found.
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342644157: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to download . Please try again later.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342657592: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to download the Native Launcher.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342668653: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to update the Game Launcher.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342680285: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to download the Runtime Environment.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342691145: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to update the Game Launcher.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342702025: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to update the Runtime Environment.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342712805: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to update the Native Launcher.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342723565: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to relaunch the Minecraft bootstrap.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342735257: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to start the Runtime Environment. This is most likely caused by a corruption. Please try to reinstall .”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342747150: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to start , if you are running from a dmg, please drag to Applications and try again.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342758020: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to initialize the network library.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342771755: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for " Launcher"
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342782005: Common.cpp(32)] Native Launcher Version: 921
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342806340: Common.cpp(33)] Operating System: Linux
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342827399: Common.cpp(34)] Application Data directory: //…/.minecraft
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342848839: Common.cpp(35)] Executable Path: /…/minecraft-launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342868556: Common.cpp(36)] App Directory dir: //…/bin
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342887892: Common.cpp(37)] Game data directory: //…/.minecraft
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342907359: Common.cpp(38)] Launcher dir: //…/launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342930242: Common.cpp(39)] Java dir: //…/jre-x64
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342950149: Common.cpp(40)] TmpDir dir: //…/MinecraftLauncher.1000
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.342979043: Common.cpp(41)] x64: true
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.343705279: mainLinux.cpp(333)] resolvedExe: /home/benjamin/.minecraft/launcher/minecraft-launcher selfExe: /usr/bin/minecraft-launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.343737169: mainLinux.cpp(337)] Top level executable, forwarding signals.
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.343851312: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘/usr’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.343876499: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘///usr’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.343894783: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘/home/benjamin’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.343912486: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘///home/benjamin’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.343931552: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘/home/benjamin/.minecraft’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.343949145: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘///home/benjamin/.minecraft’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.343973711: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘/home/benjamin/.minecraft/runtime’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.343994329: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘///home/benjamin/.minecraft/runtime’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344020889: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘/tmp’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344038201: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘///tmp’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344053049: Common.cpp(32)] Native Launcher Version: 921
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344085209: Common.cpp(33)] Operating System: Linux
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344115205: Common.cpp(34)] Application Data directory: …/.minecraft
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344151813: Common.cpp(35)] Executable Path: /…/minecraft-launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344184895: Common.cpp(36)] App Directory dir: …/bin
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344218829: Common.cpp(37)] Game data directory: …/.minecraft
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344250378: Common.cpp(38)] Launcher dir: …/.minecraft/launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344282678: Common.cpp(39)] Java dir: …/.minecraft/runtime/jre-x64
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344315499: Common.cpp(40)] TmpDir dir: …/MinecraftLauncher.1000
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.344347409: Common.cpp(41)] x64: true
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.353658412: mainLinux.cpp(441)] Current executable is not in game directory, update and run game directory version
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.353708295: mainLinux.cpp(455)] Attempting to start the launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.353722742: mainLinux.cpp(118)] Window closing, exiting process
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.371364988: NetQueue.cpp(157)] NetQueue: Setting up.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.371549382: NetQueue.cpp(575)] NetQueue: worker thread started.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.371915636: mainLinux.cpp(250)] Running launcher bootstrap (version 921)
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.372068692: PlatformLinux.cpp(44)] HOME dir (getpwuid): /home/benjamin
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.372078040: PlatformLinux.cpp(49)] HOME dir (env): /home/benjamin
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373381484: localization.cpp(45)] No locale matching [.json] found.
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373398015: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to download . Please try again later.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373405940: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to download the Native Launcher.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373438531: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to update the Game Launcher.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373447928: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to download the Runtime Environment.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373453158: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to update the Game Launcher.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373458358: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to update the Runtime Environment.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373463527: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to update the Native Launcher.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373468687: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to relaunch the Minecraft bootstrap.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373474277: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to start the Runtime Environment. This is most likely caused by a corruption. Please try to reinstall .”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373479958: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to start , if you are running from a dmg, please drag to Applications and try again.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373485188: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for “Unable to initialize the network library.”
[Error: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373492622: localization.cpp(110)] No translation found for " Launcher"
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373497701: Common.cpp(32)] Native Launcher Version: 921
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373510305: Common.cpp(33)] Operating System: Linux
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373520584: Common.cpp(34)] Application Data directory: //…/.minecraft
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373530933: Common.cpp(35)] Executable Path: /…/minecraft-launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373540311: Common.cpp(36)] App Directory dir: //…/launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373549628: Common.cpp(37)] Game data directory: //…/.minecraft
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373558926: Common.cpp(38)] Launcher dir: //…/launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373570838: Common.cpp(39)] Java dir: //…/jre-x64
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373580346: Common.cpp(40)] TmpDir dir: //…/MinecraftLauncher.1000
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373589613: Common.cpp(41)] x64: true
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373840321: mainLinux.cpp(333)] resolvedExe: /home/benjamin/.minecraft/launcher/minecraft-launcher selfExe: /home/benjamin/.minecraft/launcher/minecraft-launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373853686: mainLinux.cpp(347)] Chain-loaded executable, watching parent for termination.
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373871469: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘/home/benjamin/.minecraft’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373881478: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘///home/benjamin/.minecraft’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373891086: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘/home/benjamin’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373900393: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘///home/benjamin’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373913207: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘/home/benjamin/.minecraft/runtime’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373922465: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘///home/benjamin/.minecraft/runtime’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373934437: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘/tmp’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Debug: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373943303: SentryAPI.cpp(314)] The string ‘///tmp’ was added to the logging blacklist
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373950978: Common.cpp(32)] Native Launcher Version: 921
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373966266: Common.cpp(33)] Operating System: Linux
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373981224: Common.cpp(34)] Application Data directory: …
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.373997104: Common.cpp(35)] Executable Path: /…/minecraft-launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.374013675: Common.cpp(36)] App Directory dir: …/launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.374032500: Common.cpp(37)] Game data directory: …
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.374048280: Common.cpp(38)] Launcher dir: …/launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.374064460: Common.cpp(39)] Java dir: …/runtime/jre-x64
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.374080470: Common.cpp(40)] TmpDir dir: …/MinecraftLauncher.1000
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.374096429: Common.cpp(41)] x64: true
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.378846393: NetQueue.cpp(157)] NetQueue: Setting up.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.378977938: LauncherConfiguration.cpp(292)] Using update preferences at path: …/launcher_profiles.json
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.378974913: NetQueue.cpp(575)] NetQueue: worker thread started.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.379012373: LauncherConfiguration.cpp(306)] Using update preferences at path: …/launcher_settings.json
[Warning: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.379090318: LauncherConfiguration.cpp(132)] Failed to get clientToken from configuration, launcher updater will fall back to using stable versions instead of controlled experiment versions.

[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.379693966: NetQueue.cpp(585)] NetQueue: Starting net action
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.455876603: NetQueue.cpp(428)] NetQueue: Primary ip: 143.204.53.134,
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.455939421: NetQueue.cpp(504)] NetQueue: Action finished:
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.455961642: NetQueue.cpp(532)] NetQueue: Action finalized:
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.456678712: LauncherConfiguration.cpp(198)] Deciding on update with strategy 0 and clientID 0
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.456745667: LauncherConfiguration.cpp(215)] Version of launcher-bootstrap is current, no action is necessary.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.456782876: LauncherConfiguration.cpp(248)] Bootstrap is current
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.456911106: LauncherConfiguration.cpp(198)] Deciding on update with strategy 0 and clientID 0
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.456956901: LauncherConfiguration.cpp(215)] Version of launcher-core-v2 is current, no action is necessary.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.456991175: LauncherConfiguration.cpp(248)] Bootstrap is current
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.457052409: NetQueue.cpp(183)] NetQueue: Initiating shutdown.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.457075062: NetQueue.cpp(197)] NetQueue: Waiting for worker thread to finish…
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.457103104: NetQueue.cpp(689)] NetQueue: Worker thread shutting down.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.458108993: NetQueue.cpp(200)] NetQueue: Done.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.458155420: StartLibrary.cpp(63)] Starting …/launcher/liblauncher.so
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.537543094: StartLibrary.cpp(75)] Running launcher!
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.537652108: StartLibrary.cpp(77)] Logging is open, passing it to Launcher Core.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.538467711: LauncherMain.cpp(92)] Initiated models
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.547508820: LauncherMain.cpp(247)] Initiated app arguments
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.547578620: LauncherMain.cpp(280)] Initiated directories
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.547635457: LauncherMain.cpp(298)] Initialized network
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.547652789: NetQueue.cpp(157)] NetQueue: Setting up.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.547771350: LauncherMain.cpp(312)] Initialized Sentry
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.547744210: NetQueue.cpp(575)] NetQueue: worker thread started.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.547793923: LauncherMain.cpp(318)] workDir: …/.minecraft
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.547819771: LauncherMain.cpp(326)] appDir: …/.minecraft/launcher
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.547932732: LauncherMain.cpp(352)] Launcher core version: 2.2.2313 (6cd58158ae776414beb2bcb966139b5af724e5ef)
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.547952318: LauncherMain.cpp(353)] Main process: true
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.547970452: NetQueue.cpp(157)] NetQueue: Setting up.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.548031967: NetQueue.cpp(575)] NetQueue: worker thread started.
[Info: 2021-03-24 17:05:18.548045162: LauncherController.cpp(414)] Constructing launcher controller with workDir: …/.minecraft, isActive: 1

Yuri · March 25, 2021, 11:03pm

I don’t have this game installed, but this message seems to be the one that unveils the issue: apparently, you need to set your system’s locale (i.e. the operating system’s language).

You may therefore open a shell terminal window (by issuing e.g. Ctrl Alt T) and then run this command:

locale

If your system’s language is e.g. US English, then the output of the command above must look like this:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US:en
LC_CTYPE=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_NUMERIC=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_TIME=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_COLLATE=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_MONETARY=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_MESSAGES=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_PAPER=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_NAME=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_ADDRESS=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_TELEPHONE=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_MEASUREMENT=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_IDENTIFICATION=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_ALL=

If you get an empty space or e.g. A or C instead of e.g. en_US.UTF-8 at the right side of the localization parameters above, it means that you need to set up localization, which can be done by running this command (the following example assumes that your system’s language must be en_US.UTF-8 i.e. US English coded in UTF-8 format):

localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8

More info about setting and generating locales is available here.

TrueBenja · March 25, 2021, 11:26pm

Thanks for the reply!

My locale looks like this:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US:en
LC_CTYPE=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=“en_US.UTF-8”
LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8
LC_NAME=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ALL=

The only thing that was empty was LANGUAGE, which I changed to what you described. It still won’t launch, unfortunately.

I used to have some of the settings set to norwegian, but I thought that might have been what was causing my issue, but after changing all the settings to english, nothing changed.

Yuri · March 26, 2021, 9:53pm

No problem.

It’s a good idea to make sure that all dependent libraries are up-to-date by running:

sudo apt-get clean ; sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get check ; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y ; sudo apt-get autoremove -y ; sudo apt-get clean

I’m running a 64-bit Ubuntu 20.04 Linux system. I downloaded the official Minecraft DEB package available at https://launcher.mojang.com/download/Minecraft.deb and saved it in the /tmp folder, then I installed it by issuing the command:

sudo gdebi -n /tmp/Minecraft.deb

Once it was installed, I just ran minecraft-launcher from the terminal and it worked. It therefore seems that this issue is specific to your system’s configuration.

I would thus try to globally reconfigure my system’s language by following the steps described here.

If globally reconfiguring the system’s language doesn’t suffice to get you starting the Minecraft game succesfully, the next thing that I would do would be purging the Minecraft installation and deleting the previously created .minecraft folder:

sudo apt purge minecraft* -y ; rm -r ~/.minecraft/

Then I would use wget and gdebi to download and reinstall that DEB package:

cd /tmp ; wget https://launcher.mojang.com/download/Minecraft.deb -O mc.deb ; sudo gdebi -n mc.deb

I’d then run minecraft-launcher again. If the problem persisted (assuming that your home folder is /home/benjamin): I saw in the Minecraft forums that moving the binary file /home/benjamin/.minecraft/launcher/minecraft-launcher to an outer localtion might work. I.e. you may move /home/benjamin/.minecraft/launcher/minecraft-launcher to /home/benjamin/minecraft-launcher with a command such as:

mv /home/benjamin/.minecraft/launcher/minecraft-launcher /home/benjamin/

…and then just run:

/home/benjamin/minecraft-launcher

…in the terminal. If this works, this is going to cause /home/benjamin/minecraft-launcher to download all necessary files and place them in /home/benjamin/.minecraft/ (theoretically, you won’t see those error messages during the launcher’s attempt to download all the game’s data).

If the above procedure works, you may delete the minecraft-launcher placed in /home/benjamin/ because a new copy of it will be available again at /home/benjamin/.minecraft/launcher/.

TrueBenja · April 6, 2021, 8:59pm

Hey. Thanks for all the help, but unfortunately nothing you suggested worked. I tried reinstalling Ubuntu, but that didn’t work either. I’m still getting the same errors. I really appreciate that you took time to help me, but I don’t know where to go from here.

Yuri · April 7, 2021, 2:41am

@TrueBenja I’m sorry that you can’t get this game to work. This is a weird issue… Yet, apparently, experiencing issues with Minecraft’s launcher isn’t uncommon: while I was investigating it on the web, I noticed that many Minecraft users complain about localization and other issues concerning Minecraft’s launcher.

In case you’re still willing to try to get this to work, completely uninstall Minecraft by issuing that previously mentioned command, i.e.:

sudo apt purge minecraft* -y ; rm -r ~/.minecraft/

…and then install the snap version of the Minecraft launcher:

sudo snap install minecraft-launcher-ot

If the above command returns an error, maybe it’s because you still don’t have snap installed. You may check if it’s installed by issuing this command:

snap version

If indeed snap is not installed, install it by issuing this command:

sudo apt install snap snapd -y

…and then proceed to installing the snap version of the Minecraft launcher:

sudo snap install minecraft-launcher-ot

If you get an error message starting with error: cannot install, then just type this in the terminal:

sudo snap install minecraft

…and then press the TAB (a.k.a. ⭾) key 3 times. The shell will show you all installation options available that begin with minecraft, so you know the correct name that you must type after sudo snap install.

Yuri · April 7, 2021, 3:07am

If installing the snap version doesn’t solve the issue either, I saw out there that some Minecraft versions don’t work well with Ubuntu’s default openjdk JRE (a.k.a. “Java”).

An workaround for such problem consists in downloading and installing Oracle’s proprietary JRE (Java Runtime Environment) by hand and then setting its corresponding JVM (Java Virtual Machine) as the default (system-wide) JVM. In case you decide to install the official proprietary Oracle JRE, please run this very long command in the terminal:

if [ -d /opt/java ]; then sudo rm -rf /opt/java; fi; sudo mkdir /opt/java; if [ `getconf LONG_BIT` == 64 ]; then sudo wget https://javadl.oracle.com/webapps/download/AutoDL?BundleId=244058_89d678f2be164786b292527658ca1605 -O /opt/java/jre.tar.gz; else sudo wget https://javadl.oracle.com/webapps/download/AutoDL?BundleId=244056_89d678f2be164786b292527658ca1605 -O /opt/java/jre.tar.gz; fi; cd /opt/java; sudo tar -xvf jre.tar.gz; sudo mv ./jre1* ./jre; sudo rm -f ./jre*.tar.gz

You don’t have to type such long command in the terminal: after you select and copy the command above, click on the terminal window and then use the key combination Ctrl Shift V to paste it into the terminal. Confirm with Enter (a.k.a. Return) and then run this second command:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/java/jre/bin/java 10; sudo update-alternatives --set java /opt/java/jre/bin/java

The first command will automatically:

Create the folder /opt/java/
Check if your Linux distribution’s architecture is either 32 or 64 bits
Download the corresponding JRE tarball file (i.e. jre-8u281-linux-x64.tar.gz if your system is a 64-bit one)
Decompress the tarball file into /opt/java/ (a folder such as e.g. jre-8u281-linux-x64 will then be created in /opt/java/ and such JRE will therefore be placed under /opt/java/jre-8u281-linux-x64/)
Rename the JRE’s folder to just jre (i.e. /opt/java/jre-8u281-linux-x64/ will become /opt/java/jre/) so it’s easier to set the default name of the system-wide JRE folder (the JVM will be located inside of such JRE’s folder)
Delete the tarball file (because at this point it won’t be useful/required anymore)

The second command will automatically:

Add /opt/java/jre/bin/java to the system’s list of available JVMs (Java Virtual Machines). The JVM is the main component of the JRE
Set /opt/java/jre/bin/java as the default (system-wide) JVM

If both commands finish without errors, then you now have Oracle’s proprietary JRE installed and its corresponding JVM is set as system default. You may verify this by running this command:

java -version

…which will then output something like this:

java version "1.8.0_281"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_281-b09)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.281-b09, mixed mode)

Yuri · April 7, 2021, 3:36am

@TrueBenja If Minecraft’s snap launcher doesn’t work, nor does it work after installing Oracle’s proprietary JRE, you may run this command, which will automatically download and install Oracle’s Virtual Box:

wget https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.18/virtualbox-6.1_6.1.18-142142~Ubuntu~eoan_amd64.deb -O /tmp/vb.deb ; sudo gdebi -n /tmp/vb.deb

Afterwards, run VirtualBox from your Applications menu, add a new Linux (Ubuntu 64-bit) machine with at least 4096 MB of RAM, create a virtual disk with fixed size of 20GB, then head to such virtual machine’s configurations and in Storage select the empty IDE device, mark it as a Live CD/DVD and then click on the small disc icon at the right in order to select your Ubuntu installation ISO file.

VirtualBox will therefore make your virtual machine to behave as if the Ubuntu’s ISO installation file (i.e. ubuntu-install-amd64.iso) is a LiveCD mounted in your virtual CD/DVD drive. Moreover, start the virtual machine so it boots from such LiveCD (ISO file), then install Ubuntu from your LiveCD in your virtual machine. During such installation, set a different location (e.g. USA if you’re outside of the USA, UK if you’re in the USA) and set such system’s default language as either US English (if you set the virtual system’s location to USA) or UK English (if you set the virtual system’s location to UK).

Once you got Ubuntu installed in such virtual machine, remove the installation media (umount the ISO file), reboot the virtual machine and then try to install Minecraft in such virtual machine. If it works, there are 2 most likely reasons why installation fails in your physical computer:

The country/region set in your physical computer’s Linux system does not match your actual geographical location or system-wide language configuration.
The hardware of your physical computer features at least one “uncommon” device that causes your Ubuntu LiveCD to install device drivers and add system settings that conflict with at least one of those in Minecraft’s launcher.

Option 1 is more likely. Option 2 is weirder and more obscure (probably harder to figure out and solve). I’m hoping that you’ll get this game working before you reach Option 2 or come to realize that Minecraft’s installer won’t install in the virtual machine, either.

TrueBenja · April 7, 2021, 9:14am

I tried to install the Oracle version of java first; it didn’t work. Then I tried to install it in a fresh virtual Ubuntu install; didn’t work either. Then I installed the snap verion of minecraft; it actually worked. I was aware that the snap version existed, but I didn’t know if it was the official version or if it had the same performance as the normal download, but it performs just fine. Thanks for the help

Yuri · April 7, 2021, 3:34pm

Awesome! I’m glad to know that you got game this game working. You’re welcome.

RobertZamora52 · March 31, 2022, 1:33pm

I tried to install the Oracle version of java first; it didn’t work. Then I tried to install it on a fresh virtual Ubuntu setup; didn’t work either. Then I installed the snap verion of minecraft; it truly worked.

Yuri · April 1, 2022, 3:09am

Cool, so in your case the snap version solved it, too.

The minecraft snap has all the up-to-date and compatible dependencies embedded in a single, functional package, which makes it much less likely that something goes wrong.

Even though I do have some reservations about snaps (e.g. snaps don’t let me access the /tmp folder even though I sometimes need to access /tmp; snaps also tend to be bigger in size if compared with e.g. the .deb, .jar or .bin version, because snaps carry the application’s dependencies – libraries etc. – along i.e. inside the snap package), snaps are much less likely to suffer from compatibility issues precisely because they’re autonomously updated and carry their requirements/dependencies along with them.

The fact that the other ways of installing minecraft didn’t work point towards the very likely case of a compatibility issue that is satisfied by (and only by) the snap version/port.