Given a user with no ~/.frysk directory, try: $ ./frysk-gui/frysk/gui/FryskGui Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError at java.lang.Class.initializeClass(libgcj.so.7) at frysk.gui.monitor.eventviewer.EventViewer2.<init>(FryskGui) at frysk.gui.monitor.MainWindow.<init>(FryskGui) at frysk.gui.monitor.WindowManager.initLegacyProcpopWindows(FryskGui) at frysk.gui.Gui.<init>(FryskGui) at frysk.gui.Gui.gui(FryskGui) at frysk.gui.FryskGui.main(FryskGui) Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: The given file [/home/cagney/.frysk/Sessions] is not a directory at frysk.gui.sessions.SessionManager.<init>(FryskGui) at frysk.gui.sessions.SessionManager.<clinit>(FryskGui) at java.lang.Class.initializeClass(libgcj.so.7) ...6 more