diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index 572a36b6f607c32fa3c58f72c0b5e71e10967636..7c7939e4f2abbcef84f6a9b20907700ca2b5c7f4 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@ phoebus_version: 4.6.0-SNAPSHOT
 phoebus_archive: "http://artifactory.esss.lu.se/artifactory/libs-snapshot-local/se/europeanspallationsource/ics/ess-phoebus/{{ phoebus_version }}/ess-phoebus-{{ phoebus_version }}-bin.tar.gz"
 phoebus_settings_path: "{{ phoebus_home }}/phoebus.ini"
 phoebus_settings: {}
+phoebus_options: "-server 4918"
diff --git a/files/phoebus.desktop b/files/phoebus.desktop
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..753a38701b0b64c164a1fe9e819ca7c27080e3aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/files/phoebus.desktop
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+[Desktop Entry]
+Type=Application
+Terminal=false
+Name=Phoebus
+Categories=ESS
+Exec=/usr/local/bin/phoebus
diff --git a/tasks/main.yml b/tasks/main.yml
index 6fea6c7cce93394c9fe925d4e606ca2a69ac6d55..64530bcc3a6072470c69289c9fe48ac54d678145 100644
--- a/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/tasks/main.yml
@@ -23,13 +23,6 @@
     group: root
     creates: "{{ phoebus_home }}"
 
-- name: force java path to {{ java_openjdk_bin }} in phoebus.sh script
-  lineinfile:
-    path: "{{ phoebus_home }}/phoebus.sh"
-    regexp: "^java (.*)"
-    line: '{{ java_openjdk_bin }} \1'
-    backrefs: true
-
 - name: add Phoebus settings
   template:
     src: phoebus.ini.j2
@@ -47,9 +40,17 @@
     mode: 0644
   notify: Update MIME database
 
-- name: add Phoebus to desktop menu
+- name: create phoebus startup script
   template:
-    src: phoebus.desktop.j2
+    src: phoebus.j2
+    dest: /usr/local/bin/phoebus
+    owner: root
+    group: root
+    mode: 0755
+
+- name: add Phoebus to desktop menu
+  copy:
+    src: phoebus.desktop
     dest: /usr/share/applications/phoebus.desktop
     owner: root
     group: root
diff --git a/templates/phoebus.desktop.j2 b/templates/phoebus.desktop.j2
deleted file mode 100644
index b5951c87ecb816b48d6eb4ae0098b2b478abd749..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/templates/phoebus.desktop.j2
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-[Desktop Entry]
-Type=Application
-Terminal=false
-Name=Phoebus
-Categories=ESS
-Exec="{{ phoebus_home }}/phoebus.sh" -resource %f -settings "{{ phoebus_settings_path }}"
diff --git a/templates/phoebus.j2 b/templates/phoebus.j2
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..16c9c862f286318c2ab66407aa0eee6ec524e131
--- /dev/null
+++ b/templates/phoebus.j2
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+PHOEBUS_OPTS="{{ phoebus_options }}"
+PHOEBUS_JAR={{ phoebus_home }}/product-{{ phoebus_version }}.jar
+
+{{ java_openjdk_bin }} $JAVA_ARGS $JAVA_OPTS -jar $PHOEBUS_JAR $PHOEBUS_OPTS -resource %f -settings "{{ phoebus_settings_path }}"