I am running Ubuntu Linux.  Here is the location of my property file, taken from Nautilus:  
/home/ralbury/Desktop/DesignWorkspace/Scratch/log4j.properties

I am running my application with the following defines:
-Dlog4j.configuration=/home/ralbury/Desktop/DesignWorkspace/Scratch/log4j.properties
-Dlog4j.debug

Here are the messages I get on my console:
log4j: Trying to find [/home/ralbury/Desktop/DesignWorkspace/Scratch/log4j.properties] using context classloader sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader@45064f.
log4j: Trying to find [/home/ralbury/Desktop/DesignWorkspace/Scratch/log4j.properties] using sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader@45064f class loader.
log4j: Trying to find [/home/ralbury/Desktop/DesignWorkspace/Scratch/log4j.properties] using ClassLoader.getSystemResource().
log4j: Could not find resource: [/home/ralbury/Desktop/DesignWorkspace/Scratch/log4j.properties].

I am at a loss.  Does anyone have any ideas?

RonA