diff --git a/docs/pages/release_notes.md b/docs/pages/release_notes.md
index f4cb83fe2e..8a16ae243f 100644
--- a/docs/pages/release_notes.md
+++ b/docs/pages/release_notes.md
@@ -50,6 +50,8 @@ extended for lambda parameters with Java 11 via
 
 ### Fixed Issues
 
+*   core
+    *   [#1225](https://github.com/pmd/pmd/issues/1225): \[core] Error in sed expression on line 82 of run.sh while detecting installed version of Java
 *   doc
     *   [#1215](https://github.com/pmd/pmd/issues/1215): \[doc] TOC links don't work?
 *   java-codestyle
diff --git a/pmd-dist/src/main/scripts/run.sh b/pmd-dist/src/main/scripts/run.sh
index fcd9f0cb18..5cd03fb76a 100755
--- a/pmd-dist/src/main/scripts/run.sh
+++ b/pmd-dist/src/main/scripts/run.sh
@@ -75,8 +75,16 @@ check_lib_dir() {
 }
 
 jre_specific_vm_options() {
+  full_ver=$(java -version 2>&1)
   # java_ver is eg "18" for java 1.8, "90" for java 9.0, "100" for java 10.0.x
-  java_ver=$(java -version 2>&1 | sed -n -e 's/-ea/.0.0/i' -e 's/^.* version "\(.*\)\.\(.*\)\..*".*$/\1\2/p')
+  java_ver=$(echo $full_ver | sed -n '{
+      # replace early access versions, e.g. 11-ea with 11.0.0
+      s/-ea/.0.0/
+      # replace versions such as 10 with 10.0.0
+      s/version "\([0-9]\{1,\}\)"/version "\1.0.0"/
+      # extract the major and minor parts of the version
+      s/^.* version "\(.*\)\.\(.*\)\..*".*$/\1\2/p
+  }')
   options=""
 
   if [ "$java_ver" -ge 90 ] && [ "${APPNAME}" = "designer" ]