Pulled and built l2switch code. When controller is started from distribution/karaf/target/assembly directory, it throws NPE even when running basic commands

linux:~/odl/l2switch/distribution/karaf/target/assembly$ bin/start
linux:~/odl/l2switch/distribution/karaf/target/assembly$ bin/client -u karaf
client: JAVA_HOME not set; results may vary
Logging in as karaf
243 [pool-2-thread-4] WARN org.apache.sshd.client.keyverifier.AcceptAllServerKeyVerifier - Server at /0.0.0.0:8101 presented unverified key:

________ ________ .__ .__ .__ __
_____ \ ______ ____ ____ ______ \ _____ __..| | || ____ | |_/ |
/ |
____ _/ __ \ / \ | |
__ \< | || | | |/ ___| | \ __\
/ | \ |> > ___/| | | ` \/ __
___ || || / /_/ > Y \ |
_______ / _/ __ >__| /______ (____ / ___||__/__ /|__| /_|
\/|_| \/ \/ \/ \/\/ /____/ \/

Hit '<tab>' for a list of available commands
and '[cmd] --help' for help on a specific command.
Hit '<ctrl-d>' or type 'system:shutdown' or 'logout' to shutdown OpenDaylight.

opendaylight-user@root>
opendaylight-user@root>feature:list
Error executing command: java.lang.NullPointerException
opendaylight-user@root>