Linux still supported in 0.4.4?

[ASGeek2012]

Just a quick question if Linux will still continue to be supported in 0.4.4. I ask because I see no Linux RC builds, only Windows and Mac. Would absolutely love to help you guys work out the final bugs in 0.4.4 since I've really been anticipating this release, but kinda hard to do when there's no version for my OS

[AndrewW]

Just a quick question if Linux will still continue to be supported in 0.4.4. I ask because I see no Linux RC builds, only Windows and Mac. Would absolutely love to help you guys work out the final bugs in 0.4.4 since I've really been anticipating this release, but kinda hard to do when there's no version for my OS

The solution there is to compile it yourself.

Or perhaps check your package manager, though might not be an up to date version.

[ASGeek2012]

Just a quick question if Linux will still continue to be supported in 0.4.4. I ask because I see no Linux RC builds, only Windows and Mac. Would absolutely love to help you guys work out the final bugs in 0.4.4 since I've really been anticipating this release, but kinda hard to do when there's no version for my OS

The solution there is to compile it yourself.

Or perhaps check your package manager, though might not be an up to date version.

Oh, I know I could try to compile it myself, it would just mean spending a lot of time getting the prerequisites installed on my system. I was hoping for the same ease of use Windows/Mac testers are enjoying.

If there are to be no RC Linux builds, will the final release build have a Linux package?

[Dilvish]

If there are to be no RC Linux builds, will the final release build have a Linux package?

Sadly, the FO dev who took care of the Linux builds we host has apparently passed away recently. I don't think anyone has yet discussed stepping into his place.

I think it is likely that Apo will at some point get at least the final 0.4.4 release fed downstream into debian, but I don't recall seeing him post recently.

What linux build are you on? With a moderately powered system building FO on linux is generally fairly easy (see here and here) -- for Ubuntu, for example, I expect that building FO would likely take you a fraction of the time it would take to play a game. (Though I can't guarantee it, sometimes strange problems pop up)

[adrian_broher]

my OS ;)

So what is 'your OS'? You only stated your kernel so far, but distributions a alot more than the kernel, the libraries and applications installed make it the full OS. FreeOrion relies on those distribution specific libraries so we would need to build on every distribution and every version of those distributions we want to support. And then there are the distribution specific nickpits on how a well behaved application should be installed, where its different parts should be installed and so on. Distributors know their specific needs better than anyone of us. Also providing binary packages means supporting those.

And because of that almost every open source software releases tarballs instead of binaries. It's just some abnormal effort on the developer side to support binary packages if the target platform makes it easy enough to install dependencies. Which is not the case with windows or mac.

I was hoping for the same ease of use Windows/Mac testers are enjoying.

Easier than `cmake . && make && sudo make install`?

[ASGeek2012]

my OS

So what is 'your OS'? You only stated your kernel so far, but distributions a alot more than the kernel, the libraries and applications installed make it the full OS. FreeOrion relies on those distribution specific libraries so we would need to build on every distribution and every version of those distributions we want to support. And then there are the distribution specific nickpits on how a well behaved application should be installed, where its different parts should be installed and so on. Distributors know their specific needs better than anyone of us. Also providing binary packages means supporting those.

And because of that almost every open source software releases tarballs instead of binaries. It's just some abnormal effort on the developer side to support binary packages if the target platform makes it easy enough to install dependencies. Which is not the case with windows or mac.

I use Linux Mint, which is a variation on Ubuntu. ".deb" files work great. That's how I installed 0.4.3. I just pointed the package manager to it and it installed with no fuss.

I was hoping for the same ease of use Windows/Mac testers are enjoying.

Easier than `cmake . && make && sudo make install`?

Oh, FAR easier. Installing from the .deb file means I don't have to install the ton of software needed to compile it. I'm certainly no stranger to compiling large projects. I work as a software build engineer, but I was hoping I didn't have to be a build engineer in my spare time as well

No big deal. I'll just have to wait until I have a chunk of time available to get everything installed.

Thanks for your time.

[Dilvish]

It looks like Apo (Markus) has been keeping up with our 0.4.4 schedule. For RC2 you'd have to go to the "unstable' branch (sid). The debian (sid) freeorion page can be found here. It sounds like you (ASGeek2012) would know better than I how much, if at all, this might facilitate your installation on Mint.

[ASGeek2012]

It looks like Apo (Markus) has been keeping up with our 0.4.4 schedule. For RC2 you'd have to go to the "unstable' branch (sid). The debian (sid) freeorion page can be found here. It sounds like you (ASGeek2012) would know better than I how much, if at all, this might facilitate your installation on Mint.

Thanks! A little late in the evening for me today, but I'll give this a shot tomorrow.

[Chriss]

For Arch Linux, there are the Aur Scripts that I've made. They are source Packages which compile FreeOrion. That takes time, yes, but they include all needed dependencies (which are normal packages). I'd say for Arch Linux, that is sufficient.

For Ubuntu, a PPA would probably be the way to go. I think Debian has sommething similar, as does Suse. Fedora can include other repositories as well... Do we want to try to setup some of those? As opposed to having a Download Section which provides .rpm or .deb or whatever files directly?

[adrian_broher]

Do we want to try to setup some of those? As opposed to having a Download Section which provides .rpm or .deb or whatever files directly?

I'm not interested. If you want to have the application in your distribution promote that the application is included into the distribution repository. Which already happened for debian. If you want a more recent release available check how your distribution handles application version updates. There is no Linux support aside the source itself and there won't be unless someone steps up and handles ALL related tasks from build to support.

[ASGeek2012]

Well, I guess I'll just have to wait until I can compile it. I got stymied by dependency hell. Package freeorion-data has a dependency on fonts-dejavu-core, which conflicts with an already installed package. Output of "apt-get check" after the install of fonts-dejavu-core failed:

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Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 fonts-dejavu-core : Breaks: ttf-dejavu-core (< 2.33+svn2514-2~) but 2.33-3ubuntu2 is installed
                     Breaks: ttf-dejavu-core:i386 (< 2.33+svn2514-2~)
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

Thanks for trying, though. Looks like Ubuntu and Ubuntu-variant users are going to be SOL installing 0.4.4 from the debian installer.

[Apo]

Hello,

@ASGeek2012

You are seeing this error message because you tried to install a Debian package for a version of Linux Mint which in turn uses Ubuntu packages. One dependency, fonts-dejavu-core, can't be satisfied since it is different from the one in Debian. That can work out sometimes but usually it is better to use only packages from Linux Mint or Ubuntu. There is no recent RC2 package for Ubuntu because syncing of new Debian packages is currently frozen while Ubuntu prepares for the next release in October and concentrates on bug fixing.

So what can you do?:

If you are really interested in the latest software, you could switch to a rolling release distribution like Debian testing or Debian unstable.
Another option is to compile the software yourself based on the official Debian packaging. Just retrieve the source with

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apt-get source freeorion

and update the so-called "get-orig-source" target in debian/rules. It might be even easier to fetch the latest Debian sources with

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dget -x http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/f/freeorion/freeorion_0.4.4~svn7431-1.dsc

You need to install the devscripts package first. I also recommend installing build-essential. An up-to-date link of the .dsc file can always be found on this site:

https://packages.debian.org/sid/freeorion

Then go to debian/rules and change the REV and UURL variable to your liking and run

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debian/rules get-orig-source

to retrieve the latest sources from FreeOrion nicely packaged into a source tarball.

The rest is building the package from source. Tools like debuild or git-buildpackage will help you.

Let's see if I can set up an Ubuntu-PPA in the next days. No guarantees here because I'm currently not using Ubuntu but this might help people who are not familiar with building packages from source yet.

[Apo]

I have now created an Ubuntu PPA for FreeOrion.

https://launchpad.net/~apoleon/+archive ... -freeorion

At the moment it targets the next release, Utopic Unicorn aka 14.10 and supports amd64 and i386. I intend to update this PPA from time to time when one of the following conditions are true:

1. Debian is frozen
2. or Ubuntu is frozen
3. or RC candidate or other testing is needed
4. or just because spare time is available

In all other cases the packages from Debian unstable are automatically synchronized with the development branch of Ubuntu and you can get your packages from there

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/freeorion

Debian users can always find the latest information here:

https://packages.debian.org/sid/freeorion

I also intend to prepare a PPA/backport for Ubuntu's LTS version Trusty Tahr, 14.04, as soon as FreeOrion 0.4.4 is released. Only stable releases will be backported though. I hope that helps a little.

[Dilvish]

I have now created an Ubuntu PPA for FreeOrion.... I hope that helps a little.

Very much, thanks greatly!

Geoff, might we be able to mention this (and the freeorion debian package page) on our internal download page? Where else might be suitable?

[Geoff the Medio]

I don't know what an Ubuntu PPA is, but sure, add it if you want...

A link at the top of the main page along with the other release builds, perhaps?