The truth about Oolite's Linux builds...

[hiran]

will soon be uncovered.

We experienced compilation problems on Ubuntu 23 (Cas Tell's thread): viewtopic.php?t=21533
Our CI/CD chain on Github runs on the LTS version which consists of Ubuntu 22 LTS.

Just yesterday Ubuntu 24 LTS was released, and soon Github will integrate it into their infrastructure. At which point Oolite will be compiled on 24 LTS.
We will have to see if the problem discovered on Ubuntu 23 persists or everything just runs hunkidory.

Here is the page stating what is supported by Github: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/usin ... -resources

[hiran]

Here is another clue for the puzzle:
About half a year after it's release, I upgraded to Ubuntu 24 LTS. What can I say, the problem we had seen in Ubuntu 23 persists.

Code: Select all

$ ./oolite
./oolite.app/oolite: error while loading shared libraries: libgnustep-base.so.1.28: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Erk. It looks like Oolite died with an error. When making an error
report, please copy + paste the log above into the report.

$

The Oolite version that is installed is 1.91.0.7646-241128-10e222e. The OoliteStarter version does not matter, as it shows the same error as reproduced on the console.

[MrFlibble]

Here is another clue for the puzzle:
About half a year after it's release, I upgraded to Ubuntu 24 LTS. What can I say, the problem we had seen in Ubuntu 23 persists.

Code: Select all

$ ./oolite
./oolite.app/oolite: error while loading shared libraries: libgnustep-base.so.1.28: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Erk. It looks like Oolite died with an error. When making an error
report, please copy + paste the log above into the report.

$

The Oolite version that is installed is 1.91.0.7646-241128-10e222e. The OoliteStarter version does not matter, as it shows the same error as reproduced on the console.

I stumbled on this a while back. It seems the bundled libraries are way out of whack, and rely on the system libraries to be 'on point'. So basically, the bundled libraries are way out of date and of no use. I did manage to get it going on Mint 22 (which is basically the same problem), by dragging the lib binaries into the Oolite directories from a previous system's lib directories.

This needs fixing, and I'll gladly do all I can to help. I've not had much time of late, but this is an annoyance I'll drop stuff to help sort.

[Cholmondely]

I read through Cas Tell’s thread.

Does it all mean that one needs different versions of Oolite for different versions of Ubuntu?

[MrFlibble]

I read through Cas Tell’s thread.

Does it all mean that one needs different versions of Oolite for different versions of Ubuntu?

I don't know what thread you're referring to.

Very broadly speaking, one should not need a specific Oolite version for a particular linux distribution or version. The way it's built, as a "one size fits all", is fine for most distributions of around the same age as the build system.

The way most programs are distributed in the Linux world at the moment, and since the dawn of package managers, is effectively to have build instructions per distribution type, and build it on each distribution as a package for installation. This allows a more streamlined installer, which is more resource friendly. If we were to use github to automate this, it would be limited to a narrow range of distributions unless we were to start using either physical or virtual installations of other distributions and versions to act as build slaves. This is not impossible, just a lot of work to maintain, and requires resources outside github.

The way Oolite is being built as a vaguely universal installer, lends itself to the constraints of github, and works well as long a we bundle all the correct library versions. We currently do not. The bundle of libraries hasn't been preened for a while, and it just happened that for the last few years, the libraries on most common distributions would fill the gaps. Now things are moving on, so Oolite is not working without a fight on new distros.

Those who use a less common distribution have the option to build from source.