Oolite Bulletins

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:17 am**

Greetings all.
I just installed Oolite 1.75.3 on a Linux Mint 13 machine and following the installation I was presented with this message:

2012-11-19 18:50:34.174 oolite[9747] WARNING your program is becoming multi-threaded, but you are using an ObjectiveC runtime library which does not have a thread-safe implementation of the +initialize method. This means that any classes not already used may be incorrectly initialised, potentially causing strange behaviors and crashes.
To put this into context, the runtime bug has been knoown for several years and only rarely causes problems ... the easy workaround being to ensure that any classes used by a new thread have already been used in the main thread before the new thread starts.
If you are worried, please build/run GNUstep with a runtime which supports the +initialize method. The GNUstep stable runtime (libobjc) and experimental runtime (libobjc2), available from the GNUstep website and subversion repository, should both work.
To disable this warning (eg. for an application which does not suffer any problems caused by this runtime bug), please set the GSSilenceInitializeWarning user default to YES.
there is no soundcard

As I have never seen anything like this before, I am naturally a little concerned.
Is this something that I need to worry about or is it one of those caveat's that can be ignored?

By the way, I do have a sound card and it is working fine. So this warning is somewhat suspicious to me.

As always, thank you in advance for your help and advice.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:23 am**

O'neal wrote:
I just installed Oolite 1.75.3 on a Linux Mint 13 machine

While I have no explanation for the warning (never seen it before), I have a question for you: why do you install 1.75.3 in stead of 1.76.1?

There's not much chance (but I may be wrong) that anybody will install an obsolete version of Oolite just to go bughunting.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:27 am**

Gimbal Locke wrote:
O'neal wrote:
I just installed Oolite 1.75.3 on a Linux Mint 13 machine
While I have no explanation for the warning (never seen it before), I have a question for you: why do you install 1.75.3 in stead of 1.76.1?

Fair question.

I just installed it. It was the one that was in the repository and I just haven'nt upgraded yet.
That's the next step. I just wanted to get around this warning first.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:31 am**

The repository is horribly out of date.

You can better get rid of 1.75.3 and download & install the most recent version of Oolite, if only because of the bug fixes.

Many OXPs will only work with the latest version.

You will also get better support here for problems with the latest version than for troubles with an old version.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:57 am**

Gimbal Locke wrote:
The repository is horribly out of date, you can better get rid of 1.75.3 and download & install the most recent version of Oolite, if only because of the bug fixes but also for more features and many OXPs will only work with the latest version. You will also get better support here for problems with the latest version than for troubles with an old version.

Understood. And I agree.

I did attempt to download and install Oolite 1.76.1 from http://www.oolite.org earlier but although the download was fine I could not get it to install.
I have done this several times in the past an had no porblems, but now, after extracting the .tgz file and clicking on the resulting .run file, nothing happens. It's as if the file doesn't exist.

So, I figured that I would install the repositories version and then upgrade from there. That's the history that brought me to this point.
You might say, the method I used was a last resort.

Looking back, now I realise I should have just come here first. Then pehaps I could have saved some time and fusteration.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 2:02 am**

If you still have 1.75.3 installed, try to open a terminal and type: oolite-update

That may have to be sudo oolite-update if you installed 1.75.3 as root.

If that does not work, download 1.76.1, and type in a terminal (from the directory in which you have unpacked the archive): . ./oolite-1.76.1.linux-x86.run

(The above supposes that you have the 32-bit version, the command may be slightly different for the 64-bit version, but it is the name of whatever you got out of the archive. Make sure you use the 32-bit version of Oolite if you have the 32-bit version of Mint.)

If that still gives troubles, post the error messages from the terminal on the forum.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 2:36 am**

You, my friend, are a genius.

If you still have 1.75.3 installed, try to open a terminal and type: oolite-update

I tried this and got the message that the file/directory did not exist. Moving on.....

If that does not work, download 1.76.1, and type in a terminal (from the directory in which you have unpacked the archive): . ./oolite-1.76.1.linux-x86.run

This worked perfectly.

I opened the Package Manager and completely removed everything Oolite, then followed the instructions you provided above and I now have Oolite 1.76.1 installed and running flawlessly.

And I apologize that I didn't give a little more information in my OP. I know better. I know how important it is to have all of the information you can in order to be able to provide accurate help.

I did install Oolite as root and I realize now that I sould have said that in the first place. Also, that I am using the 32 bit version of Mint so - again, I apologize for not being a little more forthcoming with the environment that I installed Oolite to.

Thank you Gimbal Locke, for your help.

P.S. I will mark this topic solved

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:02 am**

Glad you got it working O'neal. I've been running Mint 13 since April, and I wholeheartedly agree with GimbalLocke on the fact the repo is horribly out of date - so much so that I've been tempted to get in touch with the maintainer to get it fixed

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 8:01 am**

CommRLock78 wrote:
Glad you got it working O'neal. I've been running Mint 13 since April, and I wholeheartedly agree with GimbalLocke on the fact the repo is horribly out of date - so much so that I've been tempted to get in touch with the maintainer to get it fixed

I understand.
You know, it's too bad too. A game as awesome as Oolite deserves a rightful place in the repos.. By that I mean, the most current stable version deserves to be there. Imagine, someone new to the game and/or, to Linux for that matter, goes to the repos. to get a game and their first exposure to the game is a broken one. Someone once said, "There's never a second chance for a first impression" and I just think Oolite deseves better.
This is a great game. It was great when it was Elite and it has just gotten better.

Is this "out of date" issue only a problem with Mint or does it also apply to other distro.'s?

Thanks for the response.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 8:11 am**

O'neal wrote:
I understand.
You know, it's too bad too. A game as awesome as Oolite deserves a rightful place in the repos.. By that I mean, the most current stable version deserves to be there. Imagine, someone new to the game and/or, to Linux for that matter, goes to the repos. to get a game and their first exposure to the game is a broken one. Someone once said, "There's never a second chance for a first impression" and I just think Oolite deseves better.
This is a great game. It was great when it was Elite and it has just gotten better.

Is this "out of date" issue only a problem with Mint or does it also apply to other distro.'s?

Thanks for the response.

You're welcome, bud. I have to agree, there's no second chance for a first impression. I can't say for sure about any distros outside the Debian family, but I'm pretty sure anything Debian based is going to have the same, out of date version. I actually referenced the Oolite homepage in the Mint Software Center feedback (I don't use Software Center, but it's good for app browsing and feedback

).
Unfortunately I never had the privilege of playing Elite

. I only found Oolite late last December, but in that short time I've recognized it as one of the best games ever

.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 9:06 am**

Most of the distros have always been out of date, to the best of my knowledge.. until a couple of years ago (around 1.73/4) the repositories were still on 1.65! By that standard, having 1.75.3 in the repo's is actually quite an improvement..

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2012 11:33 am**

I'm happy you got it working, O'neal. We need all commanders we can get to fight off the thargoids.

O'neal wrote:
And I apologize that I didn't give a little more information in my OP. I know better. I know how important it is to have all of the information you can in order to be able to provide accurate help.

I did install Oolite as root and I realize now that I sould have said that in the first place. Also, that I am using the 32 bit version of Mint so - again, I apologize for not being a little more forthcoming with the environment that I installed Oolite to.

The point is not that we need all information, but the relevant information. It takes some time & experience to know what is relevant and what is not, so no apologies needed. In hindsight it's always obvious what was relevant, while you're struggling with something that is a completely different matter. Once you know what the relevant information is, the problem is probably solved.

As CommRLock78 wrote, the repository problem is indeed common to Debian based distributions (I'm using Xubuntu myself). But once you get the knack of using the command line, it becomes pretty unimportant which distro you're actually using. (There are of course differences between distros, even on the command line, one for example needs to know that Debian uses apt-get and such. I used to teach Linux/Unix system administration, during the exam my students had to install & use a different distro than those they had used in class.)

Posted: **Fri Nov 23, 2012 1:24 am**

Gimbal Locke wrote:
We need all commanders we can get to fight off the thargoids.

How true.

I wish I knew how to modify my Cobra MKIII so that I can create a "hood ornament" of sorts.
The idea I had was to place a 'NOTICEABLE' object on the nose of the ship, something that looks like....oh--I don't know? Maybe a tiny little Thargoid Robot Fighter with a bullseye painted on it, and maybe in the form of a reticle?
Ya know, make it so that, as you look out of the cabin of your ship, you line up the crosshairs of your Thargoid-hood ornimant-reticle with the Thargoid ship and blast away. Sorry about that. I guess I got a little carried away in imagination land.

Seriously though,

Gimbal Locke wrote:
The point is not that we need all information, but the relevant information. It takes some time & experience to know what is relevant and what is not, so no apologies needed. In hindsight it's always obvious what was relevant, while you're struggling with something that is a completely different matter. Once you know what the relevant information is, the problem is probably solved.

Thanks mate, and I agree. Most often, it is what isn't said that is the best clue to discovering what the problem is.
When I worked for Symantec (a MS Winderz Anti-Virus company) I was usually able to figure out what the problem was after about 60 sec. of talking to the customer...and generally speaking, it what more a matter of what the customer didn't say that what he/she did say.

Gimbal Locke wrote:
As CommRLock78 wrote, the repository problem is indeed common to Debian based distributions (I'm using Xubuntu myself). But once you get the knack of using the command line, it becomes pretty unimportant which distro you're actually using. (There are of course differences between distros, even on the command line, one for example needs to know that Debian uses apt-get and such. I used to teach Linux/Unix system administration, during the exam my students had to install & use a different distro than those they had used in class.)

Yea, I have found several examples where the repos. have outdated packages in them, some are really outdated. Makes you wonder if they have been abandoned.

And I wholeheartedly agree with you regarding the command line. I actually prefer the CLI to the GUI when it comes to just about anything related to maintenance, updating, upgrading, fine tuning, manipulating, and tweaking the OS.

The only CLI framework that I am even, somewhat familiar with is the Dabian and RH. Red Hat to a lesser degree.

Thank you again for your help my friend.
And that thank you, (by the way) goes out to everyone else that responded to this post.

Oh, and by the way....
Wherever you are in the world, I hope you had a - Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! I hope you ate more than you intended and then afterword, fell back into yur lazy chair and settled into a well deserved nap.

I know I did. hehehe

Posted: **Fri Nov 23, 2012 7:41 pm**

O'neal wrote:
<SNIP>When I worked for Symantec (a MS Winderz Anti-Virus company) I was usually able to figure out what the problem was after about 60 sec. of talking to the customer...and generally speaking, it what more a matter of what the customer didn't say that what he/she did say.

Winderz

O'neal wrote:
Yea, I have found several examples where the repos. have outdated packages in them, some are really outdated. Makes you wonder if they have been abandoned.

Sometimes that is the case indeed. A little research into the package will typically tell you if it has been abandoned.

O'neal wrote:
And I wholeheartedly agree with you regarding the command line. I actually prefer the CLI to the GUI when it comes to just about anything related to maintenance, updating, upgrading, fine tuning, manipulating, and tweaking the OS.

I couldn't agree more... I love seeing Mint's updater icon with an exclamation mark then firing up the terminal for a little:

Code: Select all

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get clean --purge

(I like cleaning up the packages after updating

).

O'neal wrote:
Oh, and by the way....
Wherever you are in the world, I hope you had a - Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! I hope you ate more than you intended and then afterword, fell back into yur lazy chair and settled into a well deserved nap. I know I did. hehehe

Oh yeah, no nap unfortunately, but a damn good meal. We convened at my sister and brother-in-law's house, so it wasn't like I could go lie down afterwards. Hope you had a good one, too bro

.

Posted: **Fri Nov 23, 2012 7:53 pm**

O'neal wrote:
Wherever you are in the world, I hope you had a - Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! I hope you ate more than you intended and then afterword, fell back into yur lazy chair and settled into a well deserved nap. I know I did. hehehe

I celebrated thanksgiving for the very first time this week. I'm teaching at an international American-style university college in Brussels, and the students organised a thanksgiving meal. Everybody had to bring something from their country of origin, so I took care of Belgian beer. But no nap afterwards, since I had to teach my Philosophy of Science class (which I enjoy very much).

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