Oolite Bulletins

When I first installed Oolite for Linux, GNUstep was a requirement. I now have the impression that it is only necessary for development. if so I will purge it from my system as it is a pain, especially at upgrade time.

Could somebody please confirm that, as I don't do development, I don't need it? (Or otherwise).

I wold like to clear this up before installing v1.8

Thanks and regards

dc

GNUstep is the heart of Oolite and has to be present for the game to run. Almost all functionality in Oolite depends on GNUstep.

While we are at it, I would also like to take the opportunity to say that the correct version reference is 1.80, NOT 1.8. I see this mistake happening a lot when talking about the latest version. In the world of software versioning, 1.8 is a much much earlier version than 1.80.

davcefai wrote:

...it is a pain, especially at upgrade time...

Could you, please, elaborate on this?

Upgrading Oolite is as simple as executing oolite-update.
Furthermore, Oolite installer only installs the gnustep-base library,copying it in the Oolite installation folder tree, without interfering at all with Linux installation. This GNUstep library is only used by Oolite and it is deleted when Oolite is uninstalled.

What Getafix said.. Oolite installs just the part it needs, for you.. you don't need the rest of Gnustep installed.. just as well too, since it's such an ugly, clunky thing.

Thanks to all. Soon I'll be taking an axe to Gnustep

dc

I just pictured that

Running ubuntu 14.04 with a Gnome3 Desktop i have second thoughts on removing Oolite v 1.77.1. In the Directory /home/GNUstep/ there are only 2 files: /Defaults/oolite.plist and library/Caches Oolite-cache.plist. I'm not exactly familiar with GNUstep, but i wonder if savegames still work when removing or purging the package scince oolite.plist seems to contain various information about savegames as also equipment or Game options.

OldThrashbarg wrote:

i wonder if savegames still work when removing or purging the package

Should work imho, I copied just the savegames to other machines into fresh Oolite installs without problems.

Norby wrote:

OldThrashbarg wrote:

i wonder if savegames still work when removing or purging the package

Should work imho, I copied just the savegames to other machines into fresh Oolite installs without problems.

Agreed.. about the only thing to remember is that once loaded and re-saved under 1.82, the gamesaves will not load in 1.77.1 any more. If that's a consideration for you, consider making a backup of your saves before opening them in 1.82.

~/GNUstep/Defaults/oolite.plist appears to be the file where recent GNUstep versions stores oolite settings that used to go in ~/GNUstep/Defaults/.GNUstepDefaults file, like the joystick settings.

Thanks! That's good hints here. Scince i also encountered some troubles executing the .run file from the newest version from oolite.org i might soon open a new thread if i can't find a solution .

OldThrashbarg wrote:

Running ubuntu 14.04 with a Gnome3 Desktop i have second thoughts on removing Oolite v 1.77.1. In the Directory /home/GNUstep/ there are only 2 files: /Defaults/oolite.plist and library/Caches Oolite-cache.plist. I'm not exactly familiar with GNUstep, but i wonder if savegames still work when removing or purging the package scince oolite.plist seems to contain various information about savegames as also equipment or Game options.

Removal of the package - even with the purge option - shouldn't touch files in your home directory.

oolite.plist is where some of the game settings are stored. So long as you don't mind resetting a few things it's not a big deal if you lose it, but you may as well keep it around to save time after the upgrade.

Oolite-cache.plist contains processed OXP information for quicker startup time. It'll be discarded as too old anyway when you install a new Oolite version.

Save games don't depend on either file - you can copy them around as you like. Again, removing the package shouldn't affect them.