<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html > <head><title>A Missed approach: If anything refuses to work</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="generator" content="TeX4ht (http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~gurari/TeX4ht/mn.html)"> <!-- html,2,info,next,sections+ --> <meta name="src" content="getstart.tex"> <meta name="date" content="2002-12-15 21:48:00"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="getstart.css"> </head><body > <div class="crosslinks"><p class="noindent">[<a href="getstartap2.html" >next</a>] [<a href="getstartpa3.html" >prev</a>] [<a href="getstartpa3.html#tailgetstartpa3.html" >prev-tail</a>] [<a href="#tailgetstartap1.html">tail</a>] [<a href="getstartpa3.html#getstartap1.html" >up</a>] </p></div> <h2 class="appendixHead"><span class="titlemark">Appendix A</span><br><a href="getstart.html#QQ2-12-66" name="x12-66000A">Missed approach: If anything refuses to work</a></h2> <!--l. 33--><p class="noindent">In the following section, we tried to sort some problems<a name="dx12-66001"></a> according to operating system, but if you encounter a problem, it may be a wise idea to look beyond ”your” operating system - just in case. If you are experiencing problems, we would strongly advise you to first check the FAQ<a name="dx12-66002"></a> maintained by Cameron Moore<a name="dx12-66003"></a> at <!--l. 37--><p class="indent"> <a href="http://www.flightgear.org/Docs/FlightGear-FAQ.html" >http://www.flightgear.org/Docs/FlightGear-FAQ.html</a>. <!--l. 41--><p class="indent"> Moreover, the source code contains a directory <span class="pcrr7t---109">docs-mini </span>containing numerous ideas on and solutions to special problems. This is also a good place to go for further reading. <h3 class="sectionHead"><span class="titlemark">A.1</span> <a href="getstart.html#QQ2-12-67" name="x12-67000A.1">FlightGear Problem Reports</a></h3> <a name="dx12-67001"></a> <!--l. 48--><p class="noindent">The best place to look for help is generally the mailing lists<a name="dx12-67002"></a>, specifically the <span class="ptmb7t---109">[Flightgear-User] </span>mailing list. If you happen to be running a CVS version of <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear</span>, you may want to subscribe to the <span class="ptmb7t---109">[Flightgear-Devel] </span>list. Instructions for subscription can be found at <!--l. 52--><p class="indent"> <a href="http://www.flightgear.org/mail.html" >http://www.flightgear.org/mail.html</a>. <!--l. 55--><p class="noindent">It’s often the case that someone has already dealt with the issue you’re dealing with, so it may be worth your time to search the mailing list archives at <!--l. 59--><p class="indent"> http://www.mail-archive.com/flightgear-users%40flightgear.org/ <!--l. 61--><p class="indent"> http://www.mail-archive.com/flightgear-devel%40flightgear.org/. <!--l. 64--><p class="noindent">There are numerous developers and users reading the lists, so questions are generally answered. However, messages of the type <!--l. 67--><p class="indent"> <span class="ptmri7t---109">FlightGear does not compile on my system. What shall I do?</span> <!--l. 69--><p class="noindent">are hard to answer without any further detail given, aren’t they? Here are some things to consider including in your message when you report a problem: <ul class="itemize1"> <li class="itemize"><span class="ptmb7t---109">Operating system: </span>(Linux Redhat 7.0. . . /Windows 98SE. . . ) </li> <li class="itemize"><span class="ptmb7t---109">Computer: </span>(Pentium III, 1GHz. . . ) </li> <li class="itemize"><span class="ptmb7t---109">Graphics board/chip: </span>(Diamond Viper 770/NVIDIA RIVA TNT2. . . ) </li> <li class="itemize"><span class="ptmb7t---109">Compiler/version: </span>(Cygnus version 1.0. . . ) </li> <li class="itemize"><span class="ptmb7t---109">Versions of relevant libraries: </span>(PLIB 1.2.0, Mesa 3.0. . . ) </li> <li class="itemize"><span class="ptmb7t---109">Type of problem: </span>(Linker dies with message. . . ) </li> <li class="itemize"><span class="ptmb7t---109">Steps to recreate the problem: </span>Start at KSFO, turn off brakes . . . </li></ul> <!--l. 90--><p class="indent"> For getting a trace of the output which <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>produces, then following command may come in handy (may need to be modified on some OSs or may not work on others at all, though): <!--l. 93--><p class="indent"> <span class="pcrr7t---109">%FG</span><span class="underline"><span class="cmmi-10--109"> </span><span class="cmmi-10--109"> </span></span><span class="pcrr7t---109">ROOT/BIN/fgfs >log.txt 2>&1</span> <!--l. 96--><p class="indent"> <span class="ptmb7t---109">One final remark: </span>Please avoid posting binaries to these lists! List subscribers are widely distributed, and some users have low bandwidth and/or metered connections. Large messages may be rejected by the mailing list administrator. Thanks. <h3 class="sectionHead"><span class="titlemark">A.2</span> <a href="getstart.html#QQ2-12-68" name="x12-68000A.2">General problems</a></h3> <a name="dx12-68001"></a> <ul class="itemize1"> <li class="itemize"><span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>runs SOOO slow. <br class="newline">If <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>says it’s running with something like 1 fps (frame per second) or below you typically don’t have working hardware OpenGL<a name="dx12-68002"></a> support. There may be several reasons for this. First, there may be no OpenGL hardware drivers available for older cards. In this case it is highly recommended to get a new board. <!--l. 110--><p class="noindent">Second, check if your drivers are properly installed. Several cards need additional OpenGL support drivers besides the ”native” windows ones. For more detail check Appendix <a href="getstartap2.html#x13-71000B">B<!--tex4ht:ref: opengl--></a>. </li> <li class="itemize">Either <span class="pcrr7t---109">configure </span>or <span class="pcrr7t---109">make </span>dies with not found <span class="ptmbi7t---109">PLIB </span>headers or libraries. <br class="newline">Make sure you have the latest version of <span class="ptmbi7t---109">PLIB </span>(<span class="cmmi-10--109">> </span>version 1.2) compiled and installed. Its headers like <span class="pcrr7t---109">pu.h </span>have to be under <span class="pcrr7t---109">/usr/include/plib</span> and its libraries, like <span class="pcrr7t---109">libplibpu.a </span>should be under <span class="pcrr7t---109">/lib</span>. Double check there are no stray <span class="ptmbi7t---109">PLIB </span>headers/libraries sitting elsewhere! <!--l. 120--><p class="noindent">Besides check careful the error messages of <span class="pcrr7t---109">configure</span>. In several cases it says what is missing.</li></ul> <h3 class="sectionHead"><span class="titlemark">A.3</span> <a href="getstart.html#QQ2-12-69" name="x12-69000A.3">Potential problems under Linux</a></h3> <a name="dx12-69001"></a> <!--l. 127--><p class="noindent">Since we don’t have access to all possible flavors of Linux distributions, here are some thoughts on possible causes of problems. (This Section includes contributions by Kai Troester.)<a name="dx12-69002"></a> <ul class="itemize1"> <li class="itemize">Wrong library versions <br class="newline">This is a rather common cause of grief especially when you prefer to install the libraries needed by <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>by hand. Be sure that especially the Mesa library contains support for the 3DFX<a name="dx12-69003"></a> board and that GLIDE<a name="dx12-69004"></a> libraries are installed and can be found. If a <span class="pcrr7t---109">ldd `which fgfs` </span>complains about missing libraries you are in trouble. <!--l. 141--><p class="noindent">You should also be sure to <span class="ptmri7t---109">always keep the </span>latest version of <span class="ptmbi7t---109">PLIB </span>on your system. Lots of people have failed miserably to compile <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>just because of an outdated plib. </li> <li class="itemize">Missing permissions<a name="dx12-69005"></a> <br class="newline">In case you are using XFree86<a name="dx12-69006"></a> before release 4.0 the <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>binary may need to be setuid root in order to be capable of accessing some accelerator boards (or a special kernel module as described earlier in this document) based on 3DFX chips. So you can either issue a <!--l. 151--><p class="noindent"><span class="pcrr7t---109">chown root.root /usr/local/bin/fgfs ;</span> <br class="newline"><span class="pcrr7t---109">chmod 4755 /usr/local/bin/fgfs</span> <!--l. 154--><p class="noindent">to give the <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>binary the proper rights or install the 3DFX module. The latter is the ”clean” solution and strongly recommended! </li> <li class="itemize">Non-default install options <br class="newline"><span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>will display a lot of diagnostics while starting up. If it complains about bad looking or missing files, check that you installed them in the way they are supposed to be installed (i.e. with the latest version and in the proper location). The canonical location <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>wants its data files under <span class="pcrr7t---109">/usr/local/lib</span>. Be sure to grab the latest versions of everything that might be needed! </li> <li class="itemize">Compile problems in general <br class="newline">Make sure you have the latest (official) version of gcc. Old versions of gcc are a frequent source of trouble! On the other hand, some versions of the RedHat 7.0 reportedly have certain problems compiling <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>as they include a preliminary version of GCC. </li> <li class="itemize">Problems with linking <br class="newline">There may be several reasons; however in case you get a message like <!--l. 176--><p class="noindent"><span class="pcrr7t---109">libmk4.so.0</span>: cannot open shared object file <!--l. 178--><p class="noindent">the reason is a missing library package called Metakit. This is provided with <span class="ptmbi7t---109">SimGear </span>in packed form. On its installation, see Sec. <a href="getstartch2.html#x6-150002.3.2">2.3.2<!--tex4ht:ref: metakeitinstall--></a>.</li></ul> <h3 class="sectionHead"><span class="titlemark">A.4</span> <a href="getstart.html#QQ2-12-70" name="x12-70000A.4">Potential problems under Windows</a></h3> <a name="dx12-70001"></a> <ul class="itemize1"> <li class="itemize">The executable refuses to run. <br class="newline">You may have tried to start the executable directly either by double-clicking <span class="pcrr7t---109">fgfs.exe </span>in Windows Explorer or by invoking it within a MS-DOS shell. Double-clicking via Explorer does never work (unless you set the environment variable <span class="pcrr7t---109">FG</span>_<span class="pcrr7t---109">ROOT </span>in <span class="pcrr7t---109">autoexec.bat </span>or otherwise). Rather double-click <span class="pcrr7t---109">runfgfs.bat</span>. For more details, check Chapter <a href="getstartch4.html#x9-290004">4<!--tex4ht:ref: takeoff--></a>. <!--l. 193--><p class="noindent">Another cause of grief might be that you did not download the most recent versions of the base package files required by <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear</span>, or you did not download any of them at all. Have a close look at this, as the scenery/texture format is still under development and may change frequently. For more details, check Chapter <a href="getstartch3.html#x7-210003">3<!--tex4ht:ref: prefligh--></a>. <!--l. 199--><p class="noindent">Next, if you run into trouble at runtime, do not use windows utilities for unpacking the <span class="pcrr7t---109">.tar.gz</span>. If you did, try it in the Cygnus shell with <span class="pcrr7t---109">tar</span> <span class="pcrr7t---109">xvfz </span>instead. </li> <li class="itemize"><span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>ignores the command line parameters. <br class="newline">There is a problem with passing command line options containing a ”=” to windows batch files. Instead, include the options into <span class="pcrr7t---109">runfgfs.bat</span>. </li> <li class="itemize">I am unable to build <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>under MSVC<a name="dx12-70002"></a>/MS DevStudio<a name="dx12-70003"></a>. <br class="newline">By default, <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>is build with GNU GCC. The Win32 port of GNU GCC is known as Cygwin<a name="dx12-70004"></a>. For hints on Makefiles required for MSVC for MSC DevStudio have a look into <!--l. 214--><p class="noindent"><a href="ftp://www.flightgear.org/pub/flightgear/Source/" >ftp://www.flightgear.org/pub/flightgear/Source/</a>. <!--l. 217--><p class="noindent">In principle, it should be possible to compile <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>with the project files provided with the source code. </li> <li class="itemize">Compilation of <span class="ptmbi7t---109">FlightGear </span>dies. <br class="newline">There may be several reasons for this, including true bugs. However, before trying to do anything else or report a problem, make sure you have the latest version of the <span class="ptmbi7t---109">Cygwin </span>compiler, as described in Section <a href="getstartch2.html#x6-100002">2<!--tex4ht:ref: building--></a>. In case of doubt, start <span class="pcrr7t---109">setup.exe </span>anew and download and install the most recent versions of bundles as they possibly may have changed.</li></ul> <div class="crosslinks"><p class="noindent">[<a href="getstartap2.html" >next</a>] [<a href="getstartpa3.html" >prev</a>] [<a href="getstartpa3.html#tailgetstartpa3.html" >prev-tail</a>] [<a href="getstartap1.html" >front</a>] [<a href="getstartpa3.html#getstartap1.html" >up</a>] </p></div><a name="tailgetstartap1.html"></a> </body></html>