Upgrade the Simutrans executable file in Ubuntu

[Venkat]

Hello,

Could some one guide me on how to upgrade the Ubuntu installed Simutrans (102 nightly version May 2009) to the latest version (102.2.2)

Regards,
Venkat

[vilvoh]

Do you want to upgrade manually or using a package manager like synaptic? I don't know if the latest version is available at Ubuntu repositories...

[Venkat]

I want to update manually.

Regards,
venkat

[vilvoh]

If you were using a nightly, I would recommend a clean install, as the nightlies are development versions, there may be some incompatibilities with the savegames.

Anyway, to upgrade manually, just download the latest stable from Sourceforge and unzip the files at the current simutrans directory. That will overwrite the previous version installed and it should work. Where is the simutrans directory placed at your pc right now? does it contain the binary and the pakset folders at the same place?

[Venkat]

Hi,

In my case, I installed Simutrans using Ubuntu's "apt-get" package. Therefore, I am not very clear where and how the game was installed. Now, downloaded and extracted the latest version of Simutrans - Simulinux-102-2-2.zip. From this folder, I try running simutrans and nothing happens.

So, I searched the file system for any occurrence of 'simutrans' and noticed that the game is installed in the /usr/games folder and the pack in /usr/share/games folder. I copied the latest copy of the simutrans executable over the file in the /usr/games folder and changed the permissions and owner appropriately. This also did not work.

So what should I do?

Regards,
Venkat.

[vilvoh]

Did you get any error message when you tried to run the game?

[Venkat]

No, it just did not start.

Venkat

[vilvoh]

Did you overwrite only the binary? you would probably need to overwrite the rest of folders (config, text, etc...)

[Venkat]

I only over wrote the binary as that was the only file in that directory.

Vilvoh, in you opinion, what would be the best way to do so?

Regards,
Venkat

[vilvoh]

To upgrade or to overwrite the current installed version?

[Venkat]

To upgrade as a whole. So what should I do

1. Replace existing binary file
2. Replace the config, music, font, pak, and text folders
3. Change the permissions and owners appropriately

Would this work? Any way I am going to try the same now. Any suggestions welcome.

Regards,
Venkat

[Venkat]

Tried the same. Does not work. Noticed in the simulinux-102-2-2.zip file that the SDL and SLD_Mixer files are not included. Could some one tell me where I can find them.

I tried starting the game with 'simutrans -nomidi' as suggested by the download page and get this output.

~/Desktop/simutrans$ simutrans -nomidi
simutrans: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL_mixer-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This is when I extract the zip file and try starting the game from the extracted location.

Regards,
Venkat.

[Lmallet]

Tried the same. Does not work. Noticed in the simulinux-102-2-2.zip file that the SDL and SLD_Mixer files are not included. Could some one tell me where I can find them.

Those you should be able to get via Synaptics or apt-get.

[ansgar]

Copying the files from the *.zip files to the locations used by the Debian/Ubuntu package will not work (the executable will look for game data in the wrong directory).

If you have version 102.0, I assume you use Ubuntu Karmic? In that case there are packages for 102.2.2 available in the karmic-backports repository.  See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu#Ubuntu Updates how to enable this repository.  You need to update simutrans, simutrans-pak64 and simutrans-data (which should be included automatically as a dependency).
Later Ubuntu releases (Lucid and Maverick) both include 102.2.2.

In case you want to use the binaries as released in the *.zip files, I think installing them in some other directory (such as a subdirectory of your home directory) might be easier.

Regards,
Ansgar

[Venkat]

Hello everyone,

Thank you all for the prompt reply and help.

As suggested by ansgar, I have included the 'backports' repositories and then then updated the simutrans files. I am now on version 102.2.2.

Regards,
Venkat

[caycothu]

In general i run timeline games with pak128 on 1024x128 maps so I only update once in a while, but I have some input.
I always download the ziped file and put it in ~\ (that is your user dir). Then I download the paks and extract them in the same place.
I add a panel shortcut to the executable.
Then if I have trouble I open a terminal and launch from there. That way you'll be able to read any messages explaining what went wrong. Example:

cd ~\simutrans
simutrans -nomidi

<edit>
For example you might get a message about missing libsdl-mixer1.2.so.
One way to solve that one is to go to synaptek in the administration menu. Search for libsdl-mixer. If you find it mark it for installation and accept any other packages necessary. Then when done try to run simutrans again.
</edit>
cheers
caycothu