New Mac & BEST Plan to get Lich working

[Luxelle]

Hello folks!

I'm about to switch to a Mac next month, and would like to get Lich working as smoothly as possible from the start.

First, I scanned for threads here and was very confused. I really hoped there was something definitive to get it working. It will be a brand new machine, with El Capitan.

I suppose my first question really is, is it going to work better using Avalon or running Parallels and Stormfront? (Or something...)

Thanks to everyone who can help me make this transition as painless as possible.

~L.

[Gelston]

The best way is to trade it in for a PC. :D

I have no useful information to contribute.

[Erous]

You could bootcamp your MAC and run windows as a secondary OS. I'm sure others have made it work, but the way Lich is configured with older software I don't think it's done without some maniacal effort.

Edit: I was right, looking at https://lichproject.org/download.html, the MAC+AVALON+LICH setup looks horrifying but is probably your only hope.

[Haldrik]

Good news Luxelle. My PC crapped out on me today, so I'm literally installing ruby/lich as I type this.

I'll be going with Profanity instead of Avalon, but I'll let you know if there is any lich/ruby issues.

[maags]

Install Virtual Box (it's free, you don't need to pay for Parallels), Windows, Lich, Stormfront.

I've had Avalon/Lich work on older OS but I gave up getting it to work on Yosemite, so, unsure if it plays nicely with El Capitan. Doubt it! I'm guessing it will work if you really want to go that way but it's definitely not painless. Regardless, if you've been using SF on your PC, you'll be happier to just keep using SF in VB and save yourself a lot of head banging in the process.

[Haldrik]

Install Virtual Box (it's free, you don't need to pay for Parallels), Windows, Lich, Stormfront.

I've had Avalon/Lich work on older OS but I gave up getting it to work on Yosemite, so, unsure if it plays nicely with El Capitan. Doubt it! I'm guessing it will work if you really want to go that way but it's definitely not painless. Regardless, if you've been using SF on your PC, you'll be happier to just keep using SF in VB and save yourself a lot of head banging in the process.

Let's focus on getting it working w/o using a virtual box!

[Luxelle]

Thanks!

It's just too busy for me to change computers for a few weeks, so I'm quite happy staying tuned to this thread.

[maags]

Let's focus on getting it working w/o using a virtual box!

Okay, sure, but that's not what she asked for:



Thanks to everyone who can help me make this transition as painless as possible.



And from the look of your "notes" thread, it sounds pretty painful. :compbash:

[Haldrik]

Okay, sure, but that's not what she asked for:



And from the look of your "notes" thread, it sounds pretty painful. :compbash:

LOL. I was actually thinking the same thing. But to be fair... I was also trying to use profanity. But pretty sure that should be easier to get working then Avalon.

[ThisOtherGuy]

Hello folks!

I'm about to switch to a Mac next month, and would like to get Lich working as smoothly as possible from the start.

First, I scanned for threads here and was very confused. I really hoped there was something definitive to get it working. It will be a brand new machine, with El Capitan.

I suppose my first question really is, is it going to work better using Avalon or running Parallels and Stormfront? (Or something...)

Thanks to everyone who can help me make this transition as painless as possible.

~L.

Try this:

http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Software%20&%20Hardware%20Help/Unsupported%20Third-party%20Software/thread/1772008?get_newest=true

[Erous]

Bootcamp is just the easiest solution

[Haldrik]

Try this:

http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Software%20&%20Hardware%20Help/Unsupported%20Third-party%20Software/thread/1772008?get_newest=true

This is actually a really really great thread. I'd say 100% ignore lich instructions on the web and follow this thread. I sort of ended up doing an ass backward round about way and ended up with some similar steps. His instructions are really good and bypass a lot of my initial errors/frustrations.

[jandabrock]

Can only give you my experience. I'm running a brand new MacBook, max everything, so take that into consideration. I'm running VMWare with Windows 7 and I run everything inside of it. Currently it runs fine. This will also work with VirtualBox as well, but from my experience, it's handled like a charm. Also take note that because it's Linux based, the multiple desktop thing with a Max-Screen VM works very well (three finger swipe left/right). It's my work PC, thanks to my kids being home from school and my wife's WoW addiction, I'm forced onto my work PC or I need to buy a new one for myself.

And what I mean by desktop swiping... also shows GS4 and DR running inside the VM as well as my other OS X Desktops going. Anyone that says you should go PC has never developed on a Mac before, lol. This is an incredible environment, especially for someone like me that lives in several desktops worth of code, documents, and emails, on top of running a string of 5 VM's to test my code, on top of supporting 6 other VM's used by other employees.


https://youtu.be/pBek4XikMfA

[Luxelle]

All right, the instructions people keep sending me to is an empty SimuForum page.

:(

I tried following the instructions a the lich download, but ... I think I'm already screwed. My Lich version was 2.0, not 2.1, but he only gives instructions if you have 1.8.

So I followed the directions anyway ... and managed to install 2.3 and it ended up in a completely failure when it tried to copy the .profile thing.

So I think I'm going to go to sleep. I'm really tired. And if anything else goes wrong, there could be tears just now.

:(

[Allereli]

I believe you need the exact Ruby version specified and he provides a link to it.

[Risen]

All right, the instructions people keep sending me to is an empty SimuForum page.

Probably because you're logged into the officials forum, using legacy view and have your forum settings set to view Only Unread.

If you have two or more browsers installed on your system (Safari and Firefox?), use the one you don't normally use for reading the Simu forums (don't log in!) and copy / paste this link in. Alternatively, you can set your forum settings to threaded instead of legacy, and that should land you there, as well.

Since you've already started installing, you might want the first link below. For reference, the second link was posted earlier in the thread.

Tried install / failed: http://forums.play.net/forums/19/211/2251/thread/1772007
Haven't tried install yet: http://forums.play.net/forums/19/211/2251/thread/1772008

[Luxelle]

Risen: Thanks, I'll go log off and junk. I *detest* the Play.Net forums :(

Allereli: I totally followed his exact keystrokes. It installs the newest Ruby, not the one cited. That was my first groan. :(

All right, off to try to get this ruby thing fixed ... and stuff.

[Jhynnifer]

Risen: Thanks, I'll go log off and junk. I *detest* the Play.Net forums :(

Allereli: I totally followed his exact keystrokes. It installs the newest Ruby, not the one cited. That was my first groan. :(

All right, off to try to get this ruby thing fixed ... and stuff.

I have nothing to offer here but some hugs, that looks absolutely horrible and it's one of the reasons I'm still clinging with both hands to my PC for freelance and home, despite my growing enjoyment of working on one at work. (If Metadi sees this, which he won't, I'll NEVER hear the end of it.)

[azim17]

riend gives mouth hugs

[Allereli]

$300 for sanity

[Neovik1]

I've been debating on getting the new MacBook Pro when it comes out. I've been a windows user for a long time now, not sure if I would like the switch or not. As an application developer I feel like it may be the best move for me since it'll open up the possibilities of me being able to develop mobile applications on IOS.

I have a pretty stupid question for you apple laptop users out there. I have a laptop that has the keypad which I have mapped for my directions, n,e,s,w,u,d in GS. None of the Apple laptops have a keypad, what do you use for your directional shortcuts?

[Risen]

None of the Apple laptops have a keypad, what do you use for your directional shortcuts?

Hardware solution link (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bluetooth+10+key+for+macbook+pro)(best option in my opinion). If you do this, one of the cons is you're carrying one more piece of hardware. Still, recommend this approach.

Software solution - need to map your FE to use the CTRL (or Apple or Option, your choice) + standard keys mapped to directions. If you do this, one of the cons is that no matter which keys you select, they are not oriented (vertical alignment) like a keypad. It takes a bit of getting used to. Another con is you may have to modify your existing macro scheme. If you choose this path, be sure to use \xnorth, \xsouth, etc... so you don't have to delete the command line to get the movement command to execute.

[Risen]

Allereli: I totally followed his exact keystrokes. It installs the newest Ruby, not the one cited.

Mac users are far less sensitive to the version of Ruby installed, compared to Windows users. For Mac (and Linux), since most instructions include building the software on your system, you don't run into the challenges facing Windows which can include pre-compiled binaries only on certain versions / architectures.

I think you'll be fine on Ruby 2.3.

[m444w]

you won't be able to run any scripts in untrusted mode because $SAFE 2-4 were removed in Ruby 2.3 and Lich uses $SAFE 3 to sandbox scripts

I really wouldn't recommend that.

[Neovik1]

Hardware solution link (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bluetooth+10+key+for+macbook+pro)(best option in my opinion). If you do this, one of the cons is you're carrying one more piece of hardware. Still, recommend this approach.

Software solution - need to map your FE to use the CTRL (or Apple or Option, your choice) + standard keys mapped to directions. If you do this, one of the cons is that no matter which keys you select, they are not oriented (vertical alignment) like a keypad. It takes a bit of getting used to. Another con is you may have to modify your existing macro scheme. If you choose this path, be sure to use \xnorth, \xsouth, etc... so you don't have to delete the command line to get the movement command to execute.

Thanks for the info!

[Risen]

you won't be able to run any scripts in untrusted mode because $SAFE 2-4 were removed in Ruby 2.3 and Lich uses $SAFE 3 to sandbox scripts

I really wouldn't recommend that.

Well, FMS. Right.

Luxelle - if you used homebrew to install Ruby, and you haven't backed out 2.3 yet:


brew uninstall ruby
brew clean

With El Capitan basic install you have Ruby version 2.0.0 (p 645). That's all you need. Don't worry about installing another Ruby at this point. You'll need to reinstall the gems into 2.0.0 though.

[Luxelle]

brew uninstall ruby ... worked.
brew clean ... "unknown command: clean"

[Risen]

brew clean ... "unknown command: clean"

Yeah, my bad. User error.

brew cleanup

It doesn't really hurt anything not to do, other than take up a bit of space. Like removing temp files. Sorry about accuracy.

[Luxelle]

All right, Avalon + Lich = success. Logged in. I tried a couple Lich scripts, they worked as expected. :)

Narost ... fails because the gtk thing failed installation. I left a message at the officials in the Narosty thread, but the thing I DID see today is that Doug has started a wiki page with all these instructions in one place that people will actually be able to find. HOORAY!

I don't know what I'm going to need to do to fix the gtk thing and all, then I need to figure out other Avalon stuff. BUT, one thing at a time, right?!

**

[Luxelle]

Reference to new helpful wiki page for Avalon/Lich:

https://gswiki.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Mac_Installation_-_Lich_(software)

[Luxelle]

Avalon Oddities: (No idea if this is something that needs fixing in Lich or in Avalon)

1. All messages from all Lnet channels appear in the main window, not the thoughts window. (ugh)
2. I can't divine with even my best psychic powers what the proper filename ending for the built-in scripts. In Wizard, they were .cmd and .wiz. I've tried that and a dozen more likely ones.
3. In addition to appearing in the main window, each lnet chat takes up two lines, the line with the actual content, and this line, return and all, that preceeds it:
You hear the faint thoughts of [TownCrier]-GSIV:Newsby echo in your mind:

More fun findings tomorrow!

I figure SOMEONE has to have this working, right?!

**

[Luxelle]

There's an lnet setting to divert ;chats into the familiar window. So that got them out of my story window. WHEW

Turns out scripts go in the base Simutronics/scripts directory, not in the Simutronics/scripts/GS/ directory. They need to end with a .cmd

So found a couple real Avalon bugs and reported them.

I feel like I'm the only person using it..

~L.

[Luxelle]

My very special terminal window keeps filling with LINES of stuff with varying values:

GLib-GObject-WARNING **:value "43.902969" of type 'gdouble' is invalid or out of range for property 'fraction' of type 'gdouble'


Should I be worried? Have I done something wrong? Talk about an obscure message!

[Risen]

My very special terminal window keeps filling with LINES of stuff with varying values:

GLib-GObject-WARNING **:value "43.902969" of type 'gdouble' is invalid or out of range for property 'fraction' of type 'gdouble'


Should I be worried? Have I done something wrong? Talk about an obscure message!

It does no harm. It is caused by a couple of variables not being initialized properly (so they have garbage in the string in the first iteration). If you want to correct it, you can edit UberBarWiz.lic.

Look for this line in the code (should be around line 40).


oldHP = oldMP = oldST = oldSP = oldXP = oldMD = oldSN = oldEN = oldIN = oldWO = oldRTs = oldCTs = nowRT = nowCT = oldRM = oldSS = nil

Change that line to read as follows (just adding two bolded new variables):


oldHP = oldMP = oldST = oldSP = oldXP = oldMD = oldSN = oldEN = oldIN = oldWO = oldRT = oldRTs = oldCT = oldCTs = nowRT = nowCT = oldRM = oldSS = nil

That should do it.

[Luxelle]

OK ... I am back to say everyone was right! I gave up on Avalon and went back to SF.

Doug from the officials, (he may be here, too, I don't know) helped me get my new Mac up and running for GS with Wine and StormFront yesterday. I am declaring him a candidate for SAINTHOOD for the amount of patient help he offered me. Everyone should see the AWESOME Lich support instruction page he made at the wiki

Also, Mister Tillmen, you should fix up your Mac install directions with what he has there. Since you can't locate it in a search at the wiki, here's the link:

https://gswiki.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Mac_Installation_-_Lich_(software)

Avalon's funky interface was ready to send me to a padded room. Willingly.

Next project is for Newsby to get going. But I may take a day off from new computer stuff and just enjoy being useful in GS again!

Thank you to everyone for the support, encouragement, advice, and whatever! I hope Luxie was not rude to anyone during the festival with the awful interface, no highlights, and all the crazy. This will teach me to schedule new computers around GS events, right?! :)

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

Avalon was awful. The only way I could tolerate playing GS on my macbook was the virtual box + windows too

Glad you got it sorted!!

[Luxelle]

It sounds like GM Ixix works on it in his spare time for free and all.

Maybe they could hire him or someone to write a finished one!

[Tillmen]

Also, Mister Tillmen, you should fix up your Mac install directions with what he has there.


I did that yesterday. Stop living in the past!

[Luxelle]

Oh! Yesterday! AWESOME!

I ... have only my new computer stuff to blame, it's had all my attention! :)

Thanks much Mister Tillmen