libgconf-2.so.4 not included

[Lizard-13]

Describe the bug

Ubuntu 18.04 (I think 17.04+) doesn't include libgconf-2.so.4 library by default, making it impossible to launch GD5. Reported here: http://forum.compilgames.net/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10678#p68148

Other details

It can be fixed installing it with sudo apt-get install libgconf-2-4 (confirmed).
Maybe it should be included with the AppImage?

[4ian]

I wonder if it's an issue with Ubuntu not including this library by default 🤔
Or if it was something that is added in latest version of Electron / electron-builder - so upgrading electron-builder could fix this.

Maybe it should be included with the AppImage?

Well I remember including libraries with GD4 and it was generally a bad idea for compatibility on Linux. I would rather try to find why an Electron app (GD5) is not running as is without installing extra libraries on Ubuntu 18.04, which seems strange!

[blurymind]

I think thats a gnome library. Didn't ubuntu recently move back to using gnome-shell?
If you are only with Unity desktop you might not have it

[Lizard-13]

The user reporting it confirms that installing the missing lib solves the problem :)

[4ian]

Yeah that's the issue of this missing library. I wonder if other software got the same issue?

[blurymind]

@4ian it's very common on linux :)
I think this is a non-issue for gdevelop

[Lizard-13]

electron/electron#1518

[4ian]

I think I could add some help maybe about this on the website? What do you think?

[Lizard-13]

Yeah, an advice and the command to install the lib in the download section should be enough.

[4ian]

Added this when the Linux button is hovered or clicked :)

[4ian]

Closing as this should be enough to inform new Linux users about this! :)

[probonopd]

Please provide an AppImage, and please bundle libgconf2-4 inside it. Thank you very much.

Providing an AppImage would have, among others, these advantages:

• Applications packaged as an AppImage can run on many distributions (including Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, elementaryOS, Linux Mint, and others)
• One app = one file = super simple for users: just download one AppImage file, make it executable, and run
• No unpacking or installation necessary
• No root needed
• No system libraries changed
• Works out of the box, no installation of runtimes needed
• Optional desktop integration with appimaged
• Optional binary delta updates, e.g., for continuous builds (only download the binary diff) using AppImageUpdate
• Can optionally GPG2-sign your AppImages (inside the file)
• Works on Live ISOs
• Can use the same AppImages when dual-booting multiple distributions
• Can be listed in the AppImageHub central directory of available AppImages
• Can double as a self-extracting compressed archive with the --appimage-extract parameter

[4ian]

If you want to try it by yourself, you can give it a go by following the setup instructions from the README (https://github.com/4ian/GDevelop/blob/master/newIDE/README.md#installation) and then building the app package: https://github.com/4ian/GDevelop/blob/master/newIDE/README.md#desktop-version

The packaging is done using electron-builder, you can try appimage by launching:

cd newIDE/electron-app
npm run build --linux AppImage

I don't have much time to test this on Linux, so any help if welcome :)

EDIT: Also created https://trello.com/c/ySX0iU8t/172-package-gdevelop-5-as-an-appimage-for-linux

[probonopd]

libgconf-2.so.4 definitely needs to be bundled inside the AppImage so that users won't have to install it.

[probonopd]

Also, the AppImage seems to be missing from https://gdevelop-app.com/download/?

[4ian]

Also, the AppImage seems to be missing from https://gdevelop-app.com/download/?

It was never distributed ;) I still distribute a .tar.gz for now. https://trello.com/c/ySX0iU8t/172-package-gdevelop-5-as-an-appimage-for-linux is the feature request. Any help is welcome to test that this works on a variety of distributiosn.