$FG ROOT

$FG_ROOT is refered to as the main directory of FlightGear, containing the so called base package (default aircraft and scenery, GUI files etc). When running FlightGear from a command line, you can set $FG_ROOT via --fg-root=path/to/root. In FGRun, it is set on the paths page, previous to the aircraft selection page.

Common paths

• Mac OS X: Applications/FlightGear.app/Contents/Resources/data/
• Ubuntu: /usr/share/games/flightgear/
• Windows: Program Files\FlightGear\data\ (default, see note!)

Notes

• Newer Windows versions are very, very protective about the "Program Files" folder and installing FlightGear into this folder makes it prone to any problems relating to file read/write permissions! Hence, installing FlightGear into "Program Files" on Windows Vista/7/8 is not recommended(!), unless...
  • ...you are logged in as administrator!
  • ...you have disabled User Account Control!

• On Mac OS X, $FG_ROOT is not installed automatically. See New to FlightGear for an installation manual.

• As of FlightGear 2.4.0, it is advised to install additional scenery and aircraft in $FG_SCENERY and $FG_AIRCRAFT directories outside $FG_ROOT. This allow for maintaining the additional stuff when installing a new version of FlightGear.