User:Daemonburrito/Building FlightGear - Linux

Compiling

Assuming you are root, do:

# cd /usr/local/src

Note: When tracking a fast changing software like FlightGear/Git it is highly advisable to install it in a separate directory. That way one can also easily build and reinstall without being root, which greatly reduces the risk of messing up one's system. To install in a directory of your choice add the --prefix argument to configure. E.g. ./configure --prefix=$HOME/FlightGear. I would recommend installing all of OSG, plib, SimGear and FlightGear with the same prefix.

Getting and compiling SimGear

Step 1:

Clone the SimGear git repository and set it up to track the 'next' branch.

$ git clone git://gitorious.org/fg/simgear.git

or if the git port is firewalled on you network, use the http transport

$ git clone http://gitorious.org/fg/simgear.git

By default after cloning you should have a local next branch that tracks the master next branch. It can be updated it with git pull.

Step 2:

The source code will be downloaded into a directory called simgear.

Next, go into the directory and make preparations for the compilation:

$ cd simgear
$ cmake .

Note that if you don't want to install simgear globally on the system but in a specific directory, you can do so by adding -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX==/path/to/your/fgInstallation to the cmake command

Step 3:

Compile and install SimGear by doing:

$ make; make install

Note: with gcc 4.2 or later,on some platforms, you can get compiling errors about alc.h like:

'<anonymous>' has incomplete type 

take a look at http://bugs.gentoo.org/166723

Getting and compiling FlightGear

Step 1:

Clone the FlightGear git repository and set it up to track the 'next' branch.

$ git clone git://gitorious.org/fg/flightgear.git

By default after cloning you should have a local next branch that tracks the master next branch. It can be updated it with git pull.

Step 2:

Next, go into the folder and make preparations for the compilation:

$ cd flightgear
$ ./autogen.sh
$ ./configure

Note that if you don't want to install simgear globally on the system but in a specific directory, you can do so by adding --prefix=/path/to/your/fgInstallation to the ./configure command. If you didn't install OSG globally or in the same prefix as SimGear and FlightGear, you have to pass the OSG directory to the configure-command like this:

$ ./configure --prefix=/path/to/fgInstallation --with-osg=/path/to/osg/installation --enable-osgviewer

In this case you have to tell your system where to find the OSG libraries before you can run flightgear:

$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/osgInstallation/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Step 3:

Now you can compile and install Flightgear by:

$ make; make install

Step 4:

Clone the data directory:

$ git clone git://gitorious.org/fg/fgdata.git

The data directory is large (almost 2.5GB) so it will take considerable time to download. There mirror of fgdata that might be faster to download from:

$ git clone git://mapserver.flightgear.org/fgdata

The mirror is synchronized with the master so either will do.

And install it in (or as) /usr/local/share/FlightGear

$ mv fgdata /usr/local/share/flightgear