$FG ROOT
The environment variable $FG_ROOT
is a setting referring to the path of the main data directory of FlightGear, which contains the so called base package, also known as FGData. This setting can also be set from the FlightGear Qt launcher, or the command-line. The base package consists of the default aircraft and scenery, GUI files, sounds, 3D models etc.
To set $FG_ROOT
from the Qt launcher, click •••
at the top left of the launcher to get the drop down menu and click on Select data files location...
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.
As of FlightGear 2.4, 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.
Common paths
- Mac OS X:
Applications/FlightGear.app/Contents/Resources/data/
(right-click on FlightGear.app and select "Show Package Contents" to see the Contents folder)
$FG_ROOT
is not installed automatically. See New to FlightGear for an installation manual.
- Ubuntu:
/usr/share/games/flightgear/
- Windows:
Program Files\FlightGear 2020.3\data\
(default, see note!)
Note Newer Windows versions are very, very protective about the Program Files folder.
Installing FlightGear into this folder makes it prone to any problems relating to file read/write permissions. Hence, installing FlightGear into |
$FG_DATA
You will sometimes see $FG_ROOT
erroneously being mentioned as $FG_DATA
. While there is no $FG_DATA
environment variable, the SourceForge repository containing the base package is named FGData
and was earlier named fgdata
in Gitorious.[1][2]