HowTo build FlightGear stable (3.4) or bleeding edge development version, hereinafter simply called GIT, on Debian GNU/Linux Stable (Wheezy). Users of Testing or Unstable at least have to change package names (version numbering) accordingly.
The meaning of this article is to be a short, checklist like, overview of the specific steps to compile FlightGear and components on Debian. For more detailed information please refer to the main article Building FlightGear on Linux.
If you don't want to get your hands dirty, have a look at Scripted Compilation on Linux Debian/Ubuntu.
For beginners with compiling it is highly recommended to follow this guide step by step. Any modification to most of the here used commands may cause trouble.
Requirements and Preparations
A bunch of packages (as well as some of their dependencies) are required to compile FlightGear:
- Tools
su -c "apt-get install automake cmake g++ gcc git make sed subversion"
- Dependencies
su -c "apt-get install \ freeglut3-dev libboost-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libdbus-1-dev \ libfltk1.3-dev libgtkglext1-dev libjpeg8-dev libopenal-dev \ librsvg2-dev libxml2-dev"
- If you prefer you might replace "libcurl4-openssl-dev" by "libcurl4-gnutls-dev".
- If "libjpeg8-dev" breaks package dependencies, just install one of the other versions' -dev.
- Add "libudev-dev" if you need FG's feature
-D EVENT_INPUT=ON
.
- During installation development packages of libraries which are going to be compiled must not be installed. They can safely be re-installed after compilation. Namely here these might be "libplib-dev", "libopenscenegraph-dev", "libopenthreads-dev" and "simgear-dev".
Build and install
Because we are going to install versions different to the ones in the Debian repositories, it is recommended to install FlightGear in a place independent of the base system, such as /usr/local/FG-3.4
or $HOME/FG-3.4
. This way also has the advantage of easily managing several FlightGear versions, even with different versions of OpenSceneGraph and/or plib, simply by altering the installation prefix. I suggest to make this directory writeable by the user so there is no need to become root for the make -j2 install
commands. We'll use $FG_INSTALL_DIR
as a placeholder for this directory.
Another placeholder will be $FG_SRC_DIR
, it stands for the absolute path to the directory which is supposed to keep the folders of the various source codes. So, in the instructions below, you have to replace these with the local paths or even export
them (in every terminal you're using them) for the process:
export FG_INSTALL_DIR=$HOME/FG-3.4 && mkdir $FG_INSTALL_DIR export FG_SRC_DIR=$HOME/src && mkdir $FG_SRC_DIR
Have in mind that the data is a relatively large download (GIT about 8 GiB (required disk space 18 GiB) and growing / 3.4 about 1.1 GB). So, to save some time, it is a good idea to fetch it while building the sources.
For some basic info on git commands for FlightGear users we have a git for laymen section.
For more/advanced cmake options and SimGear's and FlightGear's optional features see the cmake article.
Do not mix commands for 3.4 and GIT! Not even for fgdata, mixing versions will almost certainly break the installation.
plib
3.4 and GIT:
Latest SVN is required.
cd $FG_SRC_DIR svn co https://svn.code.sf.net/p/plib/code/trunk plib.svn cd plib.svn sed s/PLIB_TINY_VERSION\ \ 5/PLIB_TINY_VERSION\ \ 6/ -i src/util/ul.h ./autogen.sh ./configure --prefix=$FG_INSTALL_DIR make -j2 install
libboost
3.4 and GIT:
Unfortunately version 1.52 or newer is recommended while Wheezy ships with 1.49:
cd $FG_SRC_DIR wget -O boost_1_52_0.tar.bz2 http://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.52.0/boost_1_52_0.tar.bz2/download tar xjf boost_1_52_0.tar.bz2 cp -R boost_1_52_0/boost $FG_INSTALL_DIR/include/
OpenSceneGraph
3.4's optimum version is OSG 3.2.1.
Same for GIT at the time of the release. This might change over time.
3.4 and GIT:
cd $FG_SRC_DIR svn co http://svn.openscenegraph.org/osg/OpenSceneGraph/tags/OpenSceneGraph-3.2.1 mkdir build-osg; cd build-osg cmake -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Release" -D LIB_POSTFIX="" -D Boost_INCLUDE_DIR="$FG_INSTALL_DIR/include/" \ -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH="$FG_INSTALL_DIR" $FG_SRC_DIR/OpenSceneGraph-3.2.1 make -j2 install
SimGear
3.4 and GIT:
cd $FG_SRC_DIR git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/flightgear/simgear simgear.git
3.4 only:
cd simgear.git git checkout origin/release/3.4.0
3.4 and GIT:
mkdir $FG_SRC_DIR/build-sg; cd $FG_SRC_DIR/build-sg cmake -D Boost_INCLUDE_DIR="$FG_INSTALL_DIR/include/" \ -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH="$FG_INSTALL_DIR" $FG_SRC_DIR/simgear.git make -j2 install
FlightGear source
3.4 and GIT:
cd $FG_SRC_DIR git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/flightgear/flightgear flightgear.git
3.4 only:
cd flightgear.git git checkout origin/release/3.4.0
3.4 and GIT:
mkdir $FG_SRC_DIR/build-fg; cd $FG_SRC_DIR/build-fg cmake -D Boost_INCLUDE_DIR="$FG_INSTALL_DIR/include/" \ -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH="$FG_INSTALL_DIR" $FG_SRC_DIR/flightgear.git make -j2 install
FlightGear data
3.4 only: Please have a look at the mirror list for a server close to your location.
cd $FG_INSTALL_DIR wget ftp://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/software/flightgear/ftp/Shared/FlightGear-data-3.4.0.tar.bz2 tar xjf FlightGear-data-3.4.0.tar.bz2
GIT only:
For slow/unstable internet connections it is recommended to download the fgdata.bundle instead of cloning the data.
cd $FG_INSTALL_DIR git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/flightgear/fgdata fgdata
Trial run and finishing process
When all the builds are done and the data download has finished it is time for a test run:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$FG_INSTALL_DIR/lib/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH $FG_INSTALL_DIR/bin/fgfs --fg-root=$FG_INSTALL_DIR/fgdata
- The
fgfs
binary needs to find our self compiled libraries at runtime and therefore we have to tell the linker (ld) where to find them. That is what the first line here does. You might want to add this line to your$HOME/.bashrc
to have this as a persistent setting (may cause problems, if one has installed more than one version of FlightGear!). - Have in mind, the
$FG_INSTALL_DIR
and$FG_SRC_DIR
variables are available for this session only. For future use of these lines, replace them by the real paths.
To avoid the need to give the path to the fgfs
command each time, you might consider to create a symlink at a place that is listed in $PATH:
ln -s $FG_INSTALL_DIR/bin/fgfs $HOME/bin/fgfs
For the future, if you want to start FlightGear from command line have a look at fgfsrc, if you prefer a graphical user interface continue with compiling fgrun or check out another launcher.
Optional Software
Some of the below instructions possibly are not up to date. Please feel free to revise them.
Feel free to add the commands to install other FlightGear related projects.
Atlas
One more Package has to be installed: "libglew1.5-dev"
cd $FG_SRC_DIR git clone http://mapserver.flightgear.org/git/atlas cd atlas ./autogen.sh ./configure --prefix=$FG_INSTALL_DIR --with-fgbase=$FG_INSTALL_DIR/data make -j2 install cp -R $FG_SRC_DIR/atlas/src/data/* $FG_INSTALL_DIR/data/Atlas
$FG_INSTALL_DIR/bin/Atlas
fgcom 3.0
There is nothing to compile because FGCom 3.0 is compiled with FlightGear.
If you can't compile FlightGear you can download a pre-built binary at http://fgcom.flightgear.org/download
fgcom (FG 2.12 and former)
For fgcom install package "libasound2-dev".
cd $FG_SRC_DIR git clone http://mapserver.flightgear.org/git/fgcom fgcom.git cd fgcom.git git checkout -b next origin/next mkdir $FG_SRC_DIR/build-fgcom; cd $FG_SRC_DIR/build-fgcom cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH="$FG_INSTALL_DIR" $FG_SRC_DIR/fgcom.git make -j2 install
Create an .alsoftrc file as shown in FGCOM Testing.
fgrun
Package "fluid" has to be installed.
3.4 and GIT:
cd $FG_SRC_DIR git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/flightgear/fgrun fgrun.git
3.4 only:
cd fgrun.git git checkout origin/release/3.4.0
3.4 and GIT:
mkdir $FG_SRC_DIR/build-fgrun; cd $FG_SRC_DIR/build-fgrun cmake -D Boost_INCLUDE_DIR="$FG_INSTALL_DIR/include/" \ -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH="$FG_INSTALL_DIR" $FG_SRC_DIR/fgrun.git make -j2 install
Execute it:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$FG_INSTALL_DIR/lib/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH $FG_INSTALL_DIR/bin/fgrun
TaxiDraw
Obsolete for airport creation, use WorldEditor instead. It is still useful for working on ground networks.
To compile TaxiDraw we need to install some more packages:
- either "libcurl4-gnutls-dev" or "libcurl4-openssl-dev" for curl.h
- "wx2.8-headers" (at least, maybe even more than just that one. Please report!
su -c "aptitude install [libcurl4-gnutls-dev|libcurl4-openssl-dev]" cd $FG_SRC_DIR git clone git://mapserver.flightgear.org/taxidraw cd taxidraw ./autogen.sh ./configure --prefix=$FG_INSTALL_DIR make -j2 install
TerraGear
Automatic Installation
link If you are familiar with "download_and_compile.sh" script from Brisa you can donwload this script: http://clement.delhamaide.free.fr/download_and_compile_tg.sh This script is similar to Brisa's one (only usable for Debian/Mint/Ubuntu). This script installs TerraGear (latest version) and terragear-gui.
- How to use it?
sh terragear_download_and_compile.sh -j 2 ALL
- Need some help?
Look at forum topics: http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=14849
After success installation you can exectute this command line in the terragear/bin directory in order to display every --help for each binary files:
cd terragear/bin && for i in `ls`; do echo ""; echo "################# "$i" ##############"; ./$i --help; done
Basic Installation
To resolve some of the dependencies of TerraGear the GIT sections of steps plib, OpenSceneGraph and SimGear have to be done first. Additionally some packages and their dependencies have to be installed:
su -c "apt-get install \ libgdal-dev libtiff4-dev libboost-signals-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-thread-dev"
Squeeze users have to compile the CGAL dependency. On Wheezy just install package "libcgal-dev" instead.
cd $FG_SRC_DIR wget https://gforge.inria.fr/frs/download.php/31174/CGAL-4.0.2.tar.bz2 tar xjf CGAL-4.0.2.tar.bz2 mkdir $FG_SRC_DIR/build-cgal; cd $FG_SRC_DIR/build-cgal cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH="$FG_INSTALL_DIR" $FG_SRC_DIR/CGAL-4.0.2 make -j2 install
Compile TerraGear:
cd $FG_SRC_DIR git clone git://git.gitorious.org/fg/terragear.git mkdir $FG_SRC_DIR/build-tg; cd $FG_SRC_DIR/build-tg cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH="$FG_INSTALL_DIR" $FG_SRC_DIR/terragear make -j2 install
WorldEditor (WED)
Because this is the same for all Linux distributions the instructions are not listed here separately. Please refer to our lead WED article.