kikuchiyo
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 147
Registered: 04-01-2012
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File: drod_5.1.1.patch (890 bytes)
Downloaded 41 times.
License: Public Domain

I've managed to compile DROD 5.1.1 on Linux, after a fashion, and I'd like to document my experience for posterity's sake. I'm on a relatively up-to-date Fedora 38 x86_64 Linux system.

- Downloaded the source from https://github.com/CaravelGames/drod (I've actually ran git pull because I've already cloned the source earlier)
- As per readme.md, I cd'd into Master/Linux, and tried to run `./ninjamaker` then `.build`
- I had to install ninja-build and then a number of missing dependencies, I installed these with the system's package manager: `sudo dnf install ninja-build libtheora-devel libvorbis-devel jsoncpp-devel SDL2_mixer-devel SDL2_ttf-devel` (I've already had gcc, make etc. installed, so on a virgin system you'd need to install many more packages before you could even begin)
- Then it complained about a missing mk4.h, a dependency which was not picked up by the build system.
- I recalled from reading in the forum that this is related to something called Metakit, for which I only found dead links on the internets. In the windows readme I've found a link to its source: https://github.com/jnorthrup/metakit/archive/master.zip
- I downloaded that to a separate directory, and compiled it, following the instructions in the README (with one alteration, I've ran the configure script with `--prefix=/usr/local`
- Now I could run ./build in the DROD Master/Linux directory, but there was a compilation error in DbXML.cpp, so I've edited the source
- After that, it finally compiled, but in the end it failed at the linking step, it didn't find most of the libraries
- After a while I've figured it out that it wants to link those libraries statically, but I didn't have them in the appropriate format
- So I've re-ran `./ninjamaker` with the `-no-static` option and rebuilt
- I've saved a copy of my game directory under ~/.local/share/Caravel Games/drod-5_0 before attempting to run the newly minted binary
- apparently it didn't like my alteration to the Metakit installation procedure, so I've had to run it with `LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib ./drod`
- After that, it finally ran!!!!1

Issues:
- The missing metakit dependency is awkward
- The source doesn't compile without errors with g++ 13, I had to patch the source (even if the modification was trivial)
- The static libraries are a problem, I'm not sure I can get them easily from the system's package manager
- When running the game, I've noticed that the fonts look bad (parts of the letters are missing), apparently this is "fixed" by downgrading to an older version of SDL2_ttf, again, this is not convenient with an up-to-date, package manager based system
- No caravelnet (though there is perhaps a build option for it, I haven't explored yet)

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[Last edited by kikuchiyo at 09-09-2023 11:44 PM : added patch]

tempestadept
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 154
Registered: 12-23-2010
IP: Logged

Another guide, working as of right now. Some steps might be non-optimal, but they worked for me and they shouldn't make a mess of your system.

First, Linux distros vary, but everything you need to build DROD will almost certainly be available in the package manager (except for Metakit). You'll need various build tools, libraries like SDL2_mixer and SDL2_ttf (development versions if your distro makes this distinction). Generally, if something in the process fails with "file not found" or "library not found", google the name, figure out which package is missing and install it.

You'll need to build Metakit yourself. A few forks survive on github, I recommend this one https://github.com/pooryorick/metakit as it has cmake support. Clone the repo (or download and unpack the source code ZIP), go into the metakit directory (I'll refer to it later as /METAKIT/LIVES/HERE) and build with this command:

cmake -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF -DMETAKIT_PYTHON=OFF -DMETAKIT_TCL=OFF -S . && make

Then symlink the static library so DROD build process could find it later:

ln -s src/libmk4_static.a libmk4.a

Now clone the DROD repo somewhere (or use the archive), go to the Master/Linux directory. To use the Metakit library you just built (but didn't install in the default system paths), you'd need to edit the ninjamaker script. Remember to substitute the path where you built MK for the /METAKIT/LIVES/HERE.

First, add another item to the includes list:

includes = ${idirs[@]} $(${SDL2_CONFIG} --cflags) $(${PKG_CONFIG} --cflags theora vorbisfile vorbis ogg libpng libcurl expat jsoncpp zlib) -I/METAKIT/LIVES/HERE/include

Then, add an item to the search path for static libs:

staticlibs = -L/METAKIT/LIVES/HERE $(${PKG_CONFIG} --libs-only-L SDL2_mixer SDL2_ttf theora vorbisfile vorbis ogg) -lSDL2_mixer -lSDL2_ttf -ltheora -lvorbisfile -lvorbis -logg -ljpeg -lmk4 $(${PKG_CONFIG} --libs freetype2 libpng libcurl expat jsoncpp zlib)

Then you should be able to build DROD:

./ninjamaker -64 -release -no-static
./build

You can try without -no-static, but unless your distro ships static libraries for a bunch of packages, linking would fail. Note that Metakit will still be linked in statically.

In my case, the main remaining problem are messed up fonts (I don't consider missing caravelnet support as a problem since it isn't open-source and is not included in the repo).

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[Last edited by tempestadept at 09-29-2024 09:39 PM : small typos]