KSP can get really wierd...

[Garek]

if you run out of memory.

This morning, I thought to myself, "hey, Kethane and EPL sound like really cool mods, lets try them out. They could fit in the ~300MB I got left" (to 3.5GB, not to the installed RAM, I have 12GB (please give me 64Bit-KSP)). Turns out, they don't really. On the first try, KSP simply crashed when I tried to load a previously created vessel in the VAB. But on the second try it worked...kind of. After loading, 3 of four walls and the floor of the VAB were missing, like the engineers kicked them out to make room for the vessel (which actually was only like 11 parts with about 2 stock orange tanks in total size).

So:

a) has this happend to anyone else? I'm not quite sure if this is a bug or a well-it-coudn't-work-otherwise feature.

any tips on how to reduce mod size (besides stripping parts)?

[Geckgo]

Install Linux, 64 bit is nice

[Garek]

Thought about that. Frankly, the only thing keeping me from installing it is the fact I don't have a partition left, and I messed up my hard drives so I can't reformat anything without breaking something

So, another two questions:

a) does KSP work with that "inline-install", where you install ubuntu inside a windows drive?

do I get that 64Bit Linux Build from Steam?

[Geckgo]

Oh, you have it from steam..... hmmm. Well, I was being funny this morning when I wrote that. I was expecting something more along the lines of "take your Linux and...". I think what you mean by "inline-install" is using a virtual machine? No reason why it shouldn't work. I'm not sure how steam does the install but you can navi to the folder where its installed and see if there is a file called KSP.x86_64. If so, copy the KSP folder (whole thing) to a linux box and run that file instead of KSP.exe. Should work from a VM. I don't much like steam so I can't be sure how the install process works for this game, sorry, I've always downloaded directly from the ksp website.

I had a little trouble getting it to run on Debian, but I imagine that *buntu images will have everything you need from the start. If not, the ubuntu forums are probably the easiest way to start understanding linux until you can put in some hours on the command line. Ubuntu was able to finally keep me from crawling back to windows (Last time I installed linux was in 2002 until I got hooked again a year or so ago). If you have nvidia for a graphics adapter you will probably also need to install bumblebee and put a symbolic link from /usr/bin or write a command line shortcut so you don't have to type the whole thing every time you want to run a game, unless nvidia finally released their drivers for linux. (I imagine ubuntu will be the first to put them into their standard distro when they are released, the rest of us will have to use modprobe)

As to your OP, you might try without EPL. I have not tried that one yet and it may be conflicting with another mod. Kethane I never had much trouble with, but I swear sometimes I think it does cause some instability with my game. I have 10x as many problems after I install RemoteTech, so you may try without that one as well as Mechjeb. Just remove them one at a time and see what happens. If you can find one that's causing conflicts with which other one you can pick between the two.

[Vulkan]

Check the versions of EPL and Kethane. The spaceport version of EPL is quite old and needs a modified kethane 0.4.4 to work. More recent releases from the back pages of the forum thread are compatible.

Memory should't be an issue with just those two though. I've run EPL 3.1 and Kethane 0.7.7 without issue on 4G of RAM along with MechJeb, KAS, damned robotics and assorted other parts mods.

[Garek]

With 'inline-install' I didn't mean a VM, but with ubuntu there was something where you could run the setup on windows and it would install inside your windows drive. I only did it once by accident, but in my current situation, it seems to be my best option, as it doesn't need a separate partition but gets more direct hardware access then from a VM. Steam does install only the files for the current platform. The store page tells you, which platforms are available, and linux is there. What I'm interested in is whether that "steam-linux" version includes the 64Bit build...I guess I will install and see what I get. I'm actually more or less capable of dealing with command line stuff, as I'm spending most of my worktime in Bash and Emacs. But I agree about ubuntu being a more accessible distro then debian.

I don't think my mod problems are because of conflicts. I got both Kethane and EPL from their forum threads, so the Versions should be compatible. The main problem seems to be the memory usage - without them, I'm already at about 3.2GB. At least that's what I saw before installing and removing them. Now I'm (again without those two) at about 3.5GB (Uh-oh). My other mods: Actions on the Fly, AIES, AviationLights, B9 (stripped down, I just like the big lights), Quantum Struts, Crew Manifest, Deadly Reentry, Docking Strut, EnhancedNavBall, FAR, Fusebox, FusTek, HOME, Proc. Fairings, KW, Lack Luster Labs, Infernal Robotics, MechJeb2 (although I could propably do with Engineer), DPAI, PartCatalog, PersistentTrails, Caterpillar Tracks, RCS Build Aid, SelectRoot.

Okay, thats quite a lot, but I use them, and those I need the least (e.g. Fusebox) have probably the least impact on memory usage.

Thank you for your help. I guess I'm going to install linux :-D

EDIT: turns out, that inline-install thingy seems to have been removed like 4 versions ago. Now to get that VM and hope it works.

Edited September 29, 2013 by Garek

[Geckgo]

Garek, you could try a live cd. That will give you root access to everything on the computer. I have a couple on usb drives for when someone has a file on their windows box that "can't be deleted" or stuff like that. Should accomplish what you want, only downside is that you have to restart the compy to get back to windows. the -buntu family should all have live-cd installs. Just make sure you don't click the button to install permanently unless you are REALLY mad at windows

[Garek]

Thanks for the tipp, but I know about live CDs I actually found that 'inline-install' thingy (still don't know how it's called) but I can't get playing the next few days anyway, so time to think through what I want to do with my setup. I will probably just get another hard drive so I can move stuff around, re-partition the current ones and get a regular linux install going. (no, I'm not doing that just for KSP, I really need to move stuff around because I overengineered my current partitioning and that starts to backfire)

[YoshiFan501]

Thanks for the tipp, but I know about live CDs I actually found that 'inline-install' thingy (still don't know how it's called)

It's called wubi (Windows UBuntu Installer)

[Dkmdlb]

Dual Boot!

[BigFatStupidHead]

If you do go for the linux 64 bit, you should check out KSP's linux support thread. There is a bit-patch you should run that'll deal with some 'quirks' you may encounter. Mind you, just because of the different way linux handles memory, you might only need to run the better supported 32 bit version.

[Geckgo]

Hmm, I hadn't heard of the wubi, shows how much I keep up, but then since I don't run *buntu or M$ I guess I wouldn't have heard of it.