Game fails to run from /opt

[StarStryder]

I've installed the game in /opt. When I run the game it gets itself into an infinite loop on the loading screen, cycling through the "witty loading screen hints" . If I run it with sudo then it works fine.

Can I assume that the game is trying to write to its installation folder and if so, how do I tell it to write config and saves to my home folder?

[sal_vager]

Hi StarStryder, have you tried putting the settings.cfg, KSP.log, Physics.txt, saves folder, GameData folder and Screenshots folder in /home then symlinking them to KSP in /opt ?

I don't think there's any other way to do it, and the symlinks won't work for other users.

The developers prefer a portable install, with everything contained in one folder so it can be run from a portable hard drive or memory stick, so the only files that are written outside of the KSP folder are Unity3D specific.

[stibbons]

I don't think there's any other way to do it, and the symlinks won't work for other users.

Debian and Ubuntu (probably other distributions too) include a "games" group in the list of standard groups that get installed. Add your user to that group, use chmod to change the ownership of the entire KSP folder to be owned by the games group, and ensure the files and directories you listed are group writeable.

Has the advantage of being able to be run by different users without clobbering one another's save files. But I doubt anything good will come of multiple users trying to run it simultaneously.

You might still have an issue if KSP.log is deleted and recreated instead of truncated at startup, requiring the KSP root folder to also be group writeable. But it'll probably be OK.

[cantab]

More simply, if you're fine with everyone who uses the computer being able to play KSP, just change the permissions for other.

On a sidenote, I believe the games group was originally intended for securing high-score files. By making the game programs setgid games, and the users not a member of that group, the programs could update the high scores but the users could not mess with them. Not too relevant nowadays with PCs, but back in the days of shared mainframes it was.

[sal_vager]

The logs are truncated, I watch them using tail -f

[StarStryder]

Right, so they don't support it and likely won't.

If I created a directory in my home folder and then symlinked the game files/directories from /opt then I assume that multiple users could share the game files while keeping their own config and saves? Bit of a faff mind you.

[sal_vager]

I think you are better off with stibbons suggestion to be honest, as that way all users you add to the games group will be able to run it, and KSP will be able to write saves under their permissions, all they would need is their own launcher to start KSP.

I think all users will be able to see each others saves though.

If you symlink the files to a folder in your /home directory, anyone else trying to use KSP will find they don't have permissions to make files in your folders, so KSP won't work.

[cantab]

In theory you could install KSP in /opt, then create a ksp folder in your home directory and symlink to all files and folders in /opt except the ones you need to write to. Then run it from the folder in /home.

But it seems like unnecessary hassle.