CKAN (The Comprehensive Kerbal Archive Network); v1.28.0 - Dyson

[Julian.]

Have The Bugs With Installing, Uninstalling, And Updating Been Fixed?

[Drakomis]

I wanted to say, 

Over these years the only dependable program I've used, specifically modded and catered to KSP, is CKAN. I wanted to thank the creator of CKAN personally, or via this thread. It's made life a whole lot easier. I have a few suggestions for additions. These additions are simplistic, and are purely for individuals such as myself who go through a "trail and error" process each update.

1.) A box to check to personally tell yourself that a mod has been tried and is incompatible, regardless of whatever CKAN states.

2.) The ability to download prior versions of a mod, regardless of compatibility. The suggestion above would compensate for the lack of compatibility.

3.) The ability to search for downloaded files on your drive and install them via CKAN. I'm unsure if this is not simplistic and more in the realms of coding and "this is too hard!" type of thing.

Those are my suggestions. If I need to ferry them elsewhere, please correct me. Again, thank you for this awesome mod!

Edited October 7, 2017 by Drakomis

[HebaruSan]

9 minutes ago, Drakomis said:

1.) A box to check to personally tell yourself that a mod has been tried and is incompatible, regardless of whatever CKAN states.

2.) The ability to download prior versions of a mod, regardless of compatibility. The suggestion above would compensate for the lack of compatibility.

If you notice unexpected compatibility or incompatibility of specific mods, please report it so the metadata can be updated (assuming you're correct!). A feature like this could easily be counterproductive if the first twenty people to find a problem simply check a box to ignore it.

9 minutes ago, Drakomis said:

3.) The ability to search for downloaded files on your drive and install them via CKAN. I'm unsure if this is not simplistic and more in the realms of coding and "this is too hard!" type of thing.

How long would you be willing to wait for such a thing to complete? Assuming by "search" you mean to find files without being told where they are, this could entail processing many gigabytes worth of data.

9 minutes ago, Drakomis said:

Those are my suggestions. If I need to ferry them elsewhere, please correct me. Again, thank you for this awesome mod!

Posting them here won't have much effect unless someone decides to jump on a suggestion during the brief window when this is on the last page. On the other hand, creating issues on the CKAN repo will create a persistent, trackable record of each request that can be discussed, tagged, conveniently permalinked, and marked as complete if the feature is developed. Be prepared to have your ideas picked apart, though; the CKAN devs have a lot of experience doing what they do, and their standards for compatibility and robustness are pretty high!

https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN/issues

[Drakomis]

48 minutes ago, HebaruSan said:

If you notice unexpected compatibility or incompatibility of specific mods, please report it so the metadata can be updated (assuming you're correct!). A feature like this could easily be counterproductive if the first twenty people to find a problem simply check a box to ignore it.

How long would you be willing to wait for such a thing to complete? Assuming by "search" you mean to find files without being told where they are, this could entail processing many gigabytes worth of data.

Posting them here won't have much effect unless someone decides to jump on a suggestion during the brief window when this is on the last page. On the other hand, creating issues on the CKAN repo will create a persistent, trackable record of each request that can be discussed, tagged, conveniently permalinked, and marked as complete if the feature is developed. Be prepared to have your ideas picked apart, though; the CKAN devs have a lot of experience doing what they do, and their standards for compatibility and robustness are pretty high!

https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN/issues

Oh...well okay. Great! Thanks.

[CGiuffre164]

Hey, I have this problem where it has a hard time installing all the mods? It will take like 20 mins to load and then it will come up with a download error or something. I think that my connection is timing out but I have relatively fast internet for where I live (about a 1000kbps) I am trying to install GPP, so I don't know if that has a problem with CKAN or anything? But I'd really like to get this solved, I want to use CKAN as a separate KSP game. Thanks.

 

Edit: its called a 403 error.

Edited October 7, 2017 by CGiuffre164

[HebaruSan]

43 minutes ago, CGiuffre164 said:

Hey, I have this problem where it has a hard time installing all the mods? It will take like 20 mins to load and then it will come up with a download error or something. I think that my connection is timing out but I have relatively fast internet for where I live (about a 1000kbps) I am trying to install GPP, so I don't know if that has a problem with CKAN or anything? But I'd really like to get this solved, I want to use CKAN as a separate KSP game. Thanks.

The downloads for GPP are over 680 MB. So yes, it will take a while. If you want help with a download error, you're going to need to provide details about it.

[CGiuffre164]

Just now, HebaruSan said:

The downloads for GPP are over 680 MB. So yes, it will take a while. If you want help with a download error, you're going to need to provide details about it.

Sure, I can tell you what you need.

So I have been trying to install mods through CKAN, so it isn't just GPP. Some of the mods from when I was trying to run CKAN for the first time since I am new to CKAN, they were cached. But I am trying to run it again and it says something about a 403 error. I read up about it and it says something about a limit on Github.

[HebaruSan]

20 minutes ago, CGiuffre164 said:

But I am trying to run it again and it says something about a 403 error. I read up about it and it says something about a limit on Github.

Ahh, interesting. Yes, Github places a limit on how many API requests you can make in an hour, but I didn't know that applied to downloads.

Can you check this page and copy its contents into a reply (ideally shortly after you see a 403 error)? This would help to confirm whether it's the same limit:

https://api.github.com/rate_limit

[politas]

19 hours ago, CGiuffre164 said:

Hey, I have this problem where it has a hard time installing all the mods? It will take like 20 mins to load and then it will come up with a download error or something. I think that my connection is timing out but I have relatively fast internet for where I live (about a 1000kbps) I am trying to install GPP, so I don't know if that has a problem with CKAN or anything? But I'd really like to get this solved, I want to use CKAN as a separate KSP game. Thanks.

 

Edit: its called a 403 error.

For really large modpacks, it can be very helpful to use the "Download" button on the mod Contents tab. It lets you download one zipfile at a time and puts it in your local CKAN downloads cache.

21 hours ago, Drakomis said:

I wanted to say, 

Over these years the only dependable program I've used, specifically modded and catered to KSP, is CKAN. I wanted to thank the creator of CKAN personally, or via this thread. It's made life a whole lot easier. I have a few suggestions for additions. These additions are simplistic, and are purely for individuals such as myself who go through a "trail and error" process each update.

1.) A box to check to personally tell yourself that a mod has been tried and is incompatible, regardless of whatever CKAN states.

This is surprisingly difficult to do. As has been mentioned, reporting compatibility issues is a much better idea

2.) The ability to download prior versions of a mod, regardless of compatibility. The suggestion above would compensate for the lack of compatibility.

This can be done with the CLI like this:

ckan install AwesomeMod=v3.4

It would be good to add this functionality to the mod version list in the GUI.

3.) The ability to search for downloaded files on your drive and install them via CKAN. I'm unsure if this is not simplistic and more in the realms of coding and "this is too hard!" type of thing.

This is a feature I really want to add (at least the ability for users to easily place downloaded zips into the CKAN cache)

 

On 04/10/2017 at 6:04 AM, Julian. said:

Have The Bugs With Installing, Uninstalling, And Updating Been Fixed?

Some of them have. Others have not.

[SilverlightPony]

43 minutes ago, politas said:

This can be done with the CLI like this:

ckan install AwesomeMod=v3.4

It would be good to add this functionality to the mod version list in the GUI.

People have been asking for this for a while, but it never seems to happen.  I'm pretty sure I brought it up last year, and got shot down, although I can't remember the reasoning given at the time.

Really, this applies to everything--if something can be done via CLI, it should also be possible via GUI (with appropriate "do this at your own risk" warnings, as necessary).

[politas]

10 minutes ago, SilverlightPony said:

People have been asking for this for a while, but it never seems to happen.  I'm pretty sure I brought it up last year, and got shot down, although I can't remember the reasoning given at the time.

Really, this applies to everything--if something can be done via CLI, it should also be possible via GUI (with appropriate "do this at your own risk" warnings, as necessary).

I don't think we had the version list in the GUI back then, which meant we had no convenient hooks to different versions. 

[Drakomis]

1 hour ago, politas said:

This is surprisingly difficult to do. As has been mentioned, reporting compatibility issues is a much better idea

Hi!

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post, I appreciate that. Thank you for your explanation and I'll keep this in mind. I'll continue my tried-and-done practice of using a notepad or writing them down.

Thanks!

[Katten]

Hi there!

How would I go about adding a mod from Spacedoc to CKAN? Specifically this one: https://spacedock.info/mod/1539/Kube

I tried to follow the guide here, https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN/wiki/Adding-a-mod-to-the-CKAN.
But I don't understand from it what netkan does, what I'm supposed to do with it, what I'd put the netkan file.

I have poked around in the master.tar.gz file and can create one of those .ckan for my mod, but I don't know if this is really the normal workflow...

Advice, please =D

[politas]

9 hours ago, Katten said:

Hi there!

How would I go about adding a mod from Spacedoc to CKAN? Specifically this one: https://spacedock.info/mod/1539/Kube

I tried to follow the guide here, https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN/wiki/Adding-a-mod-to-the-CKAN.
But I don't understand from it what netkan does, what I'm supposed to do with it, what I'd put the netkan file.

I have poked around in the master.tar.gz file and can create one of those .ckan for my mod, but I don't know if this is really the normal workflow...

Advice, please =D

@linuxgurugamer sorted it out for you here. Because one of your dependencies (B9PartSwitch) is not yet updated for KSP 1.3.1, your mod won't show up in any CKAN views on KSP 1.3.1 installs until that is updated, due to an embarrasingly-longstanding bug. It should show up for 1.3.0 installs, though, or if the KSP compatibility function is employed to force matching of KSP 1.3.0

[Katten]

2 minutes ago, politas said:

@linuxgurugamer sorted it out for you here. Because one of your dependencies (B9PartSwitch) is not yet updated for KSP 1.3.1, your mod won't show up in any CKAN views on KSP 1.3.1 installs until that is updated, due to an embarrasingly-longstanding bug. It should show up for 1.3.0 installs, though, or if the KSP compatibility function is employed to force matching of KSP 1.3.0

Alright, cool! I saw B9 is updated for 1.3.1 now too, so I guess it's just a matter of time before everything is running

[politas]

3 minutes ago, Katten said:

Alright, cool! I saw B9 is updated for 1.3.1 now too, so I guess it's just a matter of time before everything is running

Ah, so it is. Should arrive soon, I'm sure. Our Netkan robots are working hard this morning!

[Pixel of Life]

Would it be possible to add a feature that lets us sort mods by popularity (number of downloads) or recently updated? This would make it much easier to find new stuff (both new mods, and older, more popular mods some of us aren't aware of for some reason) when they'd be right at the top and we wouldn't have to scroll through the list. It'd also reduce the amount of searching required when installing the biggest and most popular mods that form the core of the modded KSP experience for lots of players (KW Rocketry, B9, NearFuture, stuff like that).

Edited October 9, 2017 by CaptainKorhonen

[nobodyhasthis2]

On 07/10/2017 at 1:01 AM, Drakomis said:

I wanted to say,

2.) The ability to download prior versions of a mod, regardless of compatibility. The suggestion above would compensate for the lack of compatibility.

 

On 07/10/2017 at 10:29 PM, politas said:

This can be done with the CLI like this:

ckan install AwesomeMod=v3.4

It would be good to add this functionality to the mod version list in the GUI.

On 07/10/2017 at 11:13 PM, SilverlightPony said:

People have been asking for this for a while, but it never seems to happen.  I'm pretty sure I brought it up last year, and got shot down, although I can't remember the reasoning given at the time.

Really, this applies to everything--if something can be done via CLI, it should also be possible via GUI (with appropriate "do this at your own risk" warnings, as necessary).

 

It can also be done in the GUI now. Not elegant but possible. I am not sure how well documented the feature is.

Since the Compatible Ksp Versions window can allow older mods to appear. Use it to select the older prior versions and then update in again to make the list of mods current. The nice thing here is warning text on the GUI. End users should accept full responsibility if they force install.

I found this to be a quick way to check out old mods after a KSP update.

 

Edited October 9, 2017 by nobodyhasthis2

[SilverlightPony]

28 minutes ago, nobodyhasthis2 said:

It can also be done in the GUI now. Not elegant but possible. I am not sure how well documented the feature is.

Since the Compatible Ksp Versions window can allow older mods to appear. Use it to select the older prior versions and then update in again to make the list of mods current. The nice thing here is warning text on the GUI. End users should accept full responsibility if they force install.

I found this to be a quick way to check out old mods after a KSP update.

Ah, I was not aware of this, nice.  Still, it would be nice to be able to do this on a per-mod basis.

[Drakomis]

2 hours ago, nobodyhasthis2 said:

 

It can also be done in the GUI now. Not elegant but possible. I am not sure how well documented the feature is.

Since the Compatible Ksp Versions window can allow older mods to appear. Use it to select the older prior versions and then update in again to make the list of mods current. The nice thing here is warning text on the GUI. End users should accept full responsibility if they force install.

I found this to be a quick way to check out old mods after a KSP update.

 

Hey, thanks Nobodyhasthis2!

[wenth]

is there a way to auto install older versions of mods?

[politas]

10 hours ago, nobodyhasthis2 said:

 

It can also be done in the GUI now. Not elegant but possible. I am not sure how well documented the feature is.

Since the Compatible Ksp Versions window can allow older mods to appear. Use it to select the older prior versions and then update in again to make the list of mods current. The nice thing here is warning text on the GUI. End users should accept full responsibility if they force install.

I found this to be a quick way to check out old mods after a KSP update.

 

This lets you install mods that are not marked compatible with the current KSP version, but it doesn't let you select an older version of a mod to force a mod release downgrade.

[nobodyhasthis2]

12 hours ago, politas said:

This lets you install mods that are not marked compatible with the current KSP version, but it doesn't let you select an older version of a mod to force a mod release downgrade.

Yeah, your right of course. My only concern here is people may be asking the wrong question. The question is do people actually mean they want the "old version". Say 'AwesomeMod=v3.4 ' instead of 'AwesomeMod=v4.0' ?

Or do they actually want the "not marked compatible version". AwesomeMod marked KSP 1.3.0 only to loaded in KSP 1.3.1 ?

I think what people usally want. Is most often is the second choice. Is to not have to wait for a mods CKAN metadata to be updated when KSP upgrades. A way to get mods not marked as compatible when KSP upgrades. In rare cases we do want we do want to go backwards to a old version of the mod and the CLI choice is the way to go for those happy to use it. However for most people if they change the current KSP version. Load pervious mods. Then revert upwards to the real current KSP version. They get the mods not marked compatible with the current KSP version. Which is normally what they are really after.

The logic that I am using here could be flawed but it does have some historical significance. The email traffic for "when is the mod on CKAN?" jumps up after a KSP version bump. This used to be a huge issue when we moved to 1.0.4  With more stable KSP builds authors did not always feel the need to update .version files, or update their mod's metadata coming out of the old * site. Since then we all moved on and things are better now. None the less I still feel the real issue is a lack of patience on the part of end users that just can't wait to use mods on the latest KSP build. Who can blame them, KSP is awsome. Whilst the same can be said of mod authors who already give us so much of their free time. This consumer behaviour of demanding updates is what got us into the whole " fuzzy version number" debate a few years ago. Which is concept we should not be going back to now.

On the other hand. In the case where people do actually want a mod downgrade. The requests for down grading mods against the current KSP version seem rare to me. Normally they happen when a new release is broken in some way or there is some other mod conflict. Your mileage may vary here on how common the problem of going back to an older mod version really is.

I also must say, to be totally honest here. I may be a little bit bias here in terms of CKAN development time. I would rather encourage people to investigate the current solutions before asking for yet another way to force updates.  Up or down. For the majority of people the solution may closer that they think and saves the CKAN team a lot of time in the long run. It is a tough one but there is perhaps bigger issues in CKAN to handle first?

So I say try the Compatible Ksp Versions window first please. If that is not the GUI your looking for. No harm done. There is always the CLI if there is really a burning need to have a particular mod version.

 

[Murdabenne]

This is not really a functional addition, but something I think would be useful.  Is there a way we could mark or tag a mod so that when it updated to a given version, we could filter for it?  

It would be nice to have a "set it and forget it"  mod list that's locked to the latest version so I know when its safe to upgrade, and my career game will not get trashed.

Here is the reasoning: when we have a version upgrade from Squad, especially one that introduces crashes (or bad bugs in the mods, or large incompatibilities), I stay with the previous version until the mods I want are *all* updated/safe for the new version.  With the ability to flag/tag and filter based on the version of mod and version of the game, I lock my current to the older version of the game and use CKAN to update only "safe" mods for 1.3.0.  But I have to manually go and check to see whats been done for 1.3.1, and what is not yet done, basically going thru the list here like a kid with Pokemon cards: got it, need it, got it, got it, need it...  several times a week until all the mods I must have are done.  Then I have to dump my list of installed mods from the 1.3.0 game, edit the file, remove ones that aren't updated, trim out the version info, then install using that list for CKAN in a new directory.

EDIT: This need not even be part of CKAN proper, just something that can use the APIs and existing code/infrastructure to check the list for updates in the databases. Maybe even a stand alone applet, or a CKAN add-on.

 

Edited October 10, 2017 by Murdabenne
clarification

[HebaruSan]

25 minutes ago, Murdabenne said:

This is not really a functional addition, but something I think would be useful.  Is there a way we could mark or tag a mod so that when it updated to a given version, we could filter for it?  

It would be nice to have a "set it and forget it"  mod list that's locked to the latest version so I know when its safe to upgrade, and my career game will not get trashed.

What about sorting by the checkbox column in the GUI (to float your installed mods to the top) and then inspecting the "Max KSP version" column? Once the entries in that column all say 1.3.1 or higher, it should be safe to upgrade.