The Comprehensive Kerbal Archive Network (CKAN) Package Manager; v1.18.0 [19 June 2016]

[nobodyhasthis2]

1 hour ago, Torih said:

@GoldenGonzo Stock Bug fixes mod has not been updated to 1.1 yet so nothing to do with ckan till the mod maker does his bit.

As for Eve I think it has the latest version on ckan but hard to tell since ckan lists the version differently to the mod maker for some reason.

The following is only my personal view and not the view of the CKAN team. I have nothing to do with them. I sponsor pjf and that is all. 

Yes Eve is on CKAN. The index is done by the awesome people in CKAN development. Not the author. Part of the trouble in the past has been keeping track of the "exotic" version numbering scheme used in Eve. I have had to flag this up in the passed as it does get sorted out very fast. Right now CKAN should be in date. Keep an eye on it and let the team know if things slip.

Edited April 22, 2016 by nobodyhasthis2

[plague006]

16 hours ago, Mystique said:

I need to: 

1. Remove some parts from mod.

2. Modify some stuff in mod (like config file).

No there's currently no working part manager.  I personally use Felger's Autopruner for purpose. As I go through the parts I write them into a custom .prnl file so that I can run it every time there's a relevant update.

No CKAN does not track changes to files. If you update a mod though, CKAN will delete all the content it installed before re-installing the new version. So if a mod comes with config files packed, an upgrade will revert them to the default. CKAN doesn't track files it doesn't install though, so if the configs are created post-install they won't be touched by CKAN (unfortunately this also means they won't be uninstalled if you remove the mod).

[Bit Fiddler]

What about some Booleans  that mod makers can setup in a .cfg file for things like "parts only", "MM config only", "Has .dll", etc.  so as we brows the mod list we can sort for parts only mods etc.

 

EDIT:  or if this is possible to see automatically?  search the files for file types etc.?  not sure how this would work out

Edited April 22, 2016 by Bit Fiddler

[NecroBones]

13 hours ago, plague006 said:

 so if the configs are created post-install they won't be touched by CKAN (unfortunately this also means they won't be uninstalled if you remove the mod).

 

Sadly this can cause some confusion, since if the mod's folder still exists, then ModuleManager will think the mod is still there for purposes of conditional rules in other mods. It can cause havoc with mods that support compatibility with other mods. I'm not sure what the best solution would be.

 

[nobodyhasthis2]

6 minutes ago, NecroBones said:

Sadly this can cause some confusion, since if the mod's folder still exists, then ModuleManager will think the mod is still there for purposes of conditional rules in other mods. It can cause havoc with mods that support compatibility with other mods. I'm not sure what the best solution would be.

Ironically I posted the answer to this was on the previous page. Without repeating the whole thing. After a mod is removed users have to manually clean extra stuff created by the mod itself. Seriously cannot stress that enough. Especially when a corrupted mod is released. If the mod author wants a clean install. Just make sure this happens.

Putting this functionality into CKAN can cause more harm that doing it manually. There just some very good technical reasons not automate things too much. I think in the long term this will need to be addressed one day but right now. Is better just to accept the current functionality. 

  

[Uace24]

I have NET 4.5 instaled on windows and i was able to run CKAN but i cant anymore. It gives me a bunch of null references and .cmdline errors and .runtime errors what can i do to fix this i am on the latest release.

 

[NecroBones]

2 hours ago, nobodyhasthis2 said:

Ironically I posted the answer to this was on the previous page. Without repeating the whole thing. After a mod is removed users have to manually clean extra stuff created by the mod itself. Seriously cannot stress that enough. Especially when a corrupted mod is released. If the mod author wants a clean install. Just make sure this happens.

Putting this functionality into CKAN can cause more harm that doing it manually. There just some very good technical reasons not automate things too much. I think in the long term this will need to be addressed one day but right now. Is better just to accept the current functionality. 

  

 

Normally I'd agree, but the problem is that a lot of users won't think to clean up after CKAN manually, and instead they contact the mod authors wondering why things are broken.

 

[FreeThinker]

removed

Edited April 22, 2016 by FreeThinker

[nobodyhasthis2]

2 hours ago, NecroBones said:

Normally I'd agree, but the problem is that a lot of users won't think to clean up after CKAN manually, and instead they contact the mod authors wondering why things are broken.

Yes and your point is very valid. I agree with every word you said. If fact this was the central theme in my issue report. I feel that the system is not intuitive and most users still make mistakes. 

The trouble is a fix gets complicated quite fast. Before even thinking about how hard it is to write code. My issue report got a bit long in the end trying to decided if deleting folders in Gamedata was a valid idea. It includes links to all the passed discussions, technical problems and ideas to improve things. I offer up reasons not to do it along side the benefits. If anyone is interested it can be found here #1610

Just to give a clue how hard this is. Consider that CKAN is not even running when some config files are created. Mods can carry out their own install functions. Getting CKAN to clean up afterwards is a rather tricky task to pull off.

Edited April 22, 2016 by nobodyhasthis2

[NecroBones]

 

I think one possibility would be for the CKAN client to see if it was able to remove the mod folders or not, and alert the user, asking whether they want a hard removal (delete the folders created by those mods, no matter what's inside), or just leave it alone, and give them some indication of what the ramifications might be for both of those choices.

 

[nobodyhasthis2]

1 hour ago, NecroBones said:

I think one possibility would be for the CKAN client to see if it was able to remove the mod folders or not, and alert the user, asking whether they want a hard removal (delete the folders created by those mods, no matter what's inside), or just leave it alone, and give them some indication of what the ramifications might be for both of those choices.

It can remove folders that bit is easy. Unfortunately there is absolutely no standard folder layout for mods. Mod authors all like to do their own thing and that is fine. Some mods share folders. Sometimes the dependency path gets complex as well. External mod config files for RO/RSS are also another point to consider. To get it right the whole Gamedata folder needs to be backed up before the zip files are dropped into it. There may even be a case for deleting the Gamedata folder and reinstalling via a backup .ckan 

I created that issue on Github to record stuff like this so please leave suggestions there. I know code is king and Github is not a chat forum but sometimes we do need to make hard policy decisions. Your views are especially valued there because your are a mod author. There just might be a case in the future where you will need config files removed but the users will not do it because they don't understand what has gone wrong.

Edited April 22, 2016 by nobodyhasthis2

[Galahir950]

Can you please add the ability to Turn mods On and Off, regardless of KSP Version compatibility? This would better allow us to troubleshoot which mods are causing and issue, especially after an update like 1.1.

You would just move the folder/files in the GameData folder to a subfolder in the CKAN folder.

[CompB]

Question about the ckan version.

When I check ckan setings, it says my local version is v1.16.1-0-g2e91715 (beta), latest version v1.16.1 aka Plasma Window.

The Install Update button is disabled.

Is this a problem? I installed the latest version from github, with no change.

Thanks!

[politas]

9 minutes ago, CompB said:

Question about the ckan version.

When I check ckan setings, it says my local version is v1.16.1-0-g2e91715 (beta), latest version v1.16.1 aka Plasma Window.

The Install Update button is disabled.

Is this a problem? I installed the latest version from github, with no change.

Thanks!

That's the latest release. The number after the first dash is used for running branched copies, and indicates the number of commits that have been applied to the code when it was built (in your case, none, indicating it is an unmodified release version), and the string after the second dash is the ID of the last commit, which lets us confirm the version of the code.

39 minutes ago, Galahir950 said:

Can you please add the ability to Turn mods On and Off, regardless of KSP Version compatibility? This would better allow us to troubleshoot which mods are causing and issue, especially after an update like 1.1.

You would just move the folder/files in the GameData folder to a subfolder in the CKAN folder.

CKAN has no ability to turn mods on and off, other than uninstalling and reinstalling, which is basically what you are asking for. The files that CKAN downloads and installs are all cached, so you can re-install them without having to download again.

5 hours ago, NecroBones said:

 

I think one possibility would be for the CKAN client to see if it was able to remove the mod folders or not, and alert the user, asking whether they want a hard removal (delete the folders created by those mods, no matter what's inside), or just leave it alone, and give them some indication of what the ramifications might be for both of those choices.

 

We don't know which mod created a folder, and even if we do, there's no reason that another mod may have installed things into the same folder. All the USI mods install into the same folder. Do we prompt the users to remove the USI directory because they've uninstalled one of them? (Thus breaking all the other mods.) Or having not deleted the directory when they uninstalled their first USI mod, do we leave the USI folder when they delete the last of them without asking, because _that_ mod didn't create it? There really have been a lot of discussions about this. The solution we have now is the least bad one.

[Hactar]

I'm often getting this error:

It happens when I am trying to apply changes, during the downloading phase. It's a little annoying, and I've learned to not install all my mods at once because of it. Hopefully this helps.

[NecroBones]

9 hours ago, politas said:

We don't know which mod created a folder, and even if we do, there's no reason that another mod may have installed things into the same folder. All the USI mods install into the same folder. Do we prompt the users to remove the USI directory because they've uninstalled one of them? (Thus breaking all the other mods.) Or having not deleted the directory when they uninstalled their first USI mod, do we leave the USI folder when they delete the last of them without asking, because _that_ mod didn't create it? There really have been a lot of discussions about this. The solution we have now is the least bad one.

 

Yeah, I totally understand. Without any standardization about how mods install themselves, it's hard to know who owns what, and so on. But I still feel like something could be at least a little better. I'm thinking of cases like "Firespitter Core", which provides very specific functionality that other mods need to be able to reliably detect. I'm wondering if there could be a flag on a per-mod basis in the metadata that just says "yes always delete my folder on removal" for specific cases like that.

 

 

[Tricky14]

How do I force CKAN to launch KSP in 64 bit mode?

[kcs123]

37 minutes ago, Tricky14 said:

How do I force CKAN to launch KSP in 64 bit mode?

Settings->KSP command line

Default value is this:

Quote

KSP.exe -single-instance

You should change it to something like this:

Quote

KSP_x64.exe -single-instance -force-d3d11

in cases that you also want to force DX11 to reduce main memory usage and better performance of GPU if it is capable enough

[Tricky14]

29 minutes ago, kcs123 said:

You should change it to something like this:

in cases that you also want to force DX11 to reduce main memory usage and better performance of GPU if it is capable enough

KSP crashes on startup when I add that line.

[nobodyhasthis2]

17 minutes ago, Tricky14 said:

KSP crashes on startup when I add that line.

Try it without forcing DX11. A bit of advice that probably still stands from pre-release. 

 KSP is built on the DX9 pipeline as this is the most stable, and to avoid introducing unknown variables. This is the pipeline chosen automatically, and in normal use, no further action is required. However, there may be some graphics glitches with other pipelines on some hardware. Your mileage may vary.

The use of alternatives is not officially supported, so we would prefer that issue reports (especially concerning graphics problems) are made for DX9 only (The default). The alternatives are provided as a courtesy and to allow for some workarounds with some hardware.. 

KSP 1.2 will be the graphics update

[politas]

3 hours ago, NecroBones said:

Yeah, I totally understand. Without any standardization about how mods install themselves, it's hard to know who owns what, and so on. But I still feel like something could be at least a little better. I'm thinking of cases like "Firespitter Core", which provides very specific functionality that other mods need to be able to reliably detect. I'm wondering if there could be a flag on a per-mod basis in the metadata that just says "yes always delete my folder on removal" for specific cases like that.

Well, maybe ModuleManager should do a better job of detecting the presence of a mod, like searching for a part or a .dll? Could people use better ModuleManager rules to avoid the issue? Seems to me there are several contributing factors, and all I ever hear is complaints about CKAN.

[John FX]

Just posting to let you know about an issue with Ambient Light Adjustment, CKAN says it has an update available but it can`t be downloaded.

Failed to download "https://spacedock.info/mod/184/Ambient Light Adjustment/download/2.5.6.4a" - error: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.

Looking at spacedock the update is not there (2.5.6.4a) only the previous version (2.5.6.4)

[politas]

3 minutes ago, John FX said:

Just posting to let you know about an issue with Ambient Light Adjustment, CKAN says it has an update available but it can`t be downloaded.

Failed to download "https://spacedock.info/mod/184/Ambient Light Adjustment/download/2.5.6.4a" - error: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.

Looking at spacedock the update is not there (2.5.6.4a) only the previous version (2.5.6.4)

The mod author must have deleted it, then.

[John FX]

2 minutes ago, politas said:

The mod author must have deleted it, then.

Just looked at their thread, it seems spacedock thought 2.5.6.4 was up but it was not so the author posted 2.5.6.4 `to tickle the CKAN bot` and get the mod to show on CKAN for people running 1.1, I don`t think everything worked how they wanted.

There never was a 2.5.6.4a, only the previous version although (i`m not sure) that may have been uploaded to spacedock twice or something..

Edited April 23, 2016 by John FX

[politas]

3 minutes ago, John FX said:

Just looked at their thread, it seems spacedock thought 2.5.6.4 was up but it was not so the author posted 2.5.6.4 `to tickle the CKAN bot` and get the mod to show on CKAN for people running 1.1, I don`t think everything worked how they wanted.

There never was a 2.5.6.4a, only the previous version although (i`m not sure) that may have been uploaded to spacedock twice or something..

AmbientLightAdjustment-2.5.6.4a is now deleted.