FAQ

We hope your question is addressed here. Curent freeciv version is 1.8.0pre2. If you've got an older version, please update to current version. Mail me Nicolas Brunel this FAQs maintainer if you can't find an answer here.

Well, we got questions here, and explanations, but not necessarily solutions. If you know how to fix a problem, please mail Nicolas so he can include it here.
 
I can start the client and the server Ok, but then the menus in the client don't work!
 
The client is waiting for the server to tell it that the game has started. Try typing "s" for "start" into the server.
 
I just installed Freeciv, started the server and somebody or something started to talk ?
 
if you are online and start the civserver without the -n option, it will announce itself at the Freeciv metaserver, and other players will see your server.
 
My Freeciv client dumps core when I start it!
 
» 90% of the time, this problem is caused by linking with an enhanced version of the Xaw Athena widgets, such as Xaw-3d or Xaw-95.

As supplied in the official .tar.gz files, Freeciv is only compatible with the original Xaw, and linking with one of the enhanced versions will cause a segmentation fault when you start it.

There are two ways of working around this:

  • Freeciv now works with Xaw-3d. Use configure --with-xaw3d.
  • If your machine has a static version of the original Xaw library, then you can try linking against that. (This idea was suggested by David V Anderson <dva at ee.gatech.edu>).

    To do this, hunt through the Makefiles and change lines which contain "-lXaw" to "/usr/X11/lib/libXaw.a", or wherever libXaw.a is stored on your machine.

Wanted : If someone wants to send me details of how to write a program which checks for an enhanced version of Xaw, it would be really appreciated.

» 10% of the time, you really do have a problem and you should report it to the developer's mailing list, by sending it to freeciv-dev@freeciv.org .

 
The Freeciv graphics are rather poor. Wasn't there a patch that improved the graphics?
 
We tried to improved the graphics with the new tiles sets. The default tiles set was done by Ralf Engel. To have a tiles set which looks like the classic one use civclient -tiles classic. See our graphics section for more informations.
 
Xaw is lame, you guys should do a port to gtk+ !!
 
Yes, we know. There is a port done now. If you'd like to help, the person to speak to is Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa vasc@camoes.rnl.ist.utl.pt . This client is stable enough to be used. Try it at http://camoes.rnl.ist.utl.pt/~vasc.
 
Is there a "tree" of the advances?
 
Yes, David Pfitzner has a good tree. Check out his web page at http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~dwp/freeciv/ .
 
How do I get the latest source to Freeciv using cvs?
 
You can access the latest version with your browser. Or you can use cvs. Using cvs will let you get read-only access to the very latest Freeciv source. Note this is development source, and it may contain bugs. Here's how:


  1. Obtain, compile and install cvs on your Unix machine. You can get cvs from Cyclic Software .

  2. Set your CVSROOT environment variable:

    • If you're using Bourne shell, do it like this: 
             CVSROOT=:pserver:freecvs@www.freeciv.org:/home/freeciv/CVS
             export CVSROOT
      Your shell might allow you to combine these two lines like this: 
             export CVSROOT=:pserver:freecvs@www.freeciv.org:/home/freeciv/CVS
    • If you're using C shell, do it like this: 
             setenv CVSROOT :pserver:freecvs@www.freeciv.org:/home/freeciv/CVS
  3. Tell the cvs server who you are:

    cvs login     (the password is freecvs)

  4. Grab yourself the source! (Note, do this once only)

    cvs co freeciv

    If you want to receive further updates, cd into the freeciv directory, then use cvs update.


And now you've got a freeciv directory with the latest source!

Another useful cvs command is:

cvs diff -u

This shows you the changes you've made to the source.

Also, to speed things up over a network, add a -z9 flag immediately after the cvs command. This causes all network traffic to be compressed.

If you'd like to know more about cvs, try here .

 
I'm having troubles compiling under Solaris!
 

Sigh. Compiling under Solaris always caused problems, but they've mostly been sorted out between 1.7.1 and 1.7.2. Upgrade before you do anything else.

Solaris (2.5 and up) has its own version of X in /usr/openwin its own version of make in /usr/ccs/bin/make and its own compiler (purchased separately) which, if you have it, is available in /opt/SUNWspro/bin. It does not have the xpm library.

Many Solaris installations also have MIT X (usually, in /usr/X11), GNU make, and gcc. The xpm library is often installed somewhere. The standard command ./configure && make may not be able to find your xpm library and it is likely to confuse the different versions. Make sure your environment variables, especially $PATH and $LD_LIBRARY_PATH, and the ./configure options do not point to an inconsistent set of software, and compiling will be fine.

A simple recipe to compile with Sun X, Sun make and Sun cc, assuming the xpm libraries are on their own in the nonstandard location /path/to/xpm:

  • setenv PATH /opt/SUNWspro/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/bin
  • unsetenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH
  • ./configure --with-xpm-prefix=/path/to/xpm --disable-cvs-deps && make

The --disable-cvs-deps prevents ./configure from creating Makefiles specific to GNU make. The symptoms of this happening:

  • make: Fatal error in reader: Makefile, line 214: = missing from replacement macro reference
  • make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `all-recursive'

Alternatively, you can set up your $PATH and ./configure to use only GNU tools. Furthermore, Freeciv is known to compile with MIT X, and with certain combinations of GNU and Sun tools. The exact recipes depend on your local installation.

 
How do I change the font?
 
You can change the font with X resources. You can specify them on the command line with the -xrm command-line option, or put them in your .Xdefaults file or the Freeciv app-defaults file.

To change the main font, try something like: 

	  civclient -xrm "Freeciv*font: 8x16"
If the font isn't fixed width, some on the dialogs won't look right, although they'll still work.
 
Can I suggest a question?
 
Sure. Mail it to me and I'll include it. (And if you also mail me the answer, that'd be even better!!)


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