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Using the Loki Update Tool FAQ
Last Updated on: 2001-05-16 16:01:42
This is where you will find useful information about the Loki Update Tool. The following are answers to some frequently asked questions about this game. Please read these before e-mailing Loki Technical Support - Chances are your question is answered here too!
This FAQ is modelled on the Linux HOWTO documents for consistency and ease of navigation.
loki_update-full-1.0.10-(arch).run from http://updates.lokigames.com/.
This is a self-extracting setup program, which will then launch the installer when you run it.
This file can be executed with:
sh loki_update-full-1.0.10-(arch).run
(arch) will be one of: x86 (Intel x86 and compatible processors, e.g. AMD, Cyrix); ppc (PowerPC); alpha (Alpha); or sparc64 (Sparc64).
You should install loki_update as the same userid which is normally used to install Loki games and demos on your system.
/usr/local/Loki_Update (or wherever you choose to install the Loki Update tool).loki_update will automatically update itself when you launch it (unless you tell it to behave otherwise).
You may also manually download patches from ftp://ftp.lokigames.com/pub/updates/loki_update/ and apply them yourself.
--noselfcheck option, e.g.:
loki_update --noselfcheck
This will bypass the auto-update self check.loki_update --version' indicates that you are running 1.0.6, you will need to update loki_update like this:
loki_update loki_update
otherwise the later patches will not apply.
Note that this will download the patch twice, and it will fail to apply the second time, due to a minor issue with self-updating in 1.0.6.
You also have the option of re-installing the new base-line version, which is already 1.0.10.
loki_update --help)
The options can be any of:
--verbose Print verbose messages to standard output
--noselfcheck Skip check for updates for the update tool
--tmppath PATH Use PATH as the temporary download path
--update_url URL Use URL as the list of product updates
You may also specify a product (e.g. tribes2, or loki_demos) on the command-line, to force an update of only that one product, e.g.:
loki_update [options] tribes2
and you can specify a directory to re-register with ~/.loki/installed, e.g.:
loki_update [options] /path/to/game
loki_update is based on libsnarf,
and so it understands all the environment variables that snarf does.
This includes:
SNARF_PROXYHTTP_PROXYFTP_PROXY
export SNARF_PROXY=http://proxy:3128/
for a fairly default configuration.
A proxy using authentication should be able to be used with protocol://userid:password@host:port/, e.g.:
export SNARF_PROXY=http://my_id:my_passwd@proxy:3128/
loki_update can be launched when X is not running, but currently only in a non-interactive mode.
(There is also a library dependency, see below.)
You will need to specify the product name on the command-line, e.g.:
loki_update tribes2
The available product names are:
loki_demosloki_updateloki_uninstallcivctpdescent3eusheretic2hg2myth2rt2sc3usoftribes2
Note that loki_update currently depends on three X libraries: libXi.so.6, libXext.so.6, and libX11.so.6.
These dependencies will be removed in a future version, but in the meantime an installation of those client libraries should be enough to allow loki_update to launch on systems entirely devoid of X.
--tmppath option, e.g.:
loki_update --tmppath /path/to/somewhere/with/space/
This will use the specified directory to store the temporary files. (The default location is ~/.loki/loki_update/tmp).
You may also use the TMPDIR environment variable.
(This feature was fixed in 1.0.10.)
/usr/games/,
/usr/local/games/,
/home/,
/home/games/,
/opt/,
/opt/games/
If you have the games installed somewhere else (for this example, /mygames/ is used),
you can launch loki_update from inside that directory and the games will be found.
For example:
cd /mygames
loki_update
Doing a scan of the entire hard-drive has been suggested in the past, but for obvious reasons, it is impractical and, in many cases, problematic -- with Linux mounting everything into a single filesystem, a search could (theoretically) bog down a large network using NIS+ if not very carefully pruned. Since we offer the ability to launch it from within the directory in which the games are installed, it should cover all bases at this point.
If the games have been patched with loki_update-compatible patches (or the games were released after loki_update was introduced), they will have a .manifest directory.
This is a very important directory, as it stores the product version and paths to the associated files.
Information from this directory is sym-linked to the installing user's ~/.loki/installed/ directory.
If this symbolic link is lost, or the installing user's ~/.loki/installed/ directory becomes inaccurate, loki_update can be run this way:
loki_update /path/to/game/to/restore
and loki_update will refresh ~/.loki/installed/ for that particular product.pub/updates/ on our ftp site (ftp://ftp.lokigames.com/pub/updates/) and the various mirrors.
You can download the patches by hand and apply them, or you can download all the updates for a given product, burn them onto a CD, and use the --update_url switch to use the CD's contents to update your Loki programs.~/.loki/loki_update/tmp (or whatever alternate temporary directory you specified) to some safe location.loki_update is an Open Source project, and you can get the source from http://www.lokigames.com/development/loki_update.php3
You will also need setupdb
Both are available from the Loki CVS server (http://cvs.lokigames.com/)
Building the tool from source is not supported, and the Loki Update Tool will not be able to update itself automatically.
If you choose to install loki_update this way, you will need to keep it current yourself.
If you want to look at how it was done, or make your own personal tweaks, please do so! Just be aware that you will need to manually update your copy from source whenever we release a patch (if you want to stay current).