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Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby wlbragg » Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:51 pm

Anyone have a foolproof way to display the console while running FlightGear when started by the QT-launcher?
I used to have --launcher --console appended to the Start in: shortcut (WIn10) and that always worked fine for me.
("C:\Program Files\FlightGear 2016.3.0\bin\fgfs.exe" --launcher --console)

After installing the latest Win Nightly I can no longer get the console to show.
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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing  

Postby Hooray » Sat Sep 03, 2016 8:14 pm

have you tried starting the launcher/fgfs itself from a terminal window ?
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Re: Running FlightGear with with console showing

Postby Alant » Sat Sep 03, 2016 8:45 pm

To show the console it is now necessary to start from the command line.

The full method that I use is as follows. I will detail all of the steps to help those who are not familiar with Windows and the command line. If you already have fgfs as a desktop icon, steps 2 and 3 speed things up a lot.

1 Make a shortcut to FGFS on the desktop. To do this open the folder that contains fgfs.exe and right-click drag fgfs to the desktop. This creates a shortcut icon.
2. Right-click the FGFS desktop icon and select "open file location". This is a simple way to open the folder that contails fgfs.exe.
3.Left click the File tab on the window showing the fgfs directory. Wih the left mouse button held down select "Open command prompt".
4.A black windows command box will open (still known by many as the DOS command window). The directory will be the one containg fgfs.exe. Typing the Dir command will show other programs, such as fgrun, that are contained in this directory.
5. Type the command fgfs, followed by any of the normal fgfs arguments, such as --aircraft, --airport., and flightgear will run.
6. For ease of use set up a .fgfsrc file as described in the main documentation. However be aware that .fgfsrs options conflict badly with the new launcher, and the .fgfsrc file needs to be disabled (I move it to another directory) when you use the launcher.
7 You can also start flightgear using the command fgrun in this "DOS" box, or you can start with the newlauncher with the comand fgfs --launcher .

All of the flightgear and fgrun log messages will now apear in the "DOS" window.

The reason for changing to this system and getting rid of the old --console option, was to make the error reporting (STDERR) work properly.

Sorry for teaching what most of you already know.

Alan

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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby wlbragg » Sat Sep 03, 2016 8:58 pm

Thanks Hooray, that actually works, but I really would like to know why the other quit working?

EDIT prior to posting:

The reason for changing to this system and getting rid of the old --console option, was to make the error reporting (STDERR) work properly.


Alan, a much quicker and more convenient method is to create a bat file with the following.
Code: Select all
"C:\Program Files\FlightGear 2016.3.0\bin\fgfs.exe" --launcher

Obviously using whatever options you want or need.

Can you point out the commit that changed the old behavior?
I don't understand how removing an optional startup parameter was needed to make error reporting work? Maybe to make it work if someone was using that option, but that seems unnecessary to limit options for a subset of potential error reports.

Thank you for verifying that it is a change in the code.


Also I have one other problem. All my osm2city scenery no longer works. It acts like it recognizes it, It's set up identical to the way I did it before. It just doesn't show up in the scenery.
Console shows the correct paths

Code: Select all
F:\FlightGear>"C:\Program Files\FlightGear 2016.3.0\bin\fgfs.exe" --launcher

        option:fg-scenery = F:/fgdev/scenery/kansas/output
        option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Butler
        option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Douglas
        option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Greenwood
        option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Lyon
        option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Sedgwick
        option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Shawnee
        option:terrasync-dir = C:\ProgramData\flightgear.org\TerraSync

terrasync-dir = "C:/ProgramData/flightgear.org/TerraSync"
aircraft-search-paths =
        F:/FlightGear/Custom Aircrafts
scenery-search-paths =
        F:/fgdev/scenery/kansas/output
        F:/fgdev/scenery/kansas/output/Terrain
        F:/fgdev/scenery/kansas/output/Objects

        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Butler
        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Butler/Objects

        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Douglas
        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Douglas/Objects

        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Greenwood
        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Greenwood/Objects

        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Lyon
        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Lyon/Objects

        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Sedgwick
        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Sedgwick/Objects

        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Shawnee
        D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Shawnee/Objects

        C:/ProgramData/flightgear.org/TerraSync
        C:/ProgramData/flightgear.org/TerraSync/Terrain
        C:/ProgramData/flightgear.org/TerraSync/Objects


Looks correct in the log
Code: Select all
general:3:G:\Jenkins\workspace\Windows-nightly\flightgear\src\Main\options.cxx:2338:   option:fg-scenery = F:/fgdev/scenery/kansas/output
general:3:G:\Jenkins\workspace\Windows-nightly\flightgear\src\Main\options.cxx:2338:   option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Butler
general:3:G:\Jenkins\workspace\Windows-nightly\flightgear\src\Main\options.cxx:2338:   option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Douglas
general:3:G:\Jenkins\workspace\Windows-nightly\flightgear\src\Main\options.cxx:2338:   option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Greenwood
general:3:G:\Jenkins\workspace\Windows-nightly\flightgear\src\Main\options.cxx:2338:   option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Lyon
general:3:G:\Jenkins\workspace\Windows-nightly\flightgear\src\Main\options.cxx:2338:   option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Sedgwick
general:3:G:\Jenkins\workspace\Windows-nightly\flightgear\src\Main\options.cxx:2338:   option:fg-scenery = D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Shawnee
general:3:G:\Jenkins\workspace\Windows-nightly\flightgear\src\Main\options.cxx:2338:   option:terrasync-dir = C:\ProgramData\flightgear.org\TerraSync

general:3:G:\Jenkins\workspace\Windows-nightly\flightgear\src\Main\fg_init.cxx:676:scenery-search-paths =
   F:/fgdev/scenery/kansas/output
   F:/fgdev/scenery/kansas/output/Terrain
   F:/fgdev/scenery/kansas/output/Objects
   
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Butler
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Butler/Objects
   
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Douglas
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Douglas/Objects
   
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Greenwood
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Greenwood/Objects
   
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Lyon
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Lyon/Objects
   
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Sedgwick
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Sedgwick/Objects
   
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Shawnee
   D:/FlightGear/osm2city/Kansas/custom/Shawnee/Objects
   
   C:/ProgramData/flightgear.org/TerraSync
   C:/ProgramData/flightgear.org/TerraSync/Terrain
   C:/ProgramData/flightgear.org/TerraSync/Objects


I'm stumped?

LATE EDIT:
Now I suppose I could try to add the additional/optional scenery to the bat file switches, but again, what changed in the launcher to cause this no longer to work especially as the launcher actually has a place for optional scenery params.

I guess using the --console option was causing failure. I forgot to remove it from the above bat file also and it was causing the osm2city load failure.
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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby Alant » Sat Sep 03, 2016 9:44 pm

It was e2216891be35654b85187e9796298cdbc165931b, dated 21 July.

The reason is that a console window opened by an application (e.g. running fgfs --console) is not the same as a native windows command window from which an application (e.g. fgfs) is started typing a command at the prompt.. It was discovered that error reports were not being sent to a console window that was opened with the --console option. Also it was not possible to pipe output to a file from the window that was opened by the fgfs --console method. For historical reasons the fgfs log file is not (as many folk believe) the same as the log printed in the console window.

Your batch example will start flightgear, but will not in itself open a "DOS" command window and show the console log, which is what the OP was asking about..

--console is now deprecated and does nothing.

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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby wlbragg » Sat Sep 03, 2016 9:54 pm

Again thank you for the info.

Alant wrote in Sat Sep 03, 2016 9:44 pm:Your batch example will start flightgear, but will not in itself open a "DOS" command window and show the console log, which is what the OP was asking about..

Yes, it does!
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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby Alant » Sat Sep 03, 2016 10:23 pm

Yes it does --of course it does. Much simpler.

However running flightgear from an already open command window has one small advantage - when flightgear exits (or crashes) the command window, complete with the log messages, stays open. Running from a batch file (unless one puts a "press any button to continue" trap at the end of the batch file) closes the window, and you don´t know what lead to the crash.

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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby PINTO » Sun Sep 04, 2016 4:51 am

You can also use FFGo. =]
Actively developing the MiG-21bis (github repo) (forum thread) (dev discord) (fg wiki)

http://opredflag.com is an active flightgear dogfighting community (using a system that isn’t bombable)
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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby Hooray » Sun Sep 04, 2016 8:27 am

Thanks to Alant for elaborating on my suggestion, I am not on Windows, so I am not in a good position to actually provide the exact steps - but executing "command" or "cmd" should usually do the trick, if you set up a bat file, you can also set up FG_ROOT etc upfront.

Anyway, I've taken the liberty and added Alant's instructions to the wiki, so that people can more easily find those in the future: http://wiki.flightgear.org/Howto:Showin ... ar_console

Please do feel free to help review/extend and improve that article, e.g. by adding a handful of screenshots to help illustrate the process, or even a corresponding youtube video.
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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby Alant » Sun Sep 04, 2016 9:58 am

I have added a section showing the wllbragg batch file method.

Hooray - thanks for tidying up my formatting.

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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby Hooray » Sun Sep 04, 2016 10:15 am

The irony is that so much work is put into deprecating the "DOS box" (console), whereas we on the forum have to walk people through re-obtaining said functionality again - all this seems a little like some core development priorities are a bit out of touch with the user community at times - I mean, we can literally find threads dating back to early 2012/2013 where people suggested to phase out the legacy DOS box in favor of some integrated method, but we are now seeing that this may not be such a bad thing after all - and unless the people removing such options are also volunteering to troubleshoot on the forum, I think it's counter-productive to add even more workload here, so that it may be better to simply leave it alone and prioritize other things, such as segfaults or crashes relating to the navcache ... the whole DOS box thing is cosmetics only after all ... it's like it's improving anything from a functionality standpoint

</2cents>
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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby Alant » Sun Sep 04, 2016 10:29 am

Windows 10 is adding more "DOS box" capabilities.
As well as the familiar black window it has something called Windows Powershell, which is more user friendly and has a windows look and feel.
The latest Windows 10 update adds a linux bash shell, but I have not tried that yet. http://www.howtogeek.com/249966/how-to- ... indows-10/
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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby Hooray » Sun Sep 04, 2016 10:55 am

Powershell is an old thing meanwhile, it's extremely powerful actually - much better than the conventional DOS shell, we previously talked about it on the forum: search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keywords=powershell

The Linux shell is an interesting idea, but I doubt it will really catch on - roughly ~15 years ago, the usual suggestion was to build fgfs via Cygwin, which is how most Windows folks would end up with a bash environment despite running Windows ...

Personally, I simply doubt it's that worthwhile to remove these capabilities, it's not like FlightGear is such a polished piece of software that people would never require access to the startup logs, and we can hardly provide effective support to newcomers without certain data - completely removing these things is not a good idea until some "CrashRpt" equivalent is working correctly, and once it is really used and the corresponding data evaluated - but until then, the forum probably remains the primary channel to provide end-user support
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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby Hooray » Tue Sep 06, 2016 10:33 pm

So, could we get someone on Windows to please contribute a few screenshots to help improve the new article ?

http://wiki.flightgear.org/Special:UploadWizard
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Re: Running FlightGear with console showing

Postby Octal450 » Thu Sep 22, 2016 11:17 pm

I'm running Windows, What do you need?

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