Celestia

[heinar]

What if that isn't possible? The only linux link is this autopackage that I can tell.

[heinar]

If there is no other option I can find, what should I do?

[kleeman]

Go to the "Software Sources" app (System----> Administration). Make sure that the "Community maintained Open Source Software (universe)" radio button is filled.

Got to the Add/Remove... menu item in Applications. Search for celestia. Install and profit.

[skywatcher]

I have just installed Celestia on Intrepid with Synaptic, but it doesn't work correctly.

I installed the KDE frontend which has a few (limited) menu items. It also doesn't show any stars, even when I select this option, although it does show the star names (e.g. the members of the Pleyades).

I then removed the KDE frontend and installed the GNOME frontend. Celestia now has a different appearance, but I cannot get to the menus - they briefly appear when I click on them in the menu bar, but then disappear again.

Has anyone experienced this problem?

[vanadium]

You will need to disable desktop effects while you run Celestia. For many graphical cards, compiz still does not work well together with applications that use 3D acceleration themselves (Celestia, Google earth, ...).

If you do not want to loose all your custom compiz settings, do this with the command line:

metacity --replace

and

compiz --replace

to switch back to compiz. Do this preferably with no applications open.

[skywatcher]

Thanks, Vanadium, that solves the problem, although I don't understand why!

[vanadium]

Compiz is the new Windows manager that features nice and sometimes spectacular visual effects. These rely among other things on 3D acceleration, provided by your graphical card.

Compiz still has to be considered as early software, though. In addition, many graphical cards with proprietary drivers are difficult to control by the free software community. For these reasons, compiz does not always go well together (yet) with other software that also intensively interacts with the graphical card.

As a workaround, you temporarily revert to the "traditional" window manager, metacity.

[skywatcher]

Thanks, now I understand.

Sorry to be a nuisance, but maybe you could give me some advice on scripting: is it possible to write a script that would switch to metacity, then run Celestia, then switch back to compiz when Celestia is closed? Or is this asking too much?

[vanadium]

Or is this asking too much?

I don't think so. It is three lines of code (actually four)

#!/bin/bash
metacity --replace
celestia
compiz --replace

You store this in a text file, for example "celest". Then store the text file in a convenient location. I use a directory "bin" in my home directory. Give the file execute permissions (right-click in nautilus, properties).

Now you can change the menu item for celestia such that it calls "celest" instead of "celestia-gnome" (you need to provide the full path: "~/bin/celest".

[skywatcher]

Works like a charm after a minor change:

#!/bin/bash
metacity --replace &
celestia
compiz --replace &

Thanks -- you're a star! (No pun )