How do I play FlightGear in Debian with a small keyboard?

Trenix25

Trenix25

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I use a reduced size keyboard because I don't have a lot of desk space. I'm using a cutting board to hold up my little keyboard using the weight of a big monitor. The monitor uses up all of the desk space so I didn't have room for a keyboard so now I use a "floating keyboard" that sits on a wooden cutting board. I'm trying to play FlightGear and I selected Autostart, but it told me to check the throttle. It appears to want me to use the 9 and 3 keys on the numeric keypad that I don't have. I tried turning on the NumLock to simulate the keypad, but it didn't work. Any idea about how I can get FlightGear to work using my little keyboard? Sorry about the picture being a little blurry. I can't hold the little phone perfectly still for a few seconds straight. It also wouldn't let me download any other airplanes either. It said it was trying, but it didn't do anything.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 

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Some keyboards do a numlock thing that just uses the regular keyboard. You see this on small keyboards and some laptops.

This is an example:

a162890ed66d41fca97b281f1fae388d.jpg
 
@Trenix25 :-

Can't you use the '9' and '3' in the normal line of numeric keys along the top? Or won't that work?

The keycode values should be exactly the same, regardless of where those number keys are physically located...


Mike. ;)
 
MikeWalsh said:
@Trenix25 :-

Can't you use the '9' and '3' in the normal line of numeric keys along the top? Or won't that work?

The keycode values should be exactly the same, regardless of where those number keys are physically located...


Mike. ;)
Click to expand...
I tried those. No luck. I also tried PgUp and PgDn without success.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
KGIII said:
Some keyboards do a numlock thing that just uses the regular keyboard. You see this on small keyboards and some laptops.

This is an example:

a162890ed66d41fca97b281f1fae388d.jpg
Click to expand...
Tried that, no luck.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
Most of the keys just aren't working. I can change the simulation rate, use the flash light, and the Heads Up Display, but not much else. I tried to select all engines using ~ and turned up the magneto, and then tried to start the engine with s, but nothing happened. I tried using the Autostart function, but it told me to Check the throttle. Here are some pictures, well, what little can be seen. I can't even turn on the lights. Just the 9 key on top should turn up the throttle, but the number keys on top aren't doing anything. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I've played this game before on a laptop. I will need to tell it to let me control the plane with the mouse instead of the keyboard. I don't have a joystick connected.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 

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@Trenix25 :-

How did you install this, Matt? Are you using the AppImage, or have you simply installed whatever version is offered via your package manager? Because although you CAN re-assign keys for specific functions, it's somewhat fiddly.....it's not accomplished via a GUI.

According to the wiki's 'User portal', you need to locate your 'fgdata' directory, then look inside for the 'keyboard.xml' file. Somewhere down between line 600 and line 700 are the two you want to change.....and from the look of things, you just need to edit these to substitute whatever key combo you want for the '3' and the '9', followed by a re-start.

I've no idea if this will work.....but then I've only briefly looked at this since I built the 'portable' version for the Puppy community, around 3 years ago. I haven't tried using it in anger yet!

Let us know if that helps at all. BTW, are ya using the Cessna 172 they recommend for beginners?


Mike. ;)
 
@Trenix25 :-
MikeWalsh said:
How did you install this, Matt? Are you using the AppImage, or have you simply installed whatever version is offered via your package manager? Because although you CAN re-assign keys for specific functions, it's somewhat fiddly.....it's not accomplished via a GUI.

According to the wiki's 'User portal', you need to locate your 'fgdata' directory, then look inside for the 'keyboard.xml' file. Somewhere down between line 600 and line 700 are the two you want to change.....and from the look of things, you just need to edit these to substitute whatever key combo you want for the '3' and the '9', followed by a re-start.

I've no idea if this will work.....but then I've only briefly looked at this since I built the 'portable' version for the Puppy community, around 3 years ago. I haven't tried using it in anger yet!

Let us know if that helps at all. BTW, are ya using the Cessna 172 they recommend for beginners?


Mike. ;)
Click to expand...
I have found /usr/share/games/flightgear/keyboard.xml. I installed the game as a Debian package when I installed Linux. I told it to install all of the Debian games, everything. I'm only using the starter plane because that's the only one available. It won't let me download any of the others.

This starts on line 539:

Code: 
 <key n="51">
  <name>3</name>
  <desc>Decrease throttle or autopilot autothrottle</desc>
  <repeatable type="bool">true</repeatable>
  <binding>
   <command>nasal</command>
   <script>
     controls.incThrottle(-0.01, -1.0)
   </script>
  </binding>
  <mod-shift>
   <desc>Look back right</desc>
   <binding>
    <command>property-assign</command>
    <property>/sim/current-view/goal-heading-offset-deg</property>
    <property>/sim/view/config/back-right-direction-deg</property>
   </binding>
  </mod-shift>
 </key>

And this one starts on line 692:

Code: 
 <key n="57">
  <name>9</name>
  <desc>Increase throttle or autopilot autothrottle</desc>
  <repeatable type="bool">true</repeatable>
  <binding>
  <command>nasal</command>
   <script>
     controls.incThrottle(0.01, 1.0)
   </script>
  </binding>
  <mod-shift>
   <desc>Look front right</desc>
   <binding>
    <command>property-assign</command>
    <property>/sim/current-view/goal-heading-offset-deg</property>
    <property>/sim/view/config/front-right-direction-deg</property>
   </binding>
  </mod-shift>
 </key>

Then this starts on line 712:

Code: 
 <key n="58">
  <name>:</name>
  <desc>Start multikey command</desc>
  <binding>
   <command>nasal</command>
   <script>multikey.start()</script>
  </binding>
 </key>

It only has the Cessna 172P Skyhawk (1982). How do I get it to actually download other planes? It says the hanger is not installed. When I click on Add default hanger nothing happens.

The engine was already running this time and the 9 key actually worked this time. I don't know why things were different this time. It shows two FlightGear games in the Games menu. I selected the second one this time. I couldn't turn on the headlights so I couldn't see the runway. As a result I took off and crashed right away. It was dark outside. How do I turn on the lights?

It's Matthew, by the way, not Matt.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 

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I went to the Add-Ons screen and tried to install a hanger, but it just sits there like this:

Screenshot_20250105_165119.png


Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
@Trenix25 :-

It's Matthew, by the way, not Matt.
Click to expand...

Whoops. My bad. Sorry about that. Y'know, you're the exact opposite of my eldest nephew. He absolutely loathes it when people use his full, proper name of Matthew. You can see him visibly cringe when he hears it!

He much prefers it abbreviated to Matt......and goes out of his way to tell people to call him that.

I digress. Back "on-topic".

Um. Okay. So; it won't let you install the official 'hangar', no? Right, right. What d'you have showing at the very top of the 'Aircraft' tab? Mine shows this:-

Screenshot-480.png


Also, I notice you're using quite an old version - 2020.3.6. Mine is @ 2020.3.19, as you see; yours is nearly 3 years older... I wonder if there's differences between the two.....like perhaps, the servers for an older build will no longer connect? Just a thought, like.

I'm wondering, also, whether you actually have the 'fgdata' directory. Normally, this has to be downloaded separately from Sourceforge. With some of these more specialist applications, you can't always rely on "official" repositories installing every last little component for you.....and without the 'fgdata' directory, a lot of stuff doesn't function correctly. And Debian are notorious for using 'stable', though rather out-of-date packages...

You can find all the official Flightgear downloads here at Sourceforge:-

https://sourceforge.net/projects/flightgear/files/release-2020.3/

For your build, you'll want the FlightGear-2020.3.6-data.tar.bz2 package. Yah, I know it's humungous at 2 GB, but nothing functions as it should without it. Flight simulators are quite resource-hungry beasts, though it's worth it to get them running as intended.

(shrug...)


Mike. ;)
 
Last edited:
I tried recording a screen video of the game play, but it didn't quite go as expected. I recorded it at 30 fps, but somehow it got screwed up so it didn't quite capture 30 frames per second. It moves forward in time a little faster. The actual game play looks much like this though. I start the game and it starts on the ground without scenery. I need to tell it to move to the airport. Then it's like someone glued my tires to the ground so I can't move. I tried using the brakes and switching the parking brake without effect. I tried using the left and right wheel locks without effect. I get around four frames per second when the game is running. This even effects text on XTerm, but only when the game is on, and even while the game is paused. My computer has plenty of active RAM and CPU power available, but the screen updates make everything except the mouse jumpy. The game is impossible to play like this. Perhaps I'll need that download after all. What I have right now is a useless mess. I can't fly the plane like this. Here's a link to the screen video: https://drive.proton.me/urls/J2ANPX2KC0#shajzeVwBaWx

Other screen videos seem to work just fine. I don't know why this one didn't.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
MikeWalsh said:
@Trenix25 :-



Whoops. My bad. Sorry about that. Y'know, you're the exact opposite of my eldest nephew. He absolutely loathes it when people use his full, proper name of Matthew. You can see him visibly cringe when he hears it!

He much prefers it abbreviated to Matt......and goes out of his way to tell people to call him that.

I digress. Back "on-topic".

Um. Okay. So; it won't let you install the official 'hangar', no? Right, right. What d'you have showing at the very top of the 'Aircraft' tab? Mine shows this:-

Screenshot-480.png


Also, I notice you're using quite an old version - 2020.3.6. Mine is @ 2020.3.19, as you see; yours is nearly 3 years older... I wonder if there's differences between the two.....like perhaps, the servers for an older build will no longer connect? Just a thought, like.

I'm wondering, also, whether you actually have the 'fgdata' directory. Normally, this has to be downloaded separately from Sourceforge. With some of these more specialist applications, you can't always rely on "official" repositories installing every last little component for you.....and without the 'fgdata' directory, a lot of stuff doesn't function correctly. And Debian are notorious for using 'stable', though rather out-of-date packages...

You can find all the official Flightgear downloads here at Sourceforge:-

https://sourceforge.net/projects/flightgear/files/release-2020.3/

For your build, you'll want the FlightGear-2020.3.6-data.tar.bz2 package. Yah, I know it's humungous at 2 GB, but nothing functions as it should without it. Flight simulators are quite resource-hungry beasts, though it's worth it to get them running as intended.

(shrug...)


Mike. ;)
Click to expand...
Can't I just install the latest version and use that instead?

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
@Trenix25 :-

No reason you can't use the latest version, I would think. Bear in mind that I've not actually used this to any great degree, so I have no idea if you need to uninstall/remove everything from an older build before using a newer one. I have upgraded the Puppy package since I first built it.....but our package is designed to be 'portable', and is completely self-contained; it does NOT install itself into expected locations within the file-system, because it was never intended to work like that.

In any event, it makes no difference which build you're using.....you still need to install the matching 'fgdata' directory for that particular build.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

For the latest version, you'll want the FlightGear-2020.3.19-x86_64.AppImage.....along with the FlightGear-2020.3.19-data.txz data package.

You do NOT want the flightgear-2020.3.19.tar.bz2 package. Not unless you intend to compile the entire thing from scratch yourself......that's source code.


Mike. ;)
 
I think I'll go with the AppImage file. I'll put it in /usr/local so it won't interfere with anything else and make my own .desktop file for it. Thank you for your help in this matter.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
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