I was having some video issues with Ubuntu 19.10 and switched to Linux Mint 19.03… which I know is a derivative, but it fixed my problem somehow and also is easier to use. Thought I’d let you know so that you didn’t do work that I couldn’t test out for you on this OS (though for all I know, since it’s a derivative, I might be able to).
That should still work! @Dizzydonut is a Mint user too :grin, believe Linux Mint 19.2 “Tina” was tested if you look up earlier in the thread. I believe @Dizzydonut used the older deb package for 16.04 / 18.04. One caveat, if I remember correctly the 6L38 build worked better than the 6M62 build on Mint.
I’m so discombobulated by Linux. I searched for Inform7 in Mint’s Software Manager and it actually came up, through “Flatpak” distribution, and it’s downloading the framework to be able to run it now. If that works, I’ll never backpedal to standard Ubuntu. If not, then I’ll try the other options. Why are things so complicated? lol
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I think the flatpak will work, but it does have some issues. @Dizzydonut actually was using the flatpak on Mint too so you might give a ping and ask for any tips 
As far as the complications, most of the issues for gnome-inform7 right now are caused by deprecation of APIs (in all Linux OSes) that the program had previously been using. Upgrading the program from those old APIs to the replacements takes a ton of effort.
It did install and run with the Flatpak. I’m surprised Ubuntu didn’t have Flatpak enabled by default… there’s no way I’d have even known about it. Mint is kicking Ubuntu’s ass so far. Anyway if I run into trouble, I’ll check with Dizzy about that or try one of your workaround builds. Thanks again for the help!
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Hi everyone, an interesting post that may be useful to others:
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Hi there @EarleyGrave, I’ve been away for a while but I’m back home now, and have access to my Linux box again. I’m using Linux Mint 19.2 Tina, with the mate desktop. I found the latest flatpak rather crashy, but did have the file bar and the public library tab etc. working. (Though you have to enable net access via the command line.) So what I did was to install the latest, set my preferences and download all the extensions I wanted, and then revert to the previous flatpak which I’ve found more stable – not purging all the settings, obviously. The problem with the vanishing Menu bar (on the Mate desktop) seems to only happen when I’ve had I7 running for a long time, so I exit it when I go off to make a cuppa or something.
I’m no Linux guru, just an ordinary user, but if you’ve got any questions I’ll be happy to help.
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I can’t really use new Inform systems because I prefer to stay on the 6G60 system (I’m using French language), so I’ve kept the old binaries and I’m using a makefile to compile. There is a copy of my makefile there: https://sourceforge.net/p/la-vallee-mysterieuse/code/ci/default/tree/makefile
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I am inspired by your makefile! I will be giving it a try myself 
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I’m running Linux Mint 19.2 “Tina”, with the Mate desktop.
Just wanted to add that I’ve discovered a workaround for the missing toolbar. When the toolbar disappears (as it’s prone to do after I7 has been open a while), open a terminal, and type:
pid mate-panel
This will return a number (the process ID). Let’s pretend it was 1234:
kill 1234
This will shut down the faulty panel, and mate will notice, and then re-create it. It seems to remain working for much longer, too.
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Hi Everyone, I have had to take a little detour from keeping gnome-inform7 legacy code alive because the workarounds are just not worth putting in place for Ubuntu 20.04 or Fedora 31 and forward. At this point the official gnome-inform7 gtk3 branch is really the best way forward. In the short term, I still needed a working environment for newer Linux distros and created a fully integrated console environment for developing Inform7 works (edit, compile, run, debug all from one place). If you dont mind working inside of a terminal the project might be of interest to you. Open source, installer, full documentation etc are all in the thread linked below.
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Just FYI for anyone trying to get gnome-inform7 working on modern releases: I was able to get interactivefiction’s version above working on a fresh install of Linux Mint 20 Ulyana today by first manually adding the following packages:
libicu60 *
libgtksourceview2.0
libgtksourceview2.0-common
libgtkspell0
libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0
libwebkitgtk-1.0
The packages were obtained from https://packages.ubuntu.com and all versions were taken from the bionic release, using amd64 versions. The last five of the packages are directly required by gnome-inform7-6M62-ubuntu-1604-1804.x86_64.deb. The first one (libicu60, marked with an asterisk) is required by one of the other packages (libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0, I think), so it should be installed first. After that, the first five, and after those, the actual application.
Installation is easy enough using gdebi-gtk (GUI) or gdebi (command line) for each .deb file. Since Linux Mint 20 is based on Ubuntu 20.04, a long-term support release (and therefore the same process should work for both), this should be possible until at least 2025, assuming you can still get the bionic packages after 2023.
Thanks to @interactivefiction for your work on updating the package for the previous LTS release! It’s very much appreciated, especially the bug fix for the grayed-out folders problem. I haven’t tried out vimform7 yet, but it looks promising.
[FYI - Even though you’re not working on this any more, there is one other minor bug that you might look into: When creating a new project for an extension, the application creates a folder for the extension called Name.i7x and a file containing the actual extension called Name.inform, both on the same directory level. In other words ,the suffixes for file and folder are reversed, and the file is not placed inside the folder.
I did report this as a bug in Mantis, but that’s down now, it seems. I would think given what you’ve already done that this would take a pretty short time to fix, perhaps just swapping the relevant suffix strings to fix the names and adjusting a path to fix the file’s saved location. Is the source code for your version posted somewhere? If so, I would be happy to look for the specific lines myself, to assist.]
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Hey @otistdog, the workarounds I put in place for recent builds are pretty brittle. It is cool that you found a way to get it working on Mint. For IDE my focus has been on @ptomato’s gtk3 branch. I can say that the gtk3 branch does build if you hack things to get it working. So far I have not had time to spin up a machine to test the build itself to any degree though, but I do hope to get to it soon. There is a github thread along these lines where I posted the essential tips / tricks I had to put in place to get the code working from a fresh clone of the repo. I am happy to comment here for anyone who wants to give a try at building gnome-inform7 with gtk3 from source. Here are the relevant links to the github thread (click the grey github url not the blue pull request link):
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Thanks for the pointer, @interactivefiction. It seems like you mostly were working on build-related issues, not the code itself? Nonetheless, thanks again for your work in fixing the grayed-out folders issue and in extending the life of the existing Linux build while the modernization effort is underway.
To clarify for anyone looking to get Inform 7 6M62 working on Ubuntu 20.04 or Linux Mint 20, the version that I used was the gnome-inform7-6M62-ubuntu-1604-1804.x86_64.deb version announced (and linked) in the first post on this thread, not any later work. Also, I should have said “next five” instead of “first five” in my instructions; all six of the dependencies have to be installed manually prior to installing the 6M62 package, and the libicu60 package has to be installed as the very first.
@ptomato – I did manage to hunt down what I think is the cause of the problems with extension projects that I mentioned at the end of my last post above. I will send you a PM with the information to avoid cluttering this thread. (I can PM you, too, @interactivefiction, if interested, but it doesn’t look like a completely trivial fix, as some functions will need to be adjusted.)
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Yes most of my work is on just trying to get gnome-inform7 to build and be packaged for modern linux OS in the absence of the appropriate libs being avaiable. Although, the grey dialog box issue was such a pain that I had to find a solution to it. One issue you will probably hit is the random hang when compiling. Everyone seems to hit it. Apparently the gtk3 branch I mentioned has a fix for it.
It is great that you found a way to get the old 16.04/18.04 version to work with existing debs that are available.
A question for you, were you able to get those debs using apt-get or did you have to manually download and manually install them? I ask because if they are now available via apt-get, I could theoretically add them to the dependency list for the gnome-inform7 deb and repackage everything so the installer works with no additional effort.
I downloaded and installed them manually, as mentioned. There were versions of the various required libraries in the 20.04 focal repository, but they were all later versions than those expected by the gnome-inform7-6M62-ubuntu-1604-1804.x86_64.deb package that you had put together.
I suppose that, if the newer versions of the libraries are backwards-compatible, it might be possible to adjust the dependencies of your package somehow to allow for the newer versions found in the focal repository, but you would know that better than I would.
Regarding the random hang problem: Yes, I’ve seen it infrequently but consistently. Since the source code gets saved before compiling, nothing gets lost, so I’ve thought of it as a minor inconvenience. It would, of course, be better if it were fixed, so I’m looking forward to the updated release.
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For what it’s worth, I had no trouble installing the same package (gnome-inform7-6M62-ubuntu-1604-1804.x86_64.deb) on Linux Mint 20 last month. But I keep several previous-version repositories active in /etc/apt/sources.list.d, which is widely thought to be a Bad Idea, so that’s definitely a non-standard configuration. Under that configuration, though, gdebi-gtk downloaded and installed all of the necessary dependencies without hiccup or complaint.
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FYI: @ptomato has fixed another significant bug (this one affecting creation of extension projects) and has “backported it to the old version,” according to a PM here.
Presumably, that means that an updated package for 16.04/18.04 could in theory be produced from updated repository code, or that it would be possible to compile the older version’s code directly with the hints that @interactivefiction has provided above. (Both are beyond my skill level, unfortunately.) If anyone does create an updated package, please post details about it here, or at least a link to a new announcement post. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would appreciate it!
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Yep, I saw the check in from @ptomato 
Just trying to get some spare time to bring my build & test environment back online so I can try the code out. Right now all the systems I used to make previous builds are repurposed for other tasks.
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I’m wondering if I can help at all? I’m a long time Linux user (predominantly Ubuntu / Debian) and while no C coder, I’ve run my fair share of make / make install commands! I’ve never built packages though. But I have an Ubuntu 18.04 laptop here, and another one running 20.04, both with more than enough space to run other versions within VirtualBox, if required.
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