Making BasiliskII easier to install
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2020 3:30 pm
I found the installer GUI quite confusing several years ago when I first installed BasiliskII.
I didn't know what the windows were asking me to make decisions about.
At present there is no GUI for upgrading to the 64 bit version for Mac OS,
and I found this much easier.
Ronald P. Regensburg points out that, "If you have an existing BasiliskII setup, you can simply replace the application with the new application."*
Except it's not quite that simple.
Invisible file .basilisk_ii_prefs has to be manipulated in two ways:
1) The path specification for the BasiliskII folder has to be corrected (four places) in invisible file .basilisk_ii_prefs, and
2) The invisible file .basilisk_ii_prefs has to be located on the same level as the BasiliskII folder, not in it.
I remember only a little Unix and hate vi, so the way I accomplished this was to use the mv command multiple times.
First rename .basilisk_ii_prefs to basilisk_ii_prefs
Edit the file.
Move it one up in the tree to the same level as the BasiliskII folder.
Then rename the file back to .basilisk_ii_prefs
(.basilisk_ii_xpram is apparently not needed.)
Conclusion:
I think BasiliskII would be easier for novices to install if there were
1) no install GUI,
2) no invisible prefs file,
3) all files in the folder BasiliskII, download being just a compressed version of this folder,
4) no path to be specified by user, the BasiliskII.app just reading files always in its own location.
*March 1, 2014, post by Ronald P. Regensberg, "Currently recommended BasiliskII builds for MacOSX/OSX/macOS"
I didn't know what the windows were asking me to make decisions about.
At present there is no GUI for upgrading to the 64 bit version for Mac OS,
and I found this much easier.
Ronald P. Regensburg points out that, "If you have an existing BasiliskII setup, you can simply replace the application with the new application."*
Except it's not quite that simple.
Invisible file .basilisk_ii_prefs has to be manipulated in two ways:
1) The path specification for the BasiliskII folder has to be corrected (four places) in invisible file .basilisk_ii_prefs, and
2) The invisible file .basilisk_ii_prefs has to be located on the same level as the BasiliskII folder, not in it.
I remember only a little Unix and hate vi, so the way I accomplished this was to use the mv command multiple times.
First rename .basilisk_ii_prefs to basilisk_ii_prefs
Edit the file.
Move it one up in the tree to the same level as the BasiliskII folder.
Then rename the file back to .basilisk_ii_prefs
(.basilisk_ii_xpram is apparently not needed.)
Conclusion:
I think BasiliskII would be easier for novices to install if there were
1) no install GUI,
2) no invisible prefs file,
3) all files in the folder BasiliskII, download being just a compressed version of this folder,
4) no path to be specified by user, the BasiliskII.app just reading files always in its own location.
*March 1, 2014, post by Ronald P. Regensberg, "Currently recommended BasiliskII builds for MacOSX/OSX/macOS"