Lich:Software/Installation/Linux

Lich:Software/Installation/Linux is a third party script and is not maintained by Simutronics. Simutronics is not responsible for the accuracy of the information presented on this page, nor is it liable for issues stemming from the use of the application on players' personal devices.

This guide installs Lich on Linux and on Chromebooks (through ChromeOS's Linux environment). Only the first step is different for each distribution. Every other step is the same for all of them. You will type commands into a terminal; copy each block, paste it, press Enter, and let it finish before you go on. Allow 30 to 60 minutes, most of which is spent waiting for Ruby to build.

These instructions are for GemStone IV. DragonRealms players: see the DragonRealms Lich setup guide on Elanthipedia.

• Already have Lich? See Upgrading Lich instead.

What you need

• A Simutronics account.
• A Linux system that you can run sudo on.
• A front end. On Linux that is Saga (official, in beta), Profanity (in the terminal) or Warlock. You set it up at the end, in step 7.

Step 1: Install the required packages

Run the commands for your distribution only, then go on to step 2.

Debian, Ubuntu and Chromebook

On a Chromebook, first turn on Linux: open Settings → About ChromeOS → Developers → Linux development environment and click Turn on. Then open the Terminal app.

sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y install autoconf bison build-essential curl libssl-dev libyaml-dev libreadline6-dev zlib1g-dev libncurses5-dev libffi-dev libgdbm6 libgdbm-dev libsqlite3-dev git unzip libcairo2-dev libgirepository1.0-dev libgtk-3-dev gobject-introspection

Arch, Manjaro, EndeavourOS and other Arch-based distributions

sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel openssl libyaml readline zlib ncurses libffi gdbm sqlite git unzip curl gtk3 gobject-introspection

Fedora

Fedora's own Ruby is too old for Lich (4.0 or newer is required; Fedora 41 ships Ruby 3.3, and Fedora 42 and 43 ship Ruby 3.4). Install these packages, then step 3 installs a newer Ruby alongside Fedora's.

sudo dnf -y update
sudo dnf -y install git autoconf bison cairo-devel curl gcc gdbm gdbm-devel gdk-pixbuf2-devel glib2-devel gobject-introspection-devel gtk3-devel libyaml-devel libffi-devel make ncurses-devel openssl-devel readline-devel redhat-rpm-config sqlite-devel unzip zlib-devel

Step 2: Install rbenv

rbenv is a Ruby version manager. It lets you install the Ruby version Lich needs without changing the Ruby your system uses. These commands download it, add it to your PATH so the terminal can find it, and set it to load each time you open a terminal:

git clone https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv.git ~/.rbenv
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

These lines assume the bash shell, the default on all the distributions above. If you use another shell such as zsh, add the two echo lines to that shell's startup file (for example ~/.zshrc) instead.

Step 3: Install Ruby 4.0.9

Download ruby-build, the rbenv plugin that builds Ruby. Then install Ruby 4.0.9 and make it your default. Building Ruby takes several minutes.

git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git ~/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build
rbenv install 4.0.9 -v
rbenv global 4.0.9
ruby -v

The last command should print a line that starts with ruby 4.0.9. If it does not, close the terminal, open a new one and run ruby -v again.

Step 4: Download Lich

This puts Lich in a Lich5 folder in your home directory (~/Lich5):

cd ~
curl -L "https://github.com/elanthia-online/lich-5/releases/latest/download/lich-5.zip" -o temp.zip && unzip temp.zip -d ./ && rm temp.zip

Step 5: Install the gems Lich needs

Lich lists the gems (Ruby add-on libraries) it needs in a file named Gemfile, and Bundler installs them for you. The first line below stops Ruby from building documentation for each gem, which is slow, and the documentation is online anyway. The bundle config line skips gems that only Lich's developers need (the development and vscode groups).

echo "gem: --no-document" > ~/.gemrc
cd ~/Lich5
bundle config set --local without 'development vscode'
bundle install

When it finishes you should see a line that starts with Bundle complete!. This also installs the gems Profanity uses.

Older guides use bundle install --without .... That option was removed from the Bundler that comes with Ruby 4.0, so use bundle config set as shown above.

Step 6: Start Lich

ruby ~/Lich5/lich.rbw

The Lich login window opens. The first time Lich connects to the game, it downloads its map files; wait for that to finish. How you log in depends on your front end, which is the next step.

Step 7: Set up a front end

Lich needs a front end to show you the game. Follow the setup for the one you want on the Front ends page:

• Saga: the official graphical front end. Saga can start Lich for you.
• Profanity: runs in the terminal.
• Warlock: a third-party graphical front end.

Getting help

Ask in the #scripting or #help channel of the GemStone IV Discord. Say which distribution you use and which step failed, and copy the exact error message.