The latest installer (ftl_advanced_edition_1_6_12_2_34795.sh) doesn't create start.sh script which is meant to be executed by the desktop entry.
I unzipped the installer and it didn't contain start.sh in the first place. Did I miss something or it needs to be fixed?

OK, I submitted a report to them.

I got replies from GOG support. Well, they didn't care about it because I was using Arch Linux. If you are using Ubuntu on a bare metal (in other words, not a virtual machine), and if you care, submit a report about this problem.

That's sheer laziness. Why would using Ubuntu magically make a missing file appear?!


Edit: Maybe they want us to lie (AKA pretend) to them… Is there a rule that you have to leave common sense at home when you work in support?

I just submitted a trouble ticket, and made sure to include a reference to this thread. The problem is, pretty much distro-agnostic, since the file is neither created by the installer, itself, nor is it extracted by the installer if it's in the embedded tarball.

By the way, I wonder if there is some way to UN-mark a thread as solved? (Mark a thread as unsolved? Whichever sounds more grammatically correct...)

Thanks. I hope they fix the problem this time.

Yes, it was a little bit too fast to mark the thread as solved. I don't see any way to take it back.

I hope they fix it, too. I've been in touch with their support, but have not received anything really promising. Some basic GAME troubleshooting in the first response (make sure you're running the latest version, don't run the installer as root, update your graphics drivers, and try running the game directly using its BIN file)

I've been reminding this support rep to visit this forum thread with every response, but I don't think they have yet. After letting this support rep know I've already done all the above, and on no fewer than *6* machines, and reminding them that the issue lies in the INSTALLER and not the GAME, they told me they could not recreate the issue, that they were passing on this problem to the "Q&A team" (Question and Answer team?!) "just in case".

The rep suggested we get in touch with Subset Games support, as their final recommendation.

I'm afraid I kinda blew up at 'em at this point, this is obviously a GOG *INSTALLER* issue, as the game runs perfectly fine otherwise, made most obvious when the support ticket system won't even let you open a ticket without attaching a "System Report", GENERATED BY RUNNING "start.sh --sysrep"!

Edit: Just out of curiosity, I redownloaded the installer for Torchlight 2 & Costume Quest (the other two games on this particular machine), unzipped the installer, and guess what the first file is in each: "data/noarch/start.sh" Unzip the FTL installer, and this file is nowhere to be found.

I know you used to be able to attach an empty .txt file to the ticket. Last time I tried was with the old system though.

Not sure where it was left off with Support. First, you/whomever can tell them you don't need help running the game. You already have it running. (It helps to reiterate that sometimes.) The problem with the current installer: Is that it's missing the GOG created/supplied start.sh file. Support can simply check the actual installer and see it's not one of the files in said installer. It does not get generated by the LUA scripts in said installer (which they can also check). If that's too hard for them, they can trivially reproduce the issue by running the installer on a clean Ubuntu/Mint machine. At the very least they need to delete any existing FTL install.
They will wind up with a .desktop file pointing to a non-existing start.sh file. You my want to include e.g. a cat of the .desktop file and a ls of the directory it's pointing to. That may help clarify the actual problem being reported.

I have some good news from DrCat, from GOG's Support Team:

Per DrCat's update, I checked for a new installer revision. It's there, I have installed it, and it does generate the start.sh that was missing. The game files, themselves, are exactly the same, the only differences are caused by the introduction of the start.sh (hash checks, etc).

I'll paste the start.sh below, but anyone that downloads this now will get the corrected installer, ftl_advanced_edition_1_6_12_2_35269.sh