jarcode-foss / computercraftedu-installer

Automatic installer/package builder for Minecraft, modified with ComputerCraftEdu

ComputerCraftEdu Installer

NOTE: this project is incomplete. See this repository at a later date.

This is a cross-platform package and installer builder that automatically installs a version of minecraft with ComputerCraftEdu modded on top of the installation. The actual Minecraft client is downloaded at runtime, and is not packaged with the installer.

Backstory: This is a project that was written upon request by an anonymous non-profit organization that aims to teach kids how to write software using ComputerCraftEdu. Because this organization has switched to a virtual setup due to Covid-19, this project serves as a simple means for children and/or parents to install the required software.

The installer creates desktop and menu entries on supported platforms that automatically launch the game. The launcher does not authenticate with Minecraft's login servers to avoid issues with educators distributing minecraft accounts in a remote setting (and to avoid students having to navigate the vanilla game launcher). It's worth mentioning that this usage of Mojang services is a breach of the game's EULA, but not its copyright, and it is extremely unlikely to result in any change to the products and/or services provided by Mojang/Microsoft.

Educators should be aware that this version of the game is the original Java version, not the Education Edition (EE) that Microsoft offers to educators. Organizations interested in the latter should simply purchase a license, and if your organization already holds an educator's license, usage of this installer is discouraged due to the aforementioned EULA.

Supported Platforms:

OS	!	Format	Extra Details
Windows 7/8.1/10 64-bit		.msi	N/A
Windows 7/8.1/10 32-bit		.msi	N/A
Windows XP 64/32-bit		.msi	Likely works, untested
ChromeOS x86_64		.deb	Requires Linux application compatibility to be enabled (often disabled on managed devices)
ChromeOS arm64		.deb	Currently unsupported, may be supported in the future.
Debian/Ubuntu Linux (amd64)		.deb	Should also function on any debian-based distribution. Source install available with ./package_debian.sh install.
Arch Linux x86_64		.pkg.tar.zst	Should also function on any arch-based distribution. Installed with pacman -U, or through source with ./package_arch.sh install.
OSX x86_64 (10.7+)		.pkg	Untested
OSX i386, PowerPC		?	Unsupported

Usage

If you are simply planning to use these packages, please use the pre-built ones under the releases section. In the future, a site address may be provided that detects the OS in use for students or parents to easily navigate.

If you are a programmer or administrator willing to dive into how these packages are built, read on.

Manual Building

The build process requires a Linux environment to function correctly, and due to the usage of cross-compilation tools it is advised to use Arch Linux for ease of accessing and building AUR packages. Although other distributions will suffice [1], this assumes you are on Arch.

Required packages: base-devel, meson, curl, lua51, dpkg, mingw-w64-gcc, cpio

Required AUR packages: msitools, debhelper, debian-utils, perl-pod-parser, mingw-w64-curl, mingw-w64-lua51 [2], apple-darwin-osxcross, xar, bomutils-git [3]

Required Macports packages: lua51, curl, libblocksruntime

Macports packages can be installed with the AUR package of OSXCross as follows: de

$ cd /opt/osxcross/bin
$ MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.7 PATH=$PATH:. sudo -E osxcross-macports lua51 curl libblocksruntime

Macports Lua headers require a manual symbolic link fix:

$ cd /opt/osxcross/macports/pkgs/opt/local/include
$ sudo ln -s lua-5.1 lua5.1

Once you've tracked down all the dependencies, simply run ./package_all.sh. This will produce packages for all platforms in pkg_out.

• [1] Building pacman packages on other distributions may prove difficult. It is also likely that you will have to manually build some mingw dependencies, which can be very annoying. Additionally, the OSXCross prefix of this repository is expected to be /opt/osxcross.

• [2] Currently, mingw-w64-lua51 requires an edit to its PKGBUILD before it functions correctly, as specified by my comment on the AUR submission:

• [3] The bomutils-git AUR package was created for this project. Other distributions will need to compile directly from upstream.

This package unnecessarily uses g++, which causes the resulting library to have linkage to extra C++ symbols. This can be fixed by replacing the instance of g++ on line 31 of the PKGBUILD to gcc.

• You can change lua versions easily by installing the appropriate dependencies, modifying generate_deb.sh and generate_pkgbuild.sh with the respective dependencies, and then editing the default in meson_options.txt to globally change the version or using -Dlua_version=... in the appropriate build script.

License

This software is licensed under GPLv3 (see COPYING). ComputerCraftEdu is licensed under the CCPL.

Copyright 2020 Levi Webb