Hi
there seems to be a problem with the saving of the game process with the Linux version of the game. I installed the game into the /opt folder (where it should go), gave folder and file ownership to root (which is standard). The game starts and runs fine.

Upon trying to save the game progress, clicking on any of the slots results in no reaction at all. Well, a brief flashing of a "please wait" dialogue window, but that's all.

As far as I understood the game tries to create the save files within its own application folder. Is that true? If so, that would be a bug. The gamesaves should be within the home folder of the current user. Can anyone from GoG please comment on that? Thank you

One other thing: GoG, please stop calling .deb and .tar.gz files "installers". They're not installers. They're just archive files which contain all the necessary assets. They're not executable, therefore no "installers" Please, it really hurts ... with Linux support comes a certain responsibility to use the correct terminology. Thank you in advance.

Thank you

I'm not from GOG, but that does seem to be the case. Mine certainly are so far, and the FAQ in the Double Fine forum lists the save file directory for Linux as "App Directory > bin > Saves".

Someone did report it as a bug early on, but apparently it hasn't been fixed.

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I was fearing that. Maybe I will send a message to Double Fine. Do you think that would be helpful in solving this bug?

Maybe there is a way to reconfigure the savegame location. Any ideas?

No idea, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to prod Double Fine about it. The old bug report is here.

Thank you for the links you provided. Great help. :) Double Fine didn't seem to care about this bug report. It is really sad to see that they didn't take the time to understand how Linux is working and where the files should go. They wouldn't do the same mess on a Windows platform.

Well, since Broken Age, Brütal Legend, Costume Quest and Stacking all save to ~/.local/share/doublefine, and Psychonauts saves to ~/.local/share/Psychonauts (I don't know about their others games) they probably do care. It's possible they forgot about that bug report in the flurry of other bug reports, I guess.

Okay, I didn't know that. It's a bit strange, though, for several reasons: One: Brütal Legend was on the market before Grim Fandango Remastered. That means Double Fine forgot things they already knew while making Grim Fandango Remastered. Hmm ... Two: The bug report was specifically about Grim Fandango Remastered. So ... what does that mean ... did Double Fine simply ignore it? Or is it way to complicated to fix this bug in a game which is basically 18 years old but supposedly has received a fresh engine, which should allow for that bug to be fixed? It doesn't make sense. I do believe it is an oversight, albeit a very stupid one. Like I said: They would never make such a stupid mistake on a Windows platform -- which does not say: Windows is better in some way.

Anyway, we won't find out what went wrong by guessing. There's nothing for it: I'll write to Double Fine directly. Thank you!

Does the <i>Saves/</i> directory exist? Not sure how the game chooses "App Directory > bin > Saves", but a workaround in the meantime is to not install it in /opt. You could also symlink the Saves/ folder to a folder of your choosing under your home folder which you may prefer.

Yes, that's a workaround. Thank you that's true. I know that. That's how Double Fine tested it. That's why this bug exists in the first place: by working sloppy and not according to the standards. That's a mess.

The symlinking will not work, by the way, because the folder permissions will still not be set so that a normal user can create files in it. The whole point is that Linux is a multi user system and that's why personal settings can never go into the application folder. A symlink would (provided it worked, which it won't) still only provide the funcionality for one single user.

It has nothing to do with the /opt folder. The problem becomes apparent because the file permissions and ownership are set the way they should be according to the standards. Ownership of any software on a Unix system should be set to root:root. Because of that the software run with permissions of the current user can not write into the application folder. That is the desired behaviour, because it offers basic protection of the software from a user running wild. For that reason personal settings need to be saved into the home directory of the current user. That has been known in the Unix-world for practically forever and now it is ignored by game studios developing for Linux. Deponia contains the exact same bug for example. This is sloppy work.

If I install software (in this case a game) the way it should be done on a Unix/Linux machine and it doesn't work because of that, then the software is at fault. Software can't go into the home folder of a user. That's against the rules and it isn't done this way on MacOS or Windows for the exact same reasons. So I see no reason to do that on a Linux machine just because the developer was unable to understand that Linux is not a toy like MS-DOS always was.

Sorry for ranting. Have a nice day and thank you for your suggestions.

I agree with the main sentinment of the TS. The game ideally should be "installable" to the /opt/ folder and write any user specific files in a path under the user's home folder.

I still went on to extract the game (since it indeed is an archive file and not an installer) under my home directory, so therefore this bug does not affect me (because I chose to do things the not-recommended-for-Linux way).

I feel that I have said this mutliple times, but I consider the best way for a bug report to get noticed is to post it on Double Fine's official forums (the bug reports section for GF Remastered is here) mentioning both that you are talking about a Linux version, and the GOG version. I suspect that the GOG version and the Humble Store's or even Steam's are exactly identical (when they are synched in the same version that is -not when a patch is pending to be applied in some of those) so their Linux issues should be common, but I can't confirm this until I have the Steam version too (probably in some upcoming sale).

Thank you for your encouragement.

Well, it isn't just "not the recommended for Linux way" it is in fact -- as I already stated multiple times -- not recommended on any operating system but CP/M or MS-DOS. So, this is not a Linux-problem, it is rather a problem of not having understood how Linux/Unix file/folder permissions and ownerships work. In fact: even in your home directory: if you set the folder ownership to root then you will still see that the game will launch but you can't save. I reiterate: the folder isn't the issue here.

Other than that I sort of agree with your recommendation of posting to Double Fine forums. Albeit as stated before: there is already a very specific bug report on their forums and this has been ignored by Double Fine. Also, this problem is not limited to games from Double Fine. Like I stated before Deponia is also affected.

I will send emails with bug reports rather than post on their forums. Because I suspect they don't read their forums or understand the posts.