INSTALLER.md

Creating an Installer

Last Updated on April 12, 2025

Follow the build guide to figure out how to build Overte for your platform.

During generation, CMake should produce an install target and a package target.

The install target will copy the Overte targets and their dependencies to your CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX. This variable is set by the project(hifi) command in CMakeLists.txt to C:/Program Files/hifi and stored in build/CMakeCache.txt

Packaging

To produce an installer, run the package target. However you will want to follow the steps specific to your platform below.

Windows

Prerequisites

To produce an executable installer on Windows, the following are required:

1. 7-zip

2. Nullsoft Scriptable Install System - 3.04 Install using defaults (will install to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS)

3. NSIS Plugins Copy contents to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\. Alternatively, install the following:

   1. UAC Plug-in for Nullsoft - 0.2.4c

      1. Extract Zip
      2. Copy UAC.nsh to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Include\
      3. Copy Plugins\x86-ansi\UAC.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-ansi\
      4. Copy Plugins\x86-unicode\UAC.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-unicode\

   2. nsProcess Plug-in for Nullsoft - 1.6 (use the link marked nsProcess_1_6.7z)

      1. Extract Zip
      2. Copy Include\nsProcess.nsh to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Include\
      3. Copy Plugins\nsProcess.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-ansi\
      4. Copy Plugins\nsProcessW.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-unicode\

   3. InetC Plug-in for Nullsoft - 1.0

      1. Extract Zip
      2. Copy Plugin\x86-ansi\InetC.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-ansi\
      3. Copy Plugin\x86-unicode\InetC.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-unicode\

   4. NSISpcre Plug-in for Nullsoft - 1.0

      1. Extract Zip
      2. Copy NSISpre.nsh to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Include\
      3. Copy NSISpre.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-ansi\

   5. nsisSlideshow Plug-in for Nullsoft - 1.7

      1. Extract Zip
      2. Copy bin\nsisSlideshow.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-ansi\
      3. Copy bin\nsisSlideshowW.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-unicode\

   6. Nsisunz plug-in for Nullsoft

      1. Download both Zips and unzip
      2. Copy nsisunz\Release\nsisunz.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-ansi\
      3. Copy NSISunzU\Plugin unicode\nsisunz.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-unicode\

   7. ApplicationID plug-in for Nullsoft - 1.0

      1. Download Pre-built DLLs
      2. Extract Zip
      3. Copy Release\ApplicationID.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-ansi\
      4. Copy ReleaseUnicode\ApplicationID.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-unicode\

   8. Node.JS and NPM

      1. Install version 10.15.0 LTS (or greater)

Code Signing (optional)

For code signing to work, you will need to set the HF_PFX_FILE and HF_PFX_PASSPHRASE environment variables to be present during CMake runtime and globally as we proceed to package the installer.

Creating the Installer

1. Perform a clean cmake from a new terminal.
2. Open the overte.sln solution with elevated (administrator) permissions on Visual Studio and select the Release configuration.
3. Build the solution.
4. Build packaged-server-console-npm-install (found under hidden/Server Console)
5. Build packaged-server-console (found under Server Console) This will add 2 folders to build\server-console\ - server-console-win32-x64 and x64
6. Build CMakeTargets->PACKAGE The installer is now available in build\_CPack_Packages\win64\NSIS

Create an MSIX Package

1. Get the 'MSIX Packaging Tool' from the Windows Store.
2. Run the process to create a new MSIX package from an existing .exe or .msi installer. This process will allow you to install Overte with the usual installer, however it will monitor changes to the computer to replicate the functionality in the MSIX Package. Therefore, you will want to avoid doing anything else on your computer during this process.
3. Be sure to select no shortcuts and install only the Overte Interface.
4. When asked for "Entry" points, select only the Interface entry and not the uninstaller. This is because the MSIX package is uninstalled by Windows itself. If for some reason the uninstaller shows up anyway, you can edit the manifest to manually remove it from view even if the uninstaller is present in the package. This is necessary to uplaod to the Windows Store.
5. Once completed, you can sign the package with this application or with other tools such as 'MSIX Hero'. It must be signed with a local certificate to test, and with a proper certificate to distribute.
6. If uploading to the Windows Store, you will have to ensure all your manifest info including publisher information matches what is registered with your Microsoft Developer account for Windows. You will see these errors and the expected values when validating it.

FAQ

1. Problem: Failure to open a file. File: failed opening file "\FOLDERSHARE\XYZSRelease\...\Credits.rtf" Error in script "C:\TFS\XYZProject\Releases\NullsoftInstaller\XYZWin7Installer.nsi" on line 77 -- aborting creation process
   1. Cause: The complete path (current directory + relative path) has to be < 260 characters to any of the relevant files.
   2. Solution: Move your build and packaging folder as high up in the drive as possible to prevent an overage.

MacOS

1. Ensure you have all the prerequisites fulfilled from the MacOS Build Guide.
2. Perform a clean CMake in your build folder. e.g.

   cmake -DOVERTE_GIT_COMMIT_SHORT="Insert short hash of your last Git commit" -DOVERTE_RELEASE_NUMBER="Insert Release Version Here e.g. 1.1.0" -DOVERTE_RELEASE_TYPE=PRODUCTION -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT="/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.12.sdk" -DOVERTE_BUILD_SERVER=0 -DCMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.12 -DOPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=/usr/local/opt/openssl -DOSX_SDK=10.12  ..

3. Pick a method to build and package your release.

Option A: Use Xcode GUI

1. Perform a Release build of ALL_BUILD
2. Perform a Release build of packaged-server-console This will add a folder to build\server-console\ - Sandbox-darwin-x64
3. Perform a Release build of package Installer is now available in build/_CPack_Packages/Darwin/DragNDrop

Option B: Use Terminal

1. Navigate to your build folder with your terminal.
2. make -j4, you can change the number to match the number of threads you would like to use.
3. make package to create the package.

Linux

Client

AppImage

Overte Interface AppImages are built using linuxdeploy and linuxdeploy-plugin-qt. AppImages need to be built using the glibc version of the oldest Linux distribution it is supposed to run on. We target the oldest Ubuntu LTS which still receives standard (not ESM) security updates.

1. Prepare build environment Follow the Linux build guide.

2. Configure Interface

   cmake --preset conan-release

3. Create AppImage

   cmake --build --preset conan-release --target package

   CPack will build target ALL instead of INTERFACE, which is a limitation of CPack.

4. Lint with appimagelint to check which Linux distributions the AppImage will likely be able to run on.

Alternatively, you can also create the AppImage manually:

3. Build Interface

   cmake --build --preset conan-release --target interface

4. Copy build/interface/plugins build/interface/scripts build/interface/resources.rcc and build/interface/resources into build/AppDir/usr/bin/

5. Copy interface/org.overte.interface.appdata.xml to build/AppDir/usr/share/metainfo/org.overte.interface.appdata.xml

6. Run linuxdeploy (make sure that linuxdeploy-plugin-qt is next to linuxdeploy and that both are executable)

   export "QML_SOURCES_PATHS=interface/resources/qml/"
   export "LINUXDEPLOY_EXCLUDED_LIBRARIES=libnss3.so;libnssutil3.so"
   ~/temp/linuxdeploy-x86_64.AppImage --appdir build/AppDir --executable build/interface/interface --deploy-deps-only build/AppDir/usr/bin/plugins --output appimage --plugin qt --icon-file interface/icon/interface.svg --desktop-file interface/org.overte.interface.desktop

Server

Debian package

Building Overte server Debian packages using Docker

1. Build Docker image as instructed in the relevant Dockerfile in tools/ci-scripts/deb_package/

2. Create/Start container Example: docker run -v $(pwd)/../../..:/overte -it overte/overte-server-build:0.1.2-debian-11-amd64

3. Prepare build environment

cd overte
mkdir build
rm -rf build/*
conan install . -s build_type=Release -b missing -pr:b=default -of build
cmake --preset conan-release -DOVERTE_BUILD_CLIENT=false -DOVERTE_BUILD_TOOLS=true

4. Build

cmake --build --preset conan-release --target domain-server assignment-client oven

5. Create Debian package

cd pkg-scripts
DEBVERSION="1-experimental-debian-11" DEBEMAIL="julian.gro@overte.org" DEBFULLNAME="Julian Groß" ./make-deb-server

RPM package

Building Overte server RPM packages using Docker

1. Build Docker image as instructed in the relevant Dockerfile in tools/ci-scripts/rpm_package/

2. Create/Start container Example: docker run -v $(pwd)/../../..:/overte -it overte/overte-server-build:0.1.2-fedora-36-amd64

3. Prepare build environment

cd overte
mkdir build
rm -rf build/*
conan install . -s build_type=Release -b missing -pr:b=default -of build
cmake --preset conan-release -DOVERTE_BUILD_CLIENT=false -DOVERTE_BUILD_TOOLS=true

4. Build

cmake --build --preset conan-release --target domain-server assignment-client oven

5. Create RPM package

cd pkg-scripts

RPMVERSION="1.experimental" ./make-rpm-server