Linux initial setup for system

Download the latest Linux build (obviously).

1. As of today, we can do this by going to https://pilgway.com/~sergyi/links-Linux.html
2. Alternatively, we can download the last stable build in our ACCOUNT profile page at https://pilgway.com

Create the folders in the system where we will unpack the 3DCoat file just downloaded in the prior step.

1. sudo mkdir /opt/3DCoat && sudo mkdir /opt/3DCoat/3DCoat2024
   This command will create a folder in /opt for 3DCoat and another called 3DCoat2024 inside the first one.
   We will use the former to store the script that runs 3DCoat and the latter to store the program and its files and folders that comes with the file we downloaded before.

Unpack the file downloaded in the folder created for it in the system.

1. In a terminal, we move where we downloaded the file. In my case, that would be /home/USERNAME/Downloadscd DownloadsThis command will put us in the folder Downloads where we assume we downloaded the file from pilgway.com
2. sudo tar -xvf 3DCoat-2024.18.tar.bz2 -C /opt/3DCoat/3DCoat2024 –strip-components=1This command will unpack (decompress) the file downloaded (3DCoat-2024.18.tar.bz2 in this instance) in the directory (folder) we made for that purpose.
   
   Now, inside the file 3DCoat-2024.18.tar.bz2 there’s a directory (folder) aptly named 3DCoat2024.18 with everything inside.
   We could, yes, extract that directory into /opt/3DCoat and we would get /opt/3DCoat/3DCoat2024.18
   The problem I see is that with every new version, we’d get a new folder added with the corresponding name version. In time, we’ll have quite a lot of directories from all the versions installed.
   
   I suggest to have just the one 3DCoat version we are working with, the latest installed.
   
   For that purpose we made the 3DCoat2024 folder inside /opt/3DCoat
   Now, we want to extract the contents of the 3DCoat2024.18 directory that’s inside 3DCoat-2024.18.tar.bz2 file WITHOUT creating the directory named with the version. We just want to extract all that’s inside the file without the folder name.
   This is why I added –strip-components=1 in the terminal command above: it does just that. It skips the first folder of the compressed file and extracts from there where we told it to do so.
   As a result, we get all the file contents in /opt/3DCoat/3DCoat2024

Create 3DCoat.sh and 3DCoat.desktop text files (like we did for the single user workstation).
This time, though, there will be some differences.

1. 3DCoat.sh contents:
   1. cd /opt/3DCoat/3DCoat2024 ./3dcoat-Ubuntu22.04it now points to a different folder since our 3DCoat program is in a different place, obviously.
      This file script is the one that actually finds and starts 3DCoat.
      
      (Since 2023 came about, 3DCoat has two versions for Linux: 3dcoat-Ubuntu22.04 and 3dcoat-Ubuntu20.04. In the example above I used the more recent one, but it can be changed by typing 3dcoat-Ubuntu20.04 instead in the text file if there are issues running 3DCoat in your machine to see if that helps.)
   2. Since this text file is meant to run as a script, a command, we must tell the system we authorise the text file to run as a program instead of treating it as an ordinary text file.
      We do it by right clicking the text file with our file browser and in Properties tick “Allow executing file as program” in Permissions tab.
      Alternatively, with a terminal open in the directory (folder) where the file is, we type:
       sudo chmod +x 3DCoat.sh 
2. 3DCoat.desktop
   1. [Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Version=1.0 Type=Application Terminal=true Exec=/opt/3DCoat/3DCoat.sh Name=3DCoat Icon=/opt/3DCoat/3DCoat-2023/data/Icon/3DCoat.png Categories=Graphics;3DGraphics; StartupWMClass=3dcoatHere we also changed the paths to match the 3DCoat’s installation path in our system.
      This file is for the Gnome Desktop Environment, it creates a system launcher for 3DCoat, with an icon.

Move or copy the two files where they belong:
3DCoat.sh file must be in /opt/3DCoat
3DCoat.desktop must be in /usr/share/applications

Assuming we created the two files in our home folder, we should type, in a terminal:

1. cd ~ sudo cp 3DCoat.sh /opt/3DCoat && sudo cp 3DCoat.desktop /usr/share/applicationsThe first command makes sure we are in our home directory where we created the two text files. [We can cd (Change Directroy) to wherever we created them, if not in the home directroy].
   The second command has two parts: it first copies 3DCoat.sh where it belongs and then puts 3DCoat.desktop where the  system stores all system-wide launchers. [We can change cp for mv in the command if we want to move the text files instead of copying them].
   In this way, we won’t have to create either file again for every other user in the system.

Correct benign error messages appearing in the Terminal: As of today (version 2024.18 of 3DCoat for Linux) there are some png files’ icc profiles in the 3DCoat folders that prompt a warning in an otherwise useful terminal output.
They look like a lot, or many, “libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile” messages.
We can fix it by doing this:

1. cd /opt/3DCoat/3DCoat2024 sudo find . -type f -name ‘*.png’ -exec mogrify \{\} \;The first command puts us where we installed (decompressed) 3DCoat. The second finds and fixes all png’s in there.
    
2. Next time we run 3DCoat it shouldn’t complain about those sRGB profiles. Making the Terminal more useful and clean.

Restart the Desktop

1. Most times, after creating a desktop application launcher, we must “refresh” the desktop environment to make it available. Not sure we have to do it in this case, since we created a system launcher, but if we can’t find 3DCoat launcher (icon), do this:
   1. Reboot the system (a tad drastic but it will work for sure).
   2. Log out and log back in again. That restarts the Desktop Environment for the user.
   3. Press ALT+F2 shortcut and type r (just the letter R) and Return if a prompt appears. This sends the command “restart” to our desktop environment in most Linux distributions using Gnome.

Run 3DCoat as we launch any other program in our system. And pin it to a dock if we use one.Licensing our 3DCoat build: I omitted the licensing prompt that appears the first time we run 3DCoat. It will only be asked the fist time we run 3DCoat with our user or until we actually load the license.

1. I just load the license downloaded from my account when prompted and that’s it. We will not have to do it again after the first time, nor when a new version is installed like we did here, until it expires and we need to load a new one. Each user of the system will have to install its own licence, of course.
2. 3DCoat creates some folders for us, with our user’s preferences and settings in our user’s Documents folder. The configuration folders are left untouched when we update 3DCoat in our system, and are, as stated, per user. Each user will have its own distinct 3DCoat configuration.

Updating 3DCoat

1. Once the new file is downloaded, we only repeat steps 3 and 6, that is: unpack and correct png’s wrong profiles.
2. We can, if we want, remove the contents of the previous installation before updating to the brand new build.
   1. This is a potentially dangerous command, so be careful and diligent when typing. Any potential loss from the misuse of this command will be on you. It erases all contents in a folder and everything that’s under it. If you do that in a system folder you can seriously damage your installed system rendering it useless. If you point to some of your data directories you could lose your precious data. You have been warned!
      In a terminal, then, we can type, nervously:sudo rm -r /opt/3DCoat/3DCoat2024/*
      Afterwards we can update 3DCoat as stated before: decompress and extract like in step 3 and remove the png’s ICC errors like in step 6.