Gamedev using Godot 4 in Linux
My First Post in the Gamedev Section!
Since Unity's major blunder last year, Godot has experienced a surge in popularity. The open-source game engine has recently released version 4.3, which boasts an impressive 3,500 pull requests from 500 contributors. This is a remarkable achievement for a community-driven project!
My Experience with Godot on Linux
I've been using Godot on Windows for about a year, but I recently decided to try it on Linux. Using the package manager on MX-Linux, I easily installed the latest version of Godot (v4.3). However, when I started using it, I encountered a strange issue: I couldn't access any file-related features, such as:
- Importing projects
- Saving scenes
- Saving scripts
Upon further investigation, I found an error message indicating that Godot couldn't communicate with systemd, one of the initialization systems available for Linux. I understood the error, as MX-Linux uses sysVinit by default, but I knew that switching to systemd was a simple process that only required a reboot and selecting systemd in the grub-loader.
The Unexpected Twist
I made the switch to systemd, but the error persisted. I ran some systemd command-line checks and confirmed that it was active and running correctly. This led me to suspect that the issue wasn't with MX-Linux's implementation of systemd. After some trial and error, I discovered a surprisingly simple solution:
Download and install the Godot app from the official website. Problem Solved!
To my delight, everything worked as expected, even on sysVinit! I can now enjoy game development on MX-Linux, further integrating my workflow into the Linux operating system.