#1038011 game-data-packager: depends on SDL 1.2

Package:
src:game-data-packager
Source:
src:game-data-packager
Submitter:
Simon McVittie
Date:
2026-01-10 10:27:37 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#1038011#5
Date:
2023-06-15 11:15:41 UTC
From:
To:
This package has a Depends or Build-Depends on SDL version 1.2, which
is unmaintained upstream.

If possible, please port this package to SDL 2 and close this bug. There
is a migration guide at <https://wiki.libsdl.org/SDL2/MigrationGuide>,
and examples of successful ports from SDL 1.2 to SDL 2 can be found in
the commit history of packages like darkplaces and ioquake3.

If it is not possible to port to SDL 2, please test the package with
libsdl1.2-compat-shim (preferably version 1.2.64 or later), and leave
this bug open to track the package as still using SDL 1.2 APIs.

libsdl1.2-compat-shim is a compatibility layer that provides the SDL 1.2
API/ABI by using SDL 2: it has already replaced the "classic" SDL 1.2
library in some other distributions like Fedora and Arch, and my intention
is to do the same in Debian during the trixie release cycle.

The interesting scenarios to test with libsdl1.2-compat-shim are:

1. Install libsdl1.2-compat-shim and run the program in an X11 environment,
   such as "GNOME on Xorg" or XFCE.
   ($XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/wayland-* should not exist)
2. Install libsdl1.2-compat-shim and run the program in a Wayland
   environment such as GNOME's default mode, using Xwayland.
   ($XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/wayland-* should exist)
3. Install libsdl1.2-compat-shim and run the program in a Wayland
   environment, but this time with environment variable
   SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland so that it uses the native Wayland interface
   (this is not currently the default for SDL 2).
4. Install libsdl1.2-compat-dev and recompile the package.

Note that using libsdl1.2-compat and LD_LIBRARY_PATH is not sufficient if
the package contains programs that are setgid games. See
<https://github.com/libsdl-org/sdl12-compat/blob/main/HOW_TO_TEST_GAMES.md>
for more information.

If any of those fail, please report it as a bug in the
libsdl1.2-compat-shim or libsdl1.2-compat-dev package as appropriate,
with "affects" pointing to the program that is affected.

Thanks,
    smcv
#1038011#10
Date:
2023-06-15 11:20:49 UTC
From:
To:
Control: tags -1 + wontfix

In the case of game-data-packager, the dependency is in quake4 and cannot
be fixed: the proprietary binaries released by id Software depend on
SDL 1.2.

etqw and unreal are in a similar situation.

The work that remains to be done here, other than marking this as wontfix,
is to test quake4, etqw and unreal to make sure they run correctly with
libsdl1.2-compat-shim installed.

    smcv
#1038011#17
Date:
2023-06-24 14:46:05 UTC
From:
To:
quake4 works fine with libsdl1.2-compat-shim installed. Audio is broken if
you have pipewire-alsa:amd64 but not pipewire-alsa:i386 (#1039012) but
that's not a SDL problem.

etqw is very similar to quake4, and also works fine.

These are binary-only games, so libsdl1.2-compat-dev is irrelevant for this
particular package.

    smcv
#1038011#26
Date:
2026-01-10 10:09:17 UTC
From:
To:
Es gibt eine Familienspende in Höhe von 1.850.000,00 USD von Cheng Charlie
Saephan. Bitte antworten Sie für weitere Informationen. Denken Sie daran,
Ihrer Familie und den Bedürftigen in Ihrer Umgebung Gutes zu tun.

Dies ist bereits der zweite Versuch, Sie zu erreichen. Bitte antworten Sie
für weitere Details.
#1038011#31
Date:
2026-01-10 10:09:17 UTC
From:
To:
Es gibt eine Familienspende in Höhe von 1.850.000,00 USD von Cheng Charlie
Saephan. Bitte antworten Sie für weitere Informationen. Denken Sie daran,
Ihrer Familie und den Bedürftigen in Ihrer Umgebung Gutes zu tun.

Dies ist bereits der zweite Versuch, Sie zu erreichen. Bitte antworten Sie
für weitere Details.