Initial AppImages available for testing

[hyperion]

Hi everyone,

for the 0.28.0 release the plan is to make 0ad available as an AppImage together with the Windows installer and the macOS bundle. That means easier access to a binary for users uncomfortable building 0ad from source when they can't wait for their distribution to update the package.

This also means AppImages will be added to the bi-weekly builds used for testing when the support matures a bit.

By now you probably already thinking give me the link already, so here the link to where the latest test build is available from: https://jenkins.wildfiregames.com/job/test-appimage/

How to run the AppImage you ask? First you need to install fuse which allows for filesystems in userspace. Maybe the package is called libfuse for you distribution. You will need fuse version 2.x for AppImages.

Next download the artifacts and verify the downloads which can be done for example as follows:

$ md5sum -c 0ad-0.28.0dev.AppImage.md5sum
0ad-0.28.0dev.AppImage: OK
$ sha1sum -c 0ad-0.28.0dev.AppImage.sha1sum
0ad-0.28.0dev.AppImage: OK
$ minisign -V -m 0ad-0.28.0dev.AppImage -P RWTWLbO12+ig3lUExIor3xd6DdZaYFEozn8Bu8nIzY3ImuRYQszIQyyy
Signature and comment signature verified
Trusted comment: timestamp:1752172582	file:0ad-0.28.0dev.AppImage	hashed

Then make the AppImage executable

$ chmod +x 0ad-0.28.0dev.AppImage

Then launch 0ad

$ ./0ad-0.28.0dev.AppImage

Finally report if it works for you or not and what distro you are using. A note here, the basis for the AppImage is Debian 12, oldstable by the time of the 0.28.0 release. If your distribution is substantially older than that it might not work.