FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

This page is a wiki; please feel free to contribute, and be bold with your edits!

Why do I need the CKAN? Can't I just go to the forums/Curse/KerbalStuff to download mods?

If you're a human, yes. However, the CKAN can also install, manage, and upgrade your mods automatically with just a few clicks. Installing a mod, or collection of mods, becomes as easy as ticking some boxes on the client and hitting "install".

Because CKAN knows which version of KSP you're running and the dependencies of the mods you are installing, it can help you in choosing only mods that are supported for your version, leading to safer, more stable installs.

In the experimental builds, CKAN can also notify you when an update is available for your mods and install it automatically: if you have ever managed manually your collection of mods, you'll know how valuable this feature is!

I try opening the program, but it just flashes a window and then closes!

There are two kinds of ckan releases: stable and unstable. Presently, only the unstable release includes the graphical user interface: if you want to use the stable release (which is strongly recommended), you must use it through the command prompt.

I'm on Unix, I cannot run .exe files!

You can with this one, because ckan is magic! More seriously, the ckan client is built using Mono, which makes it a cross-platform executable.

You will need to install the latest Mono release in order to use the ckan client on a Unix platform.

Okay, how do I get to the command prompt?

On Windows, follow the instructions from this awesome reddit comment:

1. In the folder where the .exe lives go up one folder.
2. Hold shift and right-click the folder you just left.
3. Select "open command window here"
4. Type ckan.exe help to get started!

On Linux or OSX, open a new terminal window and navigate to the folder where you placed ckan.exe and run the command

mono ckan.exe help

Note: on Windows, you don't need Mono provided you have the .NET framework installed (and you most likely have it by default).

Will you support Curse for indexing mods?

We would love to be able to detect and index new releases from Curse, but Curse does not provide an API that we can access to do so.

If you're from Curse, then please hop on our IRC channel, or open an issue, and say hi!

How do mods become available via the CKAN?

They need to be indexed using a simple metadata file. These metadata files are hosted on the CKAN-meta repository: anyone can contribute to it to make more mods available (but please only do so with the consent of the mod's authors).

For mods that are distributed through a site that gives us API access, this can be as simple as writing only a few lines. See adding a mod to the CKAN for more information.

I get a System.InvalidCastException on Linux. Help!

Alas, you may have hit this bug. You'll have to use the command-line for now, or update your version of Mono.

I get a CodePage 437 not supported error

Apparently mono installations don't come with as much locale support as we expect! If you're on a Ubuntu/Mint/Debian machine, try:

sudo apt-get install libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-i18n-west4.0-cil

GUI won't work on OSX, I get a big scary message!

If this mentions an InvalidCastException, you're likely experiencing an issue with the latest version of Mono. A workaround is available here.

What is the NetKAN?

The NetKAN refers to our army of bots: they tirelessly watch out for new releases and keep the index up to date, so that you will be notified of eventual updates the next time you update your client's list.

These bots download the mod, extract any embedded metadata they find, and combine it with the release information to produce new entries in the CKAN index.

What's the difference between a .ckan and a .netkan file?

Unless you're writing metadata, you don't have to care. If you are writing metadata, then the difference is:

• .netkan file - Something which contains a $kref field, and hence is not a valid CKAN document, but which can be transformed into one with the addition of external metadata.
• .ckan file - A fully rendered document describing a specific version of a mod, which no references to external metadata required.

The netkan.exe program can "inflate" a .netkan file into a .ckan one by looking up external metadata. The advantage of us having .netkan files is that we can inflate them automatically when new releases come out, meaning you need only write them once, and we'll index new versions forever.