Guild Wars 2

I sent the following bug report and was encouraged to post to the forums, I hope this is the right place:

Installation on Mac OS fails when case sensitive file system is used (including solution)

The Guild Wars II installer fails without an error message when it is used on a system that has a case sensitive file system. using dtrace to see specifically which incorrect file access is causing the bug, I noticed that there’s a misspelled plugin path that’s tried to be accessed by the installer. When the installer creates a directory inside /tmp with the installation files, it creates the directory /tmp/<NUMBER>/Guild\ Wars\ 2\ Installer.app/Contents/Plugins. It then tries to access the directory /tmp/<NUMBER>/Guild\ Wars\ 2\ Installer.app/Contents/PlugIns. Note the difference between Plugins and PlugIns.

I have since discovered a simple solution that fixes this issue and allows me to play on a Mac with a case-sensitive file system. First off, you need to use Disk Utility to clone the Gw2Setup.dmg to make it writable. Mount Gw2Setup.dmg, then open Disk Utility (it’s in Applications/Utilities). Make sure the Guild Wars 2 image is selected in Disk Utility, then use File -> New Image -> Image from Guild Wars 2. Pick a name, choose “read/write” as the disk image format, and save. Dismount the Guild Wars 2 installer and open the new image you just created. Right-click on the “Guild Wars 2 Installer.app” and choose “Show Package Contents”. In the Contents folder, rename Plugins to PlugIns. Then, execute the Guild Wars 2 Installer.app. It should load normally.

To actually install the game, you need to use a case insensitive disk image afaik. Head back to Disk Utility, create a new sparse disk image of appropriate size (roughly 40GB should be OK currently), then select that image to install to in the guild wars installer. In detail: In Disk Utility, File -> New Image ->Blank Image. pick a name, set size to 40 GB, set Image Format to sparse disk image. Then save and mount the newly created disk image. It should show up in the installer as an installation destination.

It’s worth noting that the main platform for GW2 is case-insensitive, and macOS case-sensitive filesystems are … well, “poorly supported” is probably the understatement of the decade.

I’d strongly encourage you to simply abandon efforts to use them at all, and accept that macOS is also a case-insensitive file system.

I honestly don’t understand why you’re so dismissive about this, I need to use a case sensitive file system for work and it’s a supported configuration according to Apple. Note that iPhones etc use case sensitive file systems for everything, and they might even soon be coming to the Mac – the new file system doesn’t even support case insensitive file systems yet. If only the installer were fixed, installing to a case insensitive disk image would be trivially accomplished by anyone.

Hase.1653:

I honestly don’t understand why you’re so dismissive about this, I need to use a case sensitive file system for work and it’s a supported configuration according to Apple. Note that iPhones etc use case sensitive file systems for everything, and they might even soon be coming to the Mac – the new file system doesn’t even support case insensitive file systems yet. If only the installer were fixed, installing to a case insensitive disk image would be trivially accomplished by anyone.

The developer preview of APFS doesn’t support case insensitive use yet, true, but that’s not the release version. …and, yes, it’s kinda-sorta-maybe not completely unsupported by Apple, but it’s also never really been something they pushed hard to make work.

I’ve also seen people fight the fight for support in the period when it was more likely to succeed (eg: macOS 10.0 through 10.6 or so) with third party vendors, and lose.

(and I feel your pain and agony WRT working with software that depends on the Unix conventions for case sensitive file systems, believe me. I’m just thankful most projects have accepted that case-insensitive is a thing now.)

I don’t oppose the change, but I also don’t think you will get a lot of traction long term with it. I’d encourage using a separate, case-sensitive partition or even disk image for the work related components, and retaining a case-insensitive filesystem for the root and random macOS apps. I eventually gave up and accepted that was the least worst option here.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

It’s worth noting that the main platform for GW2 is case-insensitive, and macOS case-sensitive filesystems are … well, “poorly supported” is probably the understatement of the decade.

I’d strongly encourage you to simply abandon efforts to use them at all, and accept that macOS is also a case-insensitive file system.

Absolutely this. GW2 isn’t the only software you’re going to have serious issues with on the mac with a case sensitive filesystem.

I’d rethink your plans to avoid a LOT of headache down the road. If you need case-sensitivity for a specific purpose, then I strongly recommend creating an additional case sensitive FS and mounting it where you need that functionality.

I’ve been using a case sensitive file system exclusively since 2004, so far I’ve yet to come across an unfixable issue (sometimes needed to rely on disk images or a couple of symlinks). I’ve filed bugs everywhere, sometimes resulting in a fix, sometimes not. I really don’t see where the hostility is coming from.

Hase.1653:

I’ve been using a case sensitive file system exclusively since 2004, so far I’ve yet to come across an unfixable issue (sometimes needed to rely on disk images or a couple of symlinks). I’ve filed bugs everywhere, sometimes resulting in a fix, sometimes not. I really don’t see where the hostility is coming from.

That’s because no one is being hostile. They are hoping to help you avoid future heartbreak. They didn’t know that you’ve successfully dealt with this for over 10 years or that you don’t mind getting your hands dirty to make it happen; most forum posters aren’t that savvy about this sort of thing.

I definitely get where you are coming from; I’m a firm believer that computers are tools for us, they aren’t supposed to force us to do things their way. All the same, sometimes it’s easier to let Microsoft or Apple tell us where to go from here — and that’s all the other peeps are saying here, that it would be easier; they aren’t insisting that you take their advice.

Hase.1653:

I’ve been using a case sensitive file system exclusively since 2004, so far I’ve yet to come across an unfixable issue (sometimes needed to rely on disk images or a couple of symlinks). I’ve filed bugs everywhere, sometimes resulting in a fix, sometimes not. I really don’t see where the hostility is coming from.

I’m sorry you feel like my response was hostile. I definitely didn’t intend to be, but I also know it’s sometimes hard for me to see how my “perfectly reasonable” statements come across to others, so if you can explain I’m very happy to try my hardest to understand and avoid that in future.

I agree that problems are, generally, fixable. My own experience was that it wasn’t worth the effort, overall, to keep fighting this battle, but your time is absolutely your own, and if that is how you spend it, great!

I also have no objection to anet fixing the issue you outlined, in case that was unclear. I’m advising based on my own experience what I think will cause the least pain, since that’s all I can do to help someone out here on the forums, which are focused on player to player support rather than getting a lot of “official” anet responses.

Thanks, I guess I feel like all my work was already done before posting here and there’s no pain for me ahead in just letting people know and hopefully help anet improve the situation, especially since they recommended I post here. I enjoy tinkering with things and debugging them, I wasn’t really looking for any kind of help other than hopefully raising an itch with an anet dev who could do something about the problem. It seemed condescending to me to reply to a post that says “here’s a solution to a problem” with “don’t bother/change the situation so you won’t need the solution”. I hope that helps explain. Anyway, <3

Thanks for explaining. I guess my expectation was that you would hear this as “here is a way to avoid having this problem in future, because you are motivated to avoid problems”, and I didn’t see how you would actually hear it.

Thanks.

Hase, you are a saint!