# Startup and Installation Issues

1. Where do I download PCGen from?

   You can download the latest version of PCGen from:
   http://pcgen.sourceforge.net

   You can download one of the following:
   - pcgenXXX_full.zip : everything including GMGen and PDF, best installed in new directory.
   - pcgenXXX_patch.zip : everything that's changed since the latest point realease (e.g. 5.6.0), install over any version within the same major version (5.6.1 to 5.6.x).
   - pcgenXXX_partial.zip : everything except GMGen and PDF, best installed in new directory.

   And because I _know_ someone is going to ask, the XXX stands for the version number, OK? Good.

2. How do I unzip the downloaded files?

   All of the files you've downloaded must be unzipped to the same directory / folder. Unzipping is done differently on different platforms (don't ya hate that?).

   If you use Windows and you don't already have it, you should download:
   WinZip

   After WinZip has been installed, double-click one of the files. This will open the file in WinZip. On the menu-bar, click the "Extract to..." button, and enter the location where you want to have PCGen (Example: `c:\tools\pcgen`). Make sure you have the "Include Subfolders" option checked!! Then you do the same thing for the other file. Make sure you extract to the same directory as last time. You might be asked if WinZip should overwrite the files already there. If so, you can safely choose yes, (no _really_, you can honestly, I wouldn't lie to you.).

   In Mac OS X, double-clicking the files, will make two different folders. Then it is simply (we FAQ authors _love_ that word) a case of making a new folder somewhere (preferably in the Applications folder) and moving all the contents of the other two folders into that. Do not move the entire folders. Only the contents!

   In Linux/Unix Gzip will do the trick. Unix/Linux users by there nature should know what they are doing by now ;-)

   Or, as an alternative to the 3 above, you can download one of the platform-specific installer-files. _Most_ of these will do all the work for you if you just download them, and then double-click on whatever came down.

3. How do I start PCGen?

   - In Windows, simply double-click PCGen.bat or PCGen.Jar.
   - In Mac OS 10.1, simply double-click PCGen.jar.
   - In Unix/Linux, you need to execute `java -jar pcgen.jar`.
4. What do I need besides the zip-files to get the program running?

   Glad you asked, because for many of you the instructions failed didn't they? Well here's why.

   Make sure that have the Java 2 v1.4.0 (1.3.1 will also work, but 1.4.0 vastly improves performance). Runtime environment (or the SDK) installed on your machine. It's available from:
   http://java.sun.com/j2se/.

   Mac users should note that Apple does not, and will not, support Java 2 v1.3.1 or greater for anything less than Mac OS X, so there, ha-ha, go and spend more money!

5. Will PCGen run on my machine?

   That depends. The one thing that decides if you can run PCGen or not, is whether you have at least JAVA 1.3.1 installed. If you do, the it should run. If not, it won't. It really is that simple.

   However, some might want to check here, so here is a small list (If your configuration is not on this list, send me an e-mail at: martijnv@datacom.co.nz).

   OS | Does it Work?
   Mac OS 7.x - 9.x | No. (Actually, it might. As a work-around, you can install VirtualPC (or some such) and run PCGen in there.)
   Mac OS 10.x | Yes
   Win 98 | Yes
   Win 98 SE | Yes
   Win 2000 | Yes
   Win NT | Yes
   Win XP | Yes
   Unix | Yes
   Linux | Yes

   All the solutions above have been tested.

6. Why is the Source "Load" tab all grey?

   This might be because your machine have a problem finding the files PCGen refers to. There is no easy way to fix this (there never is). There are machine-specific releases of PCGen available, but unless you choose to use one of these, you'll have to manually change the addressing in the files you're to access. Normally this is a case of changing a `/` to a `\` or the other way round. Also make sure that you don't try to access something like `c:/program files/pcgen/` when you should be accessing `c:/program~1/pcgen/`, or vice versa.

   Note that on Windows, enclosing the entire path in double quotation marks is an acceptable way to accessing the directory, i.e. `"c:\program files\pcgen\"`. The same might also work on Mac OS X, but I'm not a Mac user, so I don't know.

   Another reason might be the _ever_ popular "unzipping error". You must keep the structure intact, when you unzip the downloaded files. In other words, be sure to unzip the files with the option enabled to create the appropriate directory structure within the install directory.

   In Windows this should be a breeze. But be aware of a small pitfall with Mac OS X here. I've discovered that Mac OS X doesn't simply overwrite the files within a specified directory, but in fact overwrites the entire directory. What this means is that if you do things in the "wrong" order some directories might be empty. There are three ways to make sure this doesn't happen.

   - One is to unzip the files into different directories, and then move the individual files to their right position.

   - Another way is to use the terminal-window. Move the zip-files to where you want them, and use the terminal-window to manually unzip the files. The first two files, shouldn't be any problem just write `"unzip pcgenXXX_part1of3.zip"`, and watch the files being unstuffed. Do the same for pcgenXXX_part2of3.zip BUT, when you try this for pcgenXXX_part3of3.zip, you'll be asked a question. Answer this by typing "`A`". Wheee, look at it go! Anyway, you should now have a file called pcgen.jar, which you can double-click to start PCGen.

   - Thirdly, you can use conor1014's excellent alternate PCGen release. He normally releases a new version on Fridays. Look for it at:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen/files/Misc/Alternate%20PCGen%20Releases/

7. Why can't I make a new character? The "New" menu-item is grayed out.

   This is probably the most asked question so far. The answer is this: Before you can make a character, you must tell PCGen which rule books it should use. In other words, you must load one or more source books or modules listed under the "Source Material"-tab before you can make a new character. Make sure that at least one module is marked by a "Y" instead of a "N".

   You might wonder why PCGen doesn't do this automatically. This is because PCGen is made to be a RPG-generator. As it stands now, you may choose to load a Fantasy, Sci-Fi or Contempory module instead. Had PCGen automatically loaded a module, you would have to unload that module and then load another module, if you wanted to make a Sci-Fi RPG-character.

   There are options to load sources on start up or as you open a PC, take your pick, we don't mind ;-).