Find the culprit

In case you experience a strange situation with Oolite and in case you want to talk to someone about this, it definitely helps others to describe not just

• the symptoms but also
• which Oolite version,
• which distribution and especially
• which expansions

you have installed.

But you can do even more. Here is a guide for troubleshooting, which should work if you track a problem in Oolite (core), in one expansion or in the incompatibility between several expansions. Basically it is a binary search in the installed expansions. This allows with a minimum of test cycles to span a big number of expansions. Suppose you installed all the 805 expansions that currently are on the expansion catalog. Then only 10 tests should be sufficient to spot the one expansion causing a problem.

Prerequisite

• As you will be juggling a lot of expansions back and forth, find your directories where Addons and ManagedAddons are stored.
• Create a backup of these directories.
• Decide for a procedure to check for the bug. Write it down. This could be to load a savegame, fly to whatever star system, shoot a pirate and then check your cargo hold.

Once you have that, you can start the troubleshooting loop.

Validate Vanilla Oolite

First, validate the problem does not occur in the core. For this, delete all expansions. Perform your test. If the problem occurs, it is in the core. Congratulations, you can file an issue in the oolite github repository. If it doesn't, the core is clean. Restore your expansions.

Check Partition

Create a list of all the installed expansions' names and versions - you will need them. Delete half of them (in odd numbers it does not matter whether you delete one more or less). If no expansion is left, and you still have not found the problem check the next section. Write down the list of those that are left. Run Oolite and perform your test.

If the problem occurs, the installed expansions caused it. If that happened on the last one expansion, you found it! Go to the Oolite bulletin board and ask for help. Otherwise repeat the Check Partition step. If the problem does not occur, it stems from the other half. Restore the expansions from the other half and repeat the Check Partition step.

The problem vanished

While you were troubleshooting with partitions all of a sudden the problem no longer occurred. Neither in the first half nor in the second half.

Then it is likely the problem is caused by a combination of expansions that now got split over the two halfvs. Cut each half into two pieces again (now you have quarters). Now combine the first half's first half with the second half's first half. Combine the remaining two halves, hoping the problem would show up with one of them. If it does, go back to the Check Partition step.

If it still doesn't, we have to switch the strategy. Restore the smallest combination of expansions that produces the problem. Remove one and test again. If the problem persists, repeat the step. If the problem vanished, restore the deleted expansion and remove another one. This should bring you down to the least amount of expansions that - installed together - produce a problem. With that information go to the Oolite bulletin board and ask for help.

Good luck, Commander!