In this section of the homepage you will learn how to build a new installer from the fQuake source that meets your demands. The fQuake installer is very flexible and therefore you can make it into an Online Installer, a LAN Installer or a CD Installer!

1. The installer procedure
2. How to make your own online installer
3. How to make a LAN installer
4. How to make a CD installer

When the fQuake installer is started, it downloads mirrors.ini and distfiles.ini from the fQuake website. mirrors.ini lists the available fQuake mirrors from which you can download all the distribution packages. distfiles.ini lets the installer know how big the different packages are, so you know how much the installer will be downloading.

When the installer has initialized, you will be asked to agree to the license agreement. The license agreements of which you are required to accept are: GNU General Public License, Quake® Shareware, Qizmo, and The All–Seeing Eye. The Quake® Shareware license can be ignored if you own a registered version of Quake®.

After choosing what sections of fQuake to install, it's time to select a mirror from which to download the distribution packages. If you do not select a mirror, a random mirror will be chosen for you. This is the recommended option, since it puts less strain on the more popular mirrors. On this page you will be also asked to choose where to download the distribution files. If you have some distribution files stored on your computer, you may select that folder now. The installer will not download files that can be found in the folder you specify for downloading. If the distribution files stored on your computer are outdated, you will not get the latest version of fQuake installed on your computer.

After the mirror and download location have been selected, the installer will ask for a destination folder, and finally the start menu folder before proceeding with the install. The installation process consists of the downloading and extracting of distribution packages. You cannot abort the installation during the extracting of packages, but you can abort while the installer is downloading distribution files. If you abort the installation, you will be asked if you want to remove the installed files and/or the downloaded distribution files. The installer keeps track of everything, so if you decide to cancel, you will be back to normal and everything will be fine!

If you want to make your own online installer based on fQuake, follow this guide.

Download the latest version of the fQuake sources.

Download the Distfile Downloader and the INI Creator.

Download the distribution files using the Distfile Downloader. A good place to put them would be e.g. C:\my-fquake\fquake-distfiles\. After you have downloaded the distribution files, you can modify them to suit your needs. E.g. you can add pak1.pak to basepackage.zip in order to make your version of fQuake complete (yet illegal ;-S).

Use the INI Creator to create a distfiles.ini for your installer. Simply select the folder where you downloaded the distribution packages, and distfiles.ini will be created in the same folder as the INI Creator.

Create a new text document and name it mirrors.ini. Let's say you have a host where you plan on putting your distribution files. The full URL to the distribution files will be http://www.example.com/fquake/distfiles/. Then create a mirrors.ini file that looks like this:

You can add more mirrors if you want to, but we will settle for two here. Note that the URLs should NOT have a tracing slash!

Extract the sources you downloaded in Step 1, and edit the file called fquake-installer_source.nsi. Find this line !define INSTALLER_URL "http://fquake.sf.net/" and change the URL to where your installer will be available for download. There are a few other you can change to give the installer a personal look, but I won't bring them up here ;-).

Download and install the latest version of NSIS.

Before you start compiling the sources, you need to copy the Plugins, Include and Contrib folders to the NSIS directory (C:\Program Files\NSIS). When you have done this, right click fquake-installer_source.nsi and select Compile NSIS Script.

Now that you've compiled your installer, you might want to make it available for download. There are 3 files you need to make available on your website, the installer executable, mirrors.ini and distfiles.ini. Without the 2 latter files, your installer will fail miserably.

Upload the files and you're done.

Note: Since fQuake is distributed under the GPL, you are required by law to make the source code of your modified installer available for download.

If you plan on having a LAN party and want your attendees to be able to download Quake® at high LAN speeds, follow this guide.

Download the latest version of the fQuake sources.

Download the Distfile Downloader and the INI Creator.

Download the distribution files using the Distfile Downloader. A good place to put them would be e.g. C:\my-fquake\fquake-distfiles\. After you have downloaded the distribution files, you can modify them to suit your needs. E.g. you can add pak1.pak to basepackage.zip in order to make your version of fQuake complete (yet illegal ;-S).

Use the INI Creator to create a distfiles.ini for your installer. Simply select the folder where you downloaded the distribution packages, and distfiles.ini will be created in the same folder as the INI Creator.

Create a new text document and name it mirrors.ini. Let's say you have a webserver running with the IP 192.168.0.1 and the fQuake distribution files are located in ./fquake/distfiles/. Then create a mirrors.ini file that looks like this:

On an offline LAN party there's really no point in having more than one mirror for the distribution files. Note that the URL should NOT have a tracing slash!

Extract the sources you downloaded in Step 1, and edit the file called fquake-installer_source.nsi. Find this line !define INSTALLER_URL "http://fquake.sf.net/" and change the URL to where your installer will be available for download. If you followed the last step, the logical URL to use would be http://192.168.0.1/fquake/. There are a few other you can change to give the installer a personal look, but I won't bring them up here ;-).

Download and install the latest version of NSIS.

Before you start compiling the sources, you need to copy the Plugins, Include and Contrib folders to the NSIS directory (C:\Program Files\NSIS). When you have done this, right click fquake-installer_source.nsi and select Compile NSIS Script.

Now that you've compiled your installer, you might want to make it available for download. There are 3 files you need to make available on your website, the installer executable, mirrors.ini and distfiles.ini. Without the 2 latter files, your installer will fail miserably.

Upload the files and you're done.

Note: Since fQuake is distributed under the GPL, you are required by law to make the source code of your modified installer available for download.

If you want to backup your Quake® CD, creating an fQuake CD Installer would be a wise choice. Follow this guide to learn how.

Download the latest version of the fQuake sources. If you don't plan on modifying the installer, you can choose to download the latest binary release instead.

Download the Distfile Downloader and the INI Creator.

Download the distribution files using the Distfile Downloader. A good place to put them would be e.g. C:\my-fquake\fquake-distfiles\. After you have downloaded the distribution files, add id1\pak1.pak from your Quake® CD to the distribution package called basepackage.zip. You may of course edit any other distribution file, but this is the only change needed to make your fQuake CD contain everything needed from the Quake® CD.

Use the INI Creator to create a distfiles.ini for your installer. Simply select the folder where you downloaded the distribution packages, and distfiles.ini will be created in the same folder as the INI Creator.

When making an fQuake CD, you don't need to modify the source code. However, there are a few settings you can change to give the installer a personal look, but I won't bring them up here ;-).

Skip this step if you didn't modify the source code.
Download and install the latest version of NSIS.

Skip this step if you didn't modify the source code.
Before you start compiling the sources, you need to copy the Plugins, Include and Contrib folders to the NSIS directory (C:\Program Files\NSIS). When you have done this, right click fquake-installer_source.nsi and select Compile NSIS Script.

You can now commence with burning the CD. When creating a CD Installer, you need to have a specific directory structure for the CD to work. Rename the installer executable to setup.exe and create a file called autostart.inf and use this directory structure:

Edit autostart.inf to look like this:

Now burn the CD and you're done.

Note: Since fQuake is distributed under the GPL, you are required by law to make the source code of your modified installer available. However, since your fQuake CD will only be used by yourself, there is little to no point in doing that.