Installation

In the sections below is the information on the minimum hardware requirements and on how to install the software.

System requirements

Here are the minimum requirements to run this software:

Operating system	Linux / Windows 7+ / macOS, x86_64 (ARM CPUs unsupported)
CPU	Intel Core i5 3rd Generation or similar. 4 core or higher recommended
GPU	Support for OpenGL 3.2 (4.x recommended), 1 GB VRAM
Memory	4 GB RAM
Hard drive	1 GB of free disk space (depends on datasets)

Download

Gaia Sky packages are available for Linux, macOS and Windows. You can either download the Gaia Sky build for your operating system (recommended) or browse and build the source code.

• Gaia Sky downloads page

Installation

Depending on your system and your personal preferences the installation procedure may vary. Below is a description of the various installation methods available.

Linux

We provide 3 packages for linux systems (deb for Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives, rpm for RedHat, Fedora and derivatives and a linux installer which works on all distros) plus an AUR package for Arch and derivatives.

deb

This is the package for Debian-based distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, SteamOS, etc.). Download the gaiasky_<version>.deb file and run the following command. You will need root privileges to install a deb package in your system.

$  dpkg -i gaiasky_<version>.deb

This will install the application in the /opt/gaiasky/ folder and it will create the necessary shortcuts and .desktop files. The package depends on the default-jre package, which will be installed if it is not yet there.

In order to uninstall, just type:

$  apt-get remove gaiasky

rpm

This is the package for RPM-based distributions (Red Hat, Fedora, Mandriva, SUSE, CentOS, etc.) Download the gaiasky_linux_<version>.rpm file and run the following command. You will need root privileges to install a rpm package in your system.

$  yum install gaiasky_linux_<version>.rpm

This will install the application in the /opt/gaiasky/ folder and it will create the necessary shortcuts.

In order to uninstall, just type:

$  yum remove gaiasky-x86

Install from AUR

If you have Arch, Manjaro, Antergos or any other Arch Linux derivative, you can install the package from AUR using any tool able to install AUR software. For example:

$  yay -S gaiasky

This will download the package and install it in the /opt/gaiasky/ folder. It also creates the necessary shortcuts.

Flatpak

Thanks to a community effort we can also offer a Flatpak package via Flathub. The Flathub is here.

Install:

flatpak install flathub de.uni_heidelberg.zah.GaiaSky

Run:

flatpak run de.uni_heidelberg.zah.GaiaSky

AppImage

The AppImage package does not need a formal installation. Just download the file to some place safe, give it execution permissions and run it.

Give execution permission:

chmod +x GaiaSky_[version].appimage

Run:

./GaiaSky_[version].appimage

Unix/Linux installer

We also provide a Unix/Linux installer that will trigger a graphical interface where you can choose the installation location and some other settings. Download the file gaiasky_unix_<version>.sh to your disk. Then run the following to start the installation.

$  ./gaiasky_unix_[version].sh

Follow the on-screen instructions to proceed with the installation.

In order to uninstall, just execute the uninstall file in the installation folder.

Windows

We offer a Windows installer for 64-bit systems, gaiasky_windows-x64_<version>.exe.

To install the Gaia Sky, just double click on the installer and then follow the on-screen instructions. You will need to choose the directory where the application is to be installed.

In order to uninstall the application you can use the Windows Control Panel or you can use the provided uninstaller in the Gaia Sky folder.

macOS

For macOS we provide a gaiasky_macos_<version>.dmg file. To install, double-click on it to mount it and then drag-and-drop the “Gaia Sky.app” application to your /Applications directory in Finder. Once copied, it is safe to unmount the dmg volume.

Our dmg package is not signed by Apple, so it will be detected as coming from an ‘unidentified developer’. You can still install it by following the procedure described in this page.

Compressed (TGZ) package

A gaiasky-[version].tgz package file is also provided here. It will work in all systems but you need to unpack it yourself and create the desired shortcuts. In Windows, use an archiver software (7zip, iZArc, etc.) to unpack it.

In Linux and macOS, you can use:

$ tar xzvf gaiasky-<version>.tgz -C [target_folder]