[SOLVED] How to disable the update banner

The title pretty much sums it up. Today I started up my trusty xonotic-glx version 0.8.2 and saw this:



My OS's official package repository doesn't have the latest version just yet (though maybe by the time you view this, they will). Looks like 0.8.5 was just released quite recently.

I promise to update just as soon as it gets updated in Arch's official repos, but in the meantime, can I disable the annoying yellow nag box so it doesn't distract me while I'm trying to frag people?

Thanks in advance.

Well, I figured a way to do so and I'll record it here for anybody else finding this thread.

Stick "127.0.0.1<tab>update.xonotic.org" in your /etc/hosts. (Or in your Windows hosts file... google to find out how to do that.)

If there isn't a better way (and no, updating doesn't necessarily always count as a "better way"), at least this is a tested, working workaround.

The bit in the Xonotic 0.8.5 source code (I haven't looked at the 0.8.2 source code) that hits that domain to check if there's an update available is in the file source/qcsrc/menu/xonotic/util.qc in the method "updateCheck()".

Another way is to update.

Go to xon/misc/tools/rsync-updater and run the update to autobuild for you system. (it will delete everythin non-stadandard in the xons subfolders tho keep that in mind.

Thanks!
At this point, Arch has published the new version and I've updated that way. I just needed a solution for a couple of hours to play yesterday, really.

Quick note on updating. I forgot to double check my glibc files. I ran the update script and realized my pc is using 2.27 and not 2.29. I shouldn't have been so hasty to get rid of the 'Update * Now' banner. I'll be back in a couple of months when I have time to review my fix options. Good luck and May the Gods of Xon Bless You!

Quick note on updating.  I forgot to double check my glibc files.  I ran the update script and realized my pc is using 2.27 and not 2.29.  I shouldn't have been so hasty to get rid of the 'Update * Now' banner.  I'll be back in a couple of months when I have time to review my fix options.  Good luck and May the Gods of Xon Bless You!

Yeah. "Hasty" seems to be what the developers are hoping to instill in players. I'd be interested to know why they feel it necessary to use such intrusive measures. Maybe they're worried that version mismatches could cause instability server side or something? Or they just want to limit the work involved in user support by aggressively incentivising all users to standardize the version they use on the latest?

Whatever the case, it sucks that you're stuck with a non-working Xonotic. Would you be able to just downgrade to 0.8.2 and either ignore the banner or use the hosts file trick I posted above?

Honestly, aside from asking here I also asked via chat in a Xonotic server I frequent. The answers I've received so far:

1. xon/misc/tools/rsync-updater, which I don't know how to find exactly. It's not anywhere on my system. I'm guessing it's in the release zip file? But I didn't install Xonotic via that method previously.
   
2. "autobuild", which I've never used, don't really know what it is (a source-based package manager?), doesn't exist in my OS's package manager, and I'm not 100% certain whether this one is distinct from the first option.
   
3. Compile it myself, which, again, I'm not sure is distinct from the above and, well, it's not like I didn't already know I had that option. If I were to go that route, I'd use Arch's PKGBUILD system to compile and install it via the Arch package manager rather than just willy-nilly dropping a second "installation" of Xonotic in my home directory somewhere.
   
4. Download the release zip file from xonotic.org, which also would involve generous portions of willy *and* nilly.
   

Plus, many of the above would potentially have run me into issues like the glibc issues you ran into.

But I knew Arch would have the latest version in the package repository very soon and I only really needed a quick stop-gap so I could play for one night. So, what I ended up doing was grepping source code until I found the reference to update.xonotic.org .

Actually, that call to update.xonotic.org does more than just tell Xonotic whether to nag you to update. There's something in there that I haven't looked deeply into about "banned servers" (maybe malicious servers that the developers wanted clients not to show in the servers list? But wouldn't it be more straightforward to just solve that in the metaserver?) and "emergency pk3s" (I'm guessing in case a Xonotic release ends up having buggy pk3 files in it that aren't noticed until after a release so they can get the fixed versions out without requiring users to update their Xonotic install?).