Running old Forge versions under new launcher

[SquareWheel]

I'm attempting to combine all my launchers under the new vanilla launcher.  I want to have an archived copy of my old FTB/Tekkit/TerraFirmaCraft worlds without keeping old launchers around, and I think this is possible with the new profile system.

 

The thing is, older Forge versions don't have an installer that works with the new launcher.  I've worked out that you can install them manually following instructions in this thread.  (Copy "versions" folder, install Forge, update json).  The only trouble is that Forge still wants to install to .minecraft in AppData, even if you've set a profile up in another directory.  I was wondering if there's a parameter I can pass Forge to look in a different folder for mods/configs instead, otherwise I can only have one old Forge install.

 

The closest solution I've come up with is running the launcher via a batch file that temporarily sets AppData elsewhere.  It's not very elegant though.  I've read that it may be possible to set a different path through Java reflection but that's beyond my abilities.  I was really hoping there'd be a parameter I could use instead.

 

Do you folks have any suggestions on how to accomplish this?  It's much appreciated, and I'll gladly create a guide if I get it figured out.  Thanks.

[LexManos]

-Dminecraft.applet.TargetDirectory=C:\Users\Lex\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\151

Try that in the JVM args.

Or you may need to find some wrapper. The older versions were created before the new launcher so there was no way we could predict how they would work. Combine that with the fat that we officially don't support them, we havent written a wrapper around them for the new launcher.

[SquareWheel]

Try that in the JVM args.

Just tried it, but it appears to fail if I include it in the Profile JVM settings.  It is ignored if I add it to the .json file arguments.  Here's the crash log:

 

[spoiler=Log]

[14:10:16 INFO]: Minecraft Launcher 1.3.8 (through bootstrap 5) started on windows...

[14:10:16 INFO]: Refreshing local version list...

[14:10:16 INFO]: Current time is Jan 18, 2014 2:10:16 PM

[14:10:16 INFO]: System.getProperty('os.name') == 'Windows 8'

[14:10:16 INFO]: System.getProperty('os.version') == '6.2'

[14:10:16 INFO]: System.getProperty('os.arch') == 'amd64'

[14:10:16 INFO]: System.getProperty('java.version') == '1.7.0_25'

[14:10:16 INFO]: System.getProperty('java.vendor') == 'Oracle Corporation'

[14:10:16 INFO]: System.getProperty('sun.arch.data.model') == '64'

[14:10:16 INFO]: Refreshing remote version list...

[14:10:16 INFO]: Refresh complete.

[14:10:16 INFO]: Loaded 6 profile(s); selected 'Test'

[14:10:16 INFO]: Refreshing auth...

[14:10:16 INFO]: Logging in with access token

[14:10:24 INFO]: Getting syncinfo for selected version

[14:10:24 INFO]: Queueing library & version downloads

[14:10:24 INFO]: Download job 'Version & Libraries' started (16 threads, 11 files)

[14:10:24 INFO]: Attempting to download C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\java\jinput\jinput-platform\2.0.5\jinput-platform-2.0.5-natives-windows.jar for job 'Version & Libraries'... (try 0)

[14:10:24 INFO]: Attempting to download C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\org\lwjgl\lwjgl\lwjgl\2.9.0\lwjgl-2.9.0.jar for job 'Version & Libraries'... (try 0)

[14:10:24 INFO]: Attempting to download C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\org\lwjgl\lwjgl\lwjgl_util\2.9.0\lwjgl_util-2.9.0.jar for job 'Version & Libraries'... (try 0)

[14:10:24 INFO]: Attempting to download C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\org\ow2\asm\asm-all\4.1\asm-all-4.1.jar for job 'Version & Libraries'... (try 0)

[14:10:24 INFO]: Attempting to download C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\sf\jopt-simple\jopt-simple\4.5\jopt-simple-4.5.jar for job 'Version & Libraries'... (try 0)

[14:10:24 INFO]: Attempting to download C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\java\jutils\jutils\1.0.0\jutils-1.0.0.jar for job 'Version & Libraries'... (try 0)

[14:10:24 INFO]: Attempting to download C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\org\lwjgl\lwjgl\lwjgl-platform\2.9.0\lwjgl-platform-2.9.0-natives-windows.jar for job 'Version & Libraries'... (try 0)

[14:10:24 INFO]: Attempting to download C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\java\jinput\jinput-platform\2.0.5\jinput-platform-2.0.5-natives-windows.jar for job 'Version & Libraries'... (try 0)

[14:10:24 INFO]: Attempting to download C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\minecraft\launchwrapper\1.5\launchwrapper-1.5.jar for job 'Version & Libraries'... (try 0)

[14:10:24 INFO]: Attempting to download C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\java\jinput\jinput\2.0.5\jinput-2.0.5.jar for job 'Version & Libraries'... (try 0)

[14:10:24 INFO]: Attempting to download C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\versions\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534.jar for job 'Version & Libraries'... (try 0)

[14:10:25 INFO]: Download job 'Resources' skipped as there are no files to download

[14:10:25 INFO]: Job 'Resources' finished successfully (took 0:00:00.000)

[14:10:25 INFO]: Finished downloading C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\versions\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534.jar for job 'Version & Libraries': Couldn't connect to server (responded with 403) but have local file, assuming it's good

[14:10:25 INFO]: Finished downloading C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\org\lwjgl\lwjgl\lwjgl-platform\2.9.0\lwjgl-platform-2.9.0-natives-windows.jar for job 'Version & Libraries': Local file matches local checksum, using that

[14:10:25 INFO]: Finished downloading C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\minecraft\launchwrapper\1.5\launchwrapper-1.5.jar for job 'Version & Libraries': Local file matches local checksum, using that

[14:10:25 INFO]: Finished downloading C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\java\jinput\jinput\2.0.5\jinput-2.0.5.jar for job 'Version & Libraries': Local file matches local checksum, using that

[14:10:25 INFO]: Finished downloading C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\java\jinput\jinput-platform\2.0.5\jinput-platform-2.0.5-natives-windows.jar for job 'Version & Libraries': Local file matches local checksum, using that

[14:10:25 INFO]: Finished downloading C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\java\jutils\jutils\1.0.0\jutils-1.0.0.jar for job 'Version & Libraries': Local file matches local checksum, using that

[14:10:25 INFO]: Finished downloading C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\org\lwjgl\lwjgl\lwjgl\2.9.0\lwjgl-2.9.0.jar for job 'Version & Libraries': Local file matches local checksum, using that

[14:10:25 INFO]: Finished downloading C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\org\ow2\asm\asm-all\4.1\asm-all-4.1.jar for job 'Version & Libraries': Local file matches local checksum, using that

[14:10:25 INFO]: Finished downloading C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\org\lwjgl\lwjgl\lwjgl_util\2.9.0\lwjgl_util-2.9.0.jar for job 'Version & Libraries': Local file matches local checksum, using that

[14:10:25 INFO]: Finished downloading C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\sf\jopt-simple\jopt-simple\4.5\jopt-simple-4.5.jar for job 'Version & Libraries': Local file matches local checksum, using that

[14:10:25 INFO]: Finished downloading C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\java\jinput\jinput-platform\2.0.5\jinput-platform-2.0.5-natives-windows.jar for job 'Version & Libraries': Local file matches local checksum, using that

[14:10:25 INFO]: Job 'Version & Libraries' finished successfully (took 0:00:00.489)

[14:10:25 INFO]: Launching game

[14:10:25 INFO]: Looking for old natives & assets to clean up...

[14:10:25 INFO]: Unpacking natives to C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\versions\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534-natives-27535127278243

[14:10:25 INFO]: Reconstructing virtual assets folder at C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\assets\virtual\legacy

[14:10:25 INFO]: Launching in D:\Dropbox\Games\Minecraft\My Profiles\Test

[14:10:25 INFO]: Half command: D:\Programs\Java x64\bin\javaw.exe -XX:HeapDumpPath=MojangTricksIntelDriversForPerformance_javaw.exe_minecraft.exe.heapdump -Xmx1G -Dminecraft.applet.TargetDirectory=D:\Dropbox\Games\Minecraft\My Profiles\Test -Djava.library.path=C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\versions\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534-natives-27535127278243 -cp C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\minecraft\launchwrapper\1.5\launchwrapper-1.5.jar;C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\sf\jopt-simple\jopt-simple\4.5\jopt-simple-4.5.jar;C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\org\ow2\asm\asm-all\4.1\asm-all-4.1.jar;C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\java\jinput\jinput\2.0.5\jinput-2.0.5.jar;C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\net\java\jutils\jutils\1.0.0\jutils-1.0.0.jar;C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\org\lwjgl\lwjgl\lwjgl\2.9.0\lwjgl-2.9.0.jar;C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\libraries\org\lwjgl\lwjgl\lwjgl_util\2.9.0\lwjgl_util-2.9.0.jar;C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\versions\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534.jar net.minecraft.launchwrapper.Launch

[14:10:25 INFO]: Client> Error: Could not find or load main class Profiles\Test

[14:10:25 ERROR]: Game ended with bad state (exit code 1)

[14:10:25 INFO]: Deleting C:\Users\Wes\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\versions\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534\1.4.7-Forge6.6.2.534-natives-27535127278243

[14:10:25 INFO]: Ignoring visibility rule and showing launcher due to a game crash

 

 

 

So "Could not find or load main class Profiles\Test".  This profile is loading Forge 1.4.7.  No-go, then?

 

If it's relevant, .minecraft is actually pointing to my Dropbox so I can sync between PCs.  Symbolic links are the best.

The older versions were created before the new launcher so there was no way we could predict how they would work.

Entirely understandable.  I know I'm playing with unsupported stuff.  Thanks for your help.

[LexManos]

If you have paths with spaces, they need to be wrapped in quotes.

Also I said JVM args, not program args.

I can load 1.5.2 that way just fine.

[SquareWheel]

That did the trick.  Can't believe I missed the space in the path.  Haha, just spent two hours converting it all to MultiMC format.  Oh well, learning experience.  I'm going to create a proper guide if that's okay.  I figure others may also want to set everything up through the vanilla launcher.

 

Thanks man.

 

---

 

edit: The "Tutorials" redirect goes to a Wiki and looks to be aimed at devs, not users.  Which subforum would be ideal for a user-focused tutorial?  I think I'll post to Forge General Discussion and you guys can move it if there's a better spot.

[LexManos]

Tutorials.

[SquareWheel]

Okay, I've added it here.

 

http://www.minecraftforge.net/wiki/Tutorials/Installing_older_Forge_under_new_Vanilla_Launcher

 

I'm not very familiar with Wiki formatting so I couldn't work out how to add images.  I linked them externally instead.  But hopefully that will help somebody else out.

 

Cheers.