I’ve had Gaiasky on my computer for over a year and it stopped working because the server in Germany at the University it originated from was down for the last few months making the program inoperative. I downloaded the main program file from AUR once again to see if would ever be running again. To my surprise it is now working again and it installs 4 data set files you need for it to run. That’s great. A very good program with excellent astronomical visual effects.
Rich 
Weird. Never had any problems with GaiaSky on my machine.
New Dataset for GaiaSky. Rings of Saturn
There were posts about this on the web concerning this. . .
Rich
I’m considering installing GaiaSky. I just looked it up on the AUR. The Java runtime dependencies seem HUGE. Has anyone run into issues either installing or using GaiaSky?
Never had any issues, either with installing it or using it
I have installed that version of java
╰─❯ java --version
openjdk 26.0.2 2026-03-17
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 26.0.2)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 26.0.2, mixed mode, sharing)
This is my machine
╰─❯ inxi -GC
CPU:
Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Radeon Graphics bits: 64
type: MT MCP cache: L2: 4 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 2393 min/max: 422/4674 cores: 1: 2393 2: 2393 3: 2393
4: 2393 5: 2393 6: 2393 7: 2393 8: 2393 9: 2393 10: 2393 11: 2393 12: 2393
13: 2393 14: 2393 15: 2393 16: 2393
Graphics:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 23 [Radeon RX 6600/6600
XT/6600M] driver: amdgpu v: kernel
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
unloaded: modesetting,radeon dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu
resolution: 2560x1440~180Hz
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: kms_swrast,radeonsi,swrast
platforms: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 26.0.3-arch1.1
renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6600 (radeonsi navi23 ACO DRM 3.64
6.19.9-zen1-1-zen)
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.341 drivers: radv surfaces: N/A
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: corectrl,radeontop wl: wayland-info
x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
─❯ yay -S gaiasky
Sync Explicit (1): gaiasky-3:3.7.1-2
[sudo] password for wombat:
resolving dependencies...
:: There are 19 providers available for java-runtime:
:: Repository extra
1) jdk-openjdk 2) jdk11-openjdk 3) jdk17-openjdk 4) jdk21-openjdk 5) jdk25-openjdk
6) jre-openjdk 7) jre11-openjdk 8) jre17-openjdk 9) jre21-openjdk 10) jre25-openjdk
11) jre8-openjdk
:: Repository chaotic-aur
12) jdk 13) jdk22-openjdk 14) jdk23-openjdk 15) jdk24-openjdk 16) jre 17) jre22-openjdk
18) jre23-openjdk 19) jre24-openjdk
Enter a number (default=1):
I’m assuming the default jdk is good?
Yes!
─❯ java --version
openjdk 26.0.2 2026-03-17
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 26.0.2)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 26.0.2, mixed mode, sharing)
─❯
My machine…
─❯ inxi -GC
CPU:
Info: 6-core model: Intel Core i7-8700K bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache:
L2: 1.5 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/4800 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800
5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GA104 [GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Lite Hash Rate] driver: nvidia
v: 595.58.03
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: nvidia unloaded: modesetting
gpu: nv_platform,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 2560x1440~165Hz
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: nvidia,swrast
platforms: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 595.58.03
renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.341 drivers: nvidia surfaces: N/A
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: lact, nvidia-settings, nvidia-smi
wl: wayland-info x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
─❯
Thanks @swh!
You’re very welcome. Glad you got it working. Endeavour our Galaxy with GaiaSky
Thank you for the pointer to Gaiasky - didn’t know it existed. Do now though!
Some interseting and helpful websoite for discovering Gaia
And mostly important a user Manual