Minecraft GUI on Kubuntu HOWTO
During one of the updates to my Focal Fossa install I noticed that the Minecraft Launcher (installed via Minecraft.deb) had disappeared. I was informed by one of the dev's that there was a dependency issue with one of the necessary libraries and that it would probably be fixed later, of which I have no doubt.
How ever, I have a second Minecraft launcher installed on my box: MultiMC. MultiMC "is a free, open source launcher for Minecraft. It allows you to have multiple, cleanly separated instances of Minecraft (each with their own mods, texture packs, saves, etc) and helps you manage them and their associated options with a simple and powerful interface." The multimc_1.4-1.deb package, requiring qt5, is available from their site. Also, MultiMC is built to use the Fabric mod loader, a competitor to Forge. MultiMC will not (yet) install or use Forge, although several mods built for Forge will load and run under Fabric. Experimentation will tell. Forge will not load Fabric mods.
While downloading yet another test copy of Minecraft.deb from the Minecraft download website I noticed a second version of the Minecraft Launcher under the "Alternatives" link: Minecraft.tar.gz. I downloaded it and opened it with Ark. Then I dragged the top directory to my Minecraft folder and dropped it there. Inside that folder was a binary executable, minecraft-launcher. I opened the KMenu in Edit mode and added that launcher under my gaming directory, borrowing an icon from the other installation. It produced the exact same GUI Minecraft interface that Minecraft.deb supplied, and my maps and mods ran as they should.
Mods are, for the most part, dependent on specific releases of Minecraft. A mod written for Minecraft 1.14 generally won't run on previous or later versions of Minecraft unless the mod author designates his mod with a "+", like somemod-1.14+. This is because as Mojang continues to develop Minecraft new blocks and features are added, and sometimes old blocks and features are removed. Because of this many players like to maintain separate versions of Minecraft so that they can continue to build on and support their previous maps, and to be able to explore and examine previous maps of other players. Hermitcraft, a collection of 2 or 3 dozen active pro players like Mumbo Jumbo, Xumavoid, CubFan, Grian, Docm77 and others, recently brought their Season 6 to a conclusion. Their previous seasons usually lasted a year but this last season was such a hit it ran for about 18 months and involved upgrading their map to the newer 1.151 version. The Season 6 map has become a popular download, even at 6Gb. Examining the various buildings, constructions, devices and Redstone circuitry was a lot of fun and informative.
MultiMC was created to resolve the problem of trying to keep various versions and maps separate so they would not interfere with each other. To see how important this is consider the usual way of running Minecraft (java -jar Minecraft.jar). The installation process creates a hidden directory, ~/.minecraft, in which is placed all the files necessary to create and run a map and add mods, resources and datapacks. Open a Minecraft map in a GUI launcher and you'll notice that it is pointing to ~/.minecraft" as the location of the "configuration" file. Inside that directory will be several subdirectories which include backups, saves, versions, resources and mods. Inside the saves directory are the maps for all versions of Minecraft that you are running and inside backups are their backups. Inside each map in saves is a datapack directory. Inside the versions directory are each version of Minecraft and its jason file that you are running. Nothing else. The resources and mods directories are a level above the saves directory and those two files apply to all the maps in the saves directory. Therein lies the problem. A mod built for version 1.15 might not load in version 1.152 and cause the launcher to crash. To make matters worse, you can rename ~/.minecraft to, say, ~/.minecraft115 AFTER you've created a 1.15 map, and point to ~/.minecraft115 in the launcher, but other versions are now disconnected if they pointed to ~/.minecraft. MultiMC avoids these problems by totally controlling where each version is installed, and keeps their resources, datapacks and mods separate from other versions also installed. Also, as you download various mods to experiment with you can store them in the mod folder of the version they were written for and in the modloader tab for that version you can add, remove, enable or disable each mod. If you add and enable a new mod and it doesn't load or causes a crash (which never crashes the MultiMC GUI) you can disable it and resume playing.
So, the only reason I use the Minecraft.deb launcher is to play with the Forge mods. However, there are more Forge mods than there are Fabric mods (or here, among other places). Forge has better storage and conduit mods than Fabric, currently, but that is about the only difference that affects me.
And, you don't have to wait until Minecraft.deb gets updated.
How ever, I have a second Minecraft launcher installed on my box: MultiMC. MultiMC "is a free, open source launcher for Minecraft. It allows you to have multiple, cleanly separated instances of Minecraft (each with their own mods, texture packs, saves, etc) and helps you manage them and their associated options with a simple and powerful interface." The multimc_1.4-1.deb package, requiring qt5, is available from their site. Also, MultiMC is built to use the Fabric mod loader, a competitor to Forge. MultiMC will not (yet) install or use Forge, although several mods built for Forge will load and run under Fabric. Experimentation will tell. Forge will not load Fabric mods.
While downloading yet another test copy of Minecraft.deb from the Minecraft download website I noticed a second version of the Minecraft Launcher under the "Alternatives" link: Minecraft.tar.gz. I downloaded it and opened it with Ark. Then I dragged the top directory to my Minecraft folder and dropped it there. Inside that folder was a binary executable, minecraft-launcher. I opened the KMenu in Edit mode and added that launcher under my gaming directory, borrowing an icon from the other installation. It produced the exact same GUI Minecraft interface that Minecraft.deb supplied, and my maps and mods ran as they should.
Mods are, for the most part, dependent on specific releases of Minecraft. A mod written for Minecraft 1.14 generally won't run on previous or later versions of Minecraft unless the mod author designates his mod with a "+", like somemod-1.14+. This is because as Mojang continues to develop Minecraft new blocks and features are added, and sometimes old blocks and features are removed. Because of this many players like to maintain separate versions of Minecraft so that they can continue to build on and support their previous maps, and to be able to explore and examine previous maps of other players. Hermitcraft, a collection of 2 or 3 dozen active pro players like Mumbo Jumbo, Xumavoid, CubFan, Grian, Docm77 and others, recently brought their Season 6 to a conclusion. Their previous seasons usually lasted a year but this last season was such a hit it ran for about 18 months and involved upgrading their map to the newer 1.151 version. The Season 6 map has become a popular download, even at 6Gb. Examining the various buildings, constructions, devices and Redstone circuitry was a lot of fun and informative.
MultiMC was created to resolve the problem of trying to keep various versions and maps separate so they would not interfere with each other. To see how important this is consider the usual way of running Minecraft (java -jar Minecraft.jar). The installation process creates a hidden directory, ~/.minecraft, in which is placed all the files necessary to create and run a map and add mods, resources and datapacks. Open a Minecraft map in a GUI launcher and you'll notice that it is pointing to ~/.minecraft" as the location of the "configuration" file. Inside that directory will be several subdirectories which include backups, saves, versions, resources and mods. Inside the saves directory are the maps for all versions of Minecraft that you are running and inside backups are their backups. Inside each map in saves is a datapack directory. Inside the versions directory are each version of Minecraft and its jason file that you are running. Nothing else. The resources and mods directories are a level above the saves directory and those two files apply to all the maps in the saves directory. Therein lies the problem. A mod built for version 1.15 might not load in version 1.152 and cause the launcher to crash. To make matters worse, you can rename ~/.minecraft to, say, ~/.minecraft115 AFTER you've created a 1.15 map, and point to ~/.minecraft115 in the launcher, but other versions are now disconnected if they pointed to ~/.minecraft. MultiMC avoids these problems by totally controlling where each version is installed, and keeps their resources, datapacks and mods separate from other versions also installed. Also, as you download various mods to experiment with you can store them in the mod folder of the version they were written for and in the modloader tab for that version you can add, remove, enable or disable each mod. If you add and enable a new mod and it doesn't load or causes a crash (which never crashes the MultiMC GUI) you can disable it and resume playing.
So, the only reason I use the Minecraft.deb launcher is to play with the Forge mods. However, there are more Forge mods than there are Fabric mods (or here, among other places). Forge has better storage and conduit mods than Fabric, currently, but that is about the only difference that affects me.
And, you don't have to wait until Minecraft.deb gets updated.