Creating appimages from archlinux packages

Mini-tutorial: Let's package FlightGear.

Long story short:

$ pacman2appDir flightgear -subversion
$ cd flightgear.AppDir
$ buildAppImage

Short story long:

$ pacman2appDir flightgear


These packages will be included:
  flightgear
  simgear
  libxmu
  libxi
  zlib
  openscenegraph
  subversion
  libxrandr
  glu
  flightgear-data
[sudo] password for raziel:

Oops! For some reason, FlightGear depends on subversion, we don't really want that, so we ignore it:

$ pacman2appDir flightgear -subversion


Ignoring subversion...
These packages will be included:
  flightgear
  simgear
  libxmu
  libxi
  zlib
  openscenegraph
  libxrandr
  glu
  flightgear-data
[sudo] password for raziel: 
resolving dependencies...

Targets (10): plib-1.8.5-4  flightgear-2.10.0-1  flightgear-data-2.10.0-1  glu-9.0.0-1  libxi-1.6.2-1  libxmu-1.1.1-1  libxrandr-1.4.0-1  openscenegraph-3.0.1-8
              simgear-2.10.0-1  zlib-1.2.7-1

Total Download Size:    0.00 MiB

Proceed with download? [Y/n] 
(10/10) checking package integrity                          [-------------------------------------------------------------] 100%
Assuming main package is /var/cache/pacman/pkg/flightgear-2.10.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz with version 2.10.0
Uncompressing /var/cache/pacman/pkg/flightgear-2.10.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz...
Uncompressing /var/cache/pacman/pkg/simgear-2.10.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz...
Uncompressing /var/cache/pacman/pkg/libxmu-1.1.1-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz...
Uncompressing /var/cache/pacman/pkg/libxi-1.6.2-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz...
Uncompressing /var/cache/pacman/pkg/zlib-1.2.7-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz...
Uncompressing /var/cache/pacman/pkg/openscenegraph-3.0.1-8-i686.pkg.tar.xz...
Uncompressing /var/cache/pacman/pkg/libxrandr-1.4.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz...
Uncompressing /var/cache/pacman/pkg/glu-9.0.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz...
Uncompressing /var/cache/pacman/pkg/flightgear-data-2.10.0-1-any.pkg.tar.xz...
tar: Ignoring unknown extended header keyword `SCHILY.fflags'
tar: Ignoring unknown extended header keyword `SCHILY.fflags'
tar: Ignoring unknown extended header keyword `SCHILY.fflags'
tar: Ignoring unknown extended header keyword `SCHILY.fflags'
tar: Ignoring unknown extended header keyword `SCHILY.fflags'
tar: Ignoring unknown extended header keyword `SCHILY.fflags'
tar: Ignoring unknown extended header keyword `SCHILY.fflags'
tar: Ignoring unknown extended header keyword `SCHILY.fflags'
Found .desktop file 'FlightGear' (fgfs --fg-root)
  Using it as main program
ls: cannot access usr/share/pixmaps/flightgear.png: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access usr/share/pixmaps/flightgear.*: No such file or directory
! Icon flightgear not found
usr/share/pixmaps:
find: `usr/share/pixmaps': No such file or directory
Possible missing libraries: (use --auto-copy-libs to copy them into usr/lib/)
  /usr/lib/libglapi.so.0
  /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
  /usr/lib/libglut.so.3
  /usr/lib/libopenal.so.1
  /usr/lib/libpng15.so.15
  /usr/lib/libsystemd-daemon.so.0
  /usr/lib/libudev.so.1
Deleting usr/include...
Deleting usr/share/applications...
Deleting usr/share/man...
Deleting usr/share/doc...
Deleting usr/lib/pkgconfig...
Deleting usr/lib/libSimGearCore.a...
Deleting usr/lib/libSimGearScene.a...
Deleting usr/lib/libXrandr.a...
Deleting usr/lib/libz.a...
Deleting .PKGINFO...

Done, now let's package it

$ cd flightgear.AppDir
$ buildAppImage


Building package in ../FlightGear 2.10.0-r2.run...
Creating /home/raziel/packaging/staging/FlightGear 2.10.0-r2.run...
xorriso 0.4.8 : RockRidge filesystem manipulator, libburnia project.

xorriso : UPDATE : Thank you for being patient for 1 seconds
Drive current: -dev '/home/raziel/packaging/staging/FlightGear 2.10.0-r2.run'
Media current: stdio file, overwriteable
Media status : is blank
Media summary: 0 sessions, 0 data blocks, 0 data, 1313m free
Volume id    : 'ISOIMAGE'
xorriso : UPDATE : 13823 files added in 1 seconds
Added to ISO image: directory '/'='/home/raziel/packaging/staging/FlightGear 2.10.0-archlinux-r1'
xorriso : UPDATE : 1 files added in 1 seconds
Added to ISO image: file '/.DirIcon'='/home/raziel/packaging/staging/FlightGear 2.10.0-archlinux-r1/AppRun.png'
xorriso : UPDATE : 9 file filters processed in 2 seconds
xorriso : UPDATE : 39 file filters processed in 3 seconds
xorriso : UPDATE : 53 file filters processed in 4 seconds
...
xorriso : UPDATE : 12258 file filters processed in 236 seconds
xorriso : UPDATE : 12261 file filters processed in 236 seconds
xorriso : UPDATE : Writing:       2192s    0.5%   fifo   0%  buf  50%
xorriso : UPDATE : Writing:       2254s    0.6%   fifo   0%  buf  50%  
...
xorriso : UPDATE : Writing:     403042s   99.8%   fifo   0%  buf  50%    3.1xD 
ISO image produced: 403939 sectors
Written to media  : 403968 sectors at LBA 32
Writing to '/home/raziel/packaging/staging/FlightGear 2.10.0-r2.run' completed sucessfully.

ok
Embedding icon into runtime...

Embedding runtime into the header of /home/raziel/packaging/staging/FlightGear 2.10.0-r2.run...
ok
Making /home/raziel/packaging/staging/FlightGear 2.10.0-r2.run executable...
ok
Size: 789.062500 MB

There, done!