Lacking GSC should not cause kstars to crash, nor the ccd simulator since it will just generate a picture that looks like a dark if there is no gsc installed.
And yes, we had decided that installing gsc should be a separate step. Basically to get gsc, you have to follow the instructions from before and copy the gsc folder to your data folder in ~/Library/Application support/kstars
For gsc, I am thinking it might be good to make that either a zip file they can download or maybe a "download new stuff" item
The problem with testing the dmg file on your dev laptop is that lots of libs are in /usr/local etc... but none of that in a non dev laptop like I have access to.
Are you guys testing the new dmg on a clean laptop?
I have posted something already about otool and install_name. have you seen it?
I know it's only for two simulators, but it's decent enough to test kstars really.